Adobe Director (formerly Macromedia Director) is a media application created by Macromedia—now part of Adobe Systems. It allows users to build applications built on a movie metaphor, with the user as the "director" of the movie. Originally designed for creating animation sequences, the addition of a powerful scripting language called Lingo made it a popular choice for creating CD-ROMs and standalone kiosks. Adobe Director supports both 2D and 3D multimedia projects.
Its scripting language motivated some to use this application. Many companies deliver demonstrations or use it as a user interface (UI) for content on CDs and DVDs. It can incorporate many different bitmap, audio and video file formats making it possible to integrate media. It also supports vector graphics and 3D interactivity (via Shockwave 3D). Since Version 8, Director also natively incorporates Flash animation files.
Adobe Director's functionality can be extended through plug-in applications named Xtras. Xtras' are plug-in applications (alternatively know as extensions, add-ons, or components) for Macromedia products (now owned by Adobe), in particular Adobe Director They can be user-created, or bought from third party vendors. Adobe maintains a list of third party Xtras. Many of Director's own functions are implemented as Xtras.
Xtras are supported and available on the following products:
However, both Authorware and Freehand have been left in limbo by current owner Adobe, and Director always had the broadest support for Xtras (all of the three types of Xtras could be used).
These can be created by users or purchased from third party vendors. They are created using Macromedia's XDK (Xtra Development Kit), a C++ SDK. One type of file created by Director can be viewed in a web browser using the Shockwave plugin. These files have a .DCR extension. Adobe Director can also create stand-alone executable applications from a project, called projectors, which can be compiled for Macintosh or Windows operating systems. |
