Exporting Movie Options and Formats

[davidnyc]

i just finished my first director movie. it's a small movie, no interactivity, just a slide show with some text and transitions. I'm using director 8 on the mac.

i'm confused as to which format i should use to export the movie. i want to put the movie on a cd. do i publish using shockwave? or is shockwave only for the web? do i make a stand-alone projector? (i made a projector and sent it to a friend, but he was unable to open it.)

I'm also confused with the file name extensions. what is the difference between .dir, .exe, dcr.

I hope i've described my problem in a way you can understand. obviously, i'm new at this, and because i'm unfamiliar with the terminology, i'm having difficulty describing what it is i'm trying to do.

happy friday,
david

 

[kennethkawamoto]

Shockwave (.dcr) is designed to be viewed on a web browser, so if you’re intending to put your movie on CDs then make it as a Projector.

Projector is stand-alone executable (.exe); it does not require Director to play.

Projectors are not cross-platform i.e. if you create your Projector on Mac then it will only work on Mac. However, Director files (.dir), protected Director files (.dxr), external Cast (.cst) and protected external Cast (.cxt) are all cross-platform - they open both in Windows and Mac. Therefore to create cross-platform CD, create two dummy projectors in PC and Mac then let the dummy projector open and play your Director files. This Projector is known as “Stub Projector”.

Packaging Director movie is actually very complicated subject. You can start with this Macromedia website:

http://www.macromedia.com/support/director/ts/documents/packaging.htm

 

[davidnyc]

Wicked thanks!!! That was very helpful information.

David