Shockwave for Director 367InteractivityShockwave for DirectorWeb Design in a Nutshell, eMatter EditionScriptable
Shockwave movies can be controlled by basic JavaScript commands such as
Play()and Stop(). Other JavaScript interactions can be set with Lingo
programming within the Shockwave movie. For more information, see Macro-
media’s Director support pages at http://www.macromedia.com/support/
director/how/shock/.
Disadvantages
And on the down side...
Larger file size
Despite impressive compression, some Director Shockwave movies (particu-
larly those containing sound and video content) may still be quite large for
transferring over network connections. Depending on the nature of the
content, Shockwave may be overkill for simple effects (such as an interactive
button) that may be more efficiently handled by Flash.
Plug-in required
As mentioned in the Flash section of this chapter, users need to have the
Shockwave plug-in installed in order to view your Director movies. Despite
the popularity of the Shockwave plug-in, many clients still see this as a
prohibitive disadvantage.
Larger plug-in footprint
The plug-in required for playing Shockwave files is about 1MB in size and
requires more system resources to run.
Expensive authoring tool
In order to create Shockwave movies, you need Macromedia Director, which
costs approximately US$995 as of this writing.
Difficult to author
Director, with its Lingo programming language, has a steep learning curve.
However, with behaviors, it’s fairly easy for beginners to jump in and accom-
plish some sophisticated stuff within a short period of time.
Proprietary format
Shockwave movies are in a propriety format that can only be authored in
Macromedia’s Director program.
Creating Shockwave Movies
Shockwave movies must be created using Macromedia Director. Director is a
powerful multimedia authoring environment. Although learning the basics of the
software itself is not too daunting, to make Director movies do the really cool
interactive stuff, you must learn Lingo, Director’s proprietary programming
language. Lingo, although simple by programming standards, can still take a long
time to master, which is why many designers hire Director and Lingo specialists.
That said, a lesson in Director and Lingo is beyond the scope of this book. If
you’re interested in learning Director, I recommend you spend time with the
manual and other available tutorial books. Also, be sure to take advantage of the