Adobe Director Basics

ADOBE DIRECTOR BASICS
3D basics
Do not worry if you do not understand all the code in all these example movies. A simple illustration sometimes
requires complex code. First focus on the concepts. You can come back to these movies later to study the code in more
detail.
Some of the movies contain code that you will need to change in order to understand a particular concept. Here's an
example:
If you need to edit any code, the changes will be clearly labeled
For simplicity, all the code in this section will be in Lingo only. You will find links to articles in other sections where
can find information on writing code in JavaScript syntax.
3D space
On Director 2D Stage, the position of every sprite is defined by its distance in pixels from the left side and from the top
of the Stage. A sprite at the point (102, 34) is positioned 102 pixels from the left and 23 pixels from the top of the Stage.
In a 3D world, positions are measured in world units from a position at the center of the world. It is up to you to decide
whether these world units represent microns, millimeters or miles. You need to measure in three different directions.
These directions are named x, y and z.
x - to the right
y - upwards
z - forwards
These directions are orthogonal, which means that they are all at right-angles to each other. Each of these directions is
called an axis. The plural of axis is axes (pronounced ax-eez).
In Director, these axes are colored:
x-axis - red
y-axis - green
z-axis - blue
To visualize these axes, download the movie 3dSystem.dir and launch it.
Open the Shockwave 3D window. To do this, double-click on the 3D sprite in the Score or on the Stage, or on the "3D
World" member in the Cast window. You can now view the scene from different angles, and check that the three axes
are indeed always at right-angles to each other.
Select the Rotate Camera tool, then drag the view in the preview window.
Last updated 8/26/2011
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