Adobe Director Basics

ADOBE DIRECTOR BASICS
3D basics
If you are using linked or internal 3D cast members, you can have finer control of which objects you copy from one
3D cast member to another, or within a single 3D cast member. The following are the "clone" functions:
node.clone() creates a copy of a model, group, light, or camera, and all its children. Any model resources and
shaderLists used by the copy are identical to those used by the original. No new model resources, shaders, or
textures are created.
node.cloneDeep() copies the node and all its children, just like the clone() function, but it also creates a duplicate
of all model resources, shaders, and textures used by the node or its children. This is useful if you want to modify
these duplicate objects while leaving the original models unchanged.
member3D.cloneModelFromCastmember() acts like cloneDeep() for a model, except that it copies the model and
all its associated objects from one 3D cast member to another.
member3D.cloneMotionFromCastmember() copies a motion from one 3D cast member to another. You can create
an animated character with all its geometry, textures, and shaders in one W3D file. In separate files, you can save
different motions for the character. In these separate files, you can omit all the shaders and textures, and reduce the
geometry to little more than the bones that are animated by the motion. This will ensure that file size is kept to a
minimum.
Export issues
Your first efforts at exporting to the W3D file format may not work out the way you expect. Many 3D designers
establish a specific workflow that allows them to avoid conversion problems. This section lists the common issues that
you are likely to encounter.
Lights
If there were no lights in the original pre-exported scene, then the W3D file will appear black. This can be simply fixed
by adding a light either in the authoring application or in Director.
If your W3D scene appears empty, check whether it is simply a question of lighting.
Tiling and stretching textures
In 3ds Max, avoid making UVW settings to a texture in the Material Editor. UVW is a standard approach to set up
tiling, stretching, and so on. Unfortunately W3D ignores settings made in the Material Editor. To use UVWs, you need
to add a UVW Map modifier to the model itself and make your settings there.
If the way your texture maps to your model looks different in Director than it did in 3ds Max, check that you used a
UVW Map modifier on the model.
Naming
In a W3D file, every object of a given type must have a unique name. Cameras, groups, lights, and models are all
considered to be nodes. Every node must have a unique name. For example, you cannot have both a camera named
“Main” and a group named “Main”. You can avoid this naming conflict by using a strict naming convention. For
example, you can include the type of node in the name of the node. This gives you the names “Main Camera” and
“Main Group”.
Last updated 8/26/2011
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