Director Tutorials

 

Dean's Director News Reports

Here I intend to link and perhaps comment on current news. If you'd like to send me any news, please email me

Dean on Director - Podcast (Episode 19) - My first interview on the Director Online Podcast is available for all to hear.

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23 January 2007
Updatestage Xtras continue
Further news, also related to the updatestage change. Thos is from Mauricio Piacentini of Tabuleiro Xtras (I’m glad I don’t have to read that name on air:)
[DIRECT-L] ShockFiler, vList, TreeView, TextCruncher
Hi, guys. Just a quick note to let you know that we purchased source code and rights for ShockFiler, vList, TreeView and TextCruncher, formerly developed and/or distributed by updateStage, BroadBand Multimedia and Daniel Devolder. The transition is still taking place, so there is nothing on our site yet. We have been working with the code for the past couple of weeks, and the products will be re-released and available very soon at xtras.tabuleiro.com, probably as early as next week. When this is done I will do a more formal announcement.

I just wanted to let you know that this is not simply a redistribution deal.We are taking over support, future development and maintenance of the products, including possible ports to new platforms and versions of Director, as they become available, and if technically feasible. It has been a pleasure to work with Jerry, Gretchen and Daniel in order to guarantee a nice home for these products, and I will post to the list with more information when the updates go live.

Regards,
Mauricio Piacentini
Tabuleiro
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23 January 2007

updateStage.com is alive and well!
Mark Andrade from Andrade Arts (maker of Enhancer Xtra) purchased updatestage and plans to rejuvenate it. Here’s what he posted on direct-L
Hi everyone, I do indeed now own the url. Here's some info... I would like to keep the site a director community site. If you still see the old site or get an error it's mostly likely due to DNS not having been propagated everywhere yet. I'm going though css, php & mysql craziness right now updating the site and didn't want to send out an announcement until it's done. Dean updated the Mile High list and that update will live on updatestage.com soon. Thanks Dean! I'm working on a few other site projects and will announce when the site is back online.
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1 January 2007

Updatestage Inc closes as of 31 December 06
After more than 10 years of providing information and Xtras for the wonderful and quirky Director environment.
We wish you well Gretchen.
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31 December 2006
Paradigma Software Announce Valentina ODBC Beta
Paradigma Software Inc, the developer of the ultra fast Valentina database system, invites Windows developers to try the new ODBC functionality coming to Paradigma Software's Valentina development tools and made available in an open, public beta program. The Windows version of Valentina ODBC is now available for download from the Paradigma Software website. A MacOS X ODBC version is also under development..
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18 October 2006
Director and Game Development Survey Results are out!
I have finally finished collating all the data from the survey after a few very intense days of working through all the responses. There were 227 responses in total. Since the survey gave the respondent the ability to choose features rather than giving a specified range from which they could choose, it did make it very time consuming to collate. However, I hope that the results are more valuable because of this approach.
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17 October 2006

Version 3 of INM Impressario is now available.

Now you can:
- Create and customize PDFs from within Director: the Xtra now handles all your content publishing and printing needs with no programming skills required (full Lingo API is also available).
- Create searchable libraries of PDFs: index, search, retrieve and display relevant information from a large number of PDFs with the combined use of INM Impressario 3 Full and the new INM VizionDB 4.1.

Gabrielle Krim
Product Manager
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5 October 2006
Paradigma Releases Valentina 2.4.3

Beaverton, Oregon-based Paradigma Software, Inc announces the immediate availability of Valentina Technology Release 2.4.3 for all developer and business products. The release provides numerous minor productivity improvements in addition to new, advanced SQL features and Universal Binary support for REAL Software's REALbasic development system.

Paradigma Software
http://www.paradigmasoft.com
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28 September 2006
I have just created a survey on game development and Director. Please add your response at:
http://www.fbe.unsw.edu.au/survey/games/
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26 September 2006
From the Adobe Director team, the Director of Engineering and Product Management as well as the Senior Engineering Manager will be in the US over the following period:

16-22 October 2006 - San Jose
23-27 October 2006 - Las Vegas
The dates mentioned here are tentative. If you would like to meet with them, please contact Marc Hosein at hosein@adobe.com or Rick Jones at rickj@adobe.com.
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28 August 2006
Tom Higgins career change
Tom Higgins, Product Manager for Director and Shockwave Player, is leaving Adobe. You can read more about this in Tom's blog.

Tom has been a great champion for Director and the community. It is sad news that he won't be there acting on behalf of all our interests.


While many in the community were frustrated with the progress on the Director front at Macromedia and now in Adobe, Tom was always doing the best for the program we're all so passionate about.

I wish Tom all the success and happiness in life after Director. Tom, we were blessed to have you on the team. We will miss you.
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9 August 2006
Viacom's MTV Networks Agrees to Acquire Atom Entertainment
One key property owned by Atom Entertainment is obviously the shockwave.com website!
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2 August 2006
Chrome Lib 4.0 released
Chrome Lib 4.0 has just been released, featuring 99 interdependent behaviors dedicated to 3D.
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26 July 2006
Director Is Not Dead - Digital Media Designer
In addition to the latest FAQ Adobe posted about Director and the Shockwave Player (news item below), Tom Higgins gave an interview to give another chance "to offer public commitment to the product and offer extra insight into the future of Director and the Shockwave Player."
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26 July 2006
New Director FAQ about Director's future - Adobe site
Director 2007 is official. This FAQ announces that "next major release of Director will be in the first half of 2007 " and gives some other information of what's happening with Director.
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21 June 2006
Google and Shockwave - a new bundle

Adobe to bundle in Google toolbar - c|net news.com
Adobe Systems said on Wednesday that Google had agreed to pay the multimedia software maker a "significant" amount to distribute Google's Web search software over several years.

Adobe bundles Google Toolbar with Shockwave - vnunet.com
'Significant revenue' expected
Adobe has announced that it will distribute Google's Toolbar with its products in a multiyear agreement between the two companies.

Shockwave Player Update - Tom Higgins Blog
Earlier today, we released an update to Shockwave Player as part of a multi-year distribution agreement with Google. As part of that agreement, we will be offering the Google Toolbar as part of the Shockwave Player install process. This agreement is being made as part of our ongoing efforts to engage and work with valuable industry partners and to extend the opportunity for our users to take advantage of the Google Toolbar.

Find the news in your favourite source here.

Other blogs on this story
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060622-064802
http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-06-21-n54.html
http://ibmwatch.eweek.com/blogs/google_watch/archive/2006/06/22/11000.htmx
http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/index.php?p=151
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13 June 2006
Flash vs Director -The Battle of the Software - Director Podcast (Episode 20)
The long awaited battle of Flash and Director is here. Put on your headset, sit back, and enjoy the show.
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13 June 2006
June 13, 2006, Montreal, Canada
- Integration New Media, Inc. (INM) is pleased to announce the official release of INM VizionDB Desktop, the next generation of INM V12 Database. A revolution in multimedia database publication, INM VizionDB is the first database management tool designed to meet the needs of skilled programmers, creative individuals and everyone in between by combining leading-edge database technology and support for the creation of engaging interfaces within Macromedia Director.

To experience this revolution in multimedia database publication, download the free, fully functional trial version of INM VizionDB from the INM website:
http://www.INM.com/Products/VizionDB/Desktop/
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8 June 2006
INM is pleased to announce the release of INM VizionDB Desktop for Macromedia Director. As a preferred customer, we thought you would be interested to learn about this highly-anticipated next generation of INM V12 Database, that comes with entirely new features and enhanced performance.

Built to bridge the gap between form, function and convenience, INM VizionDB is an essential tool for multimedia developers, graphic designers, and programmers of all levels looking to build electronic catalogs, directories, e-books, games, sales and marketing materials and e-learning projects.

INM VizionDB is now available from our online store:
http://store.INM.com

For more information on INM VizionDB or to download the fully-functional trial version, visit our website:
http://www.INM.com/products/viziondb/desktop/

Regards,
Gabrielle Krim
Product Manager
Integration New Media
www.INM.com
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31 May 2006
Dean on Director - Podcast (Episode 19)
My first interview on the Director Online Podcast is available for all to hear.
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26 May 2006 - Director.3D Forum
REALVIZ this week released an update to its VTour application. VTour
uses REALVIZ' image based modeling techniques to create 3d environments
from (panoramic) photos.

VTour exports scenes as linear animation, or as Shockwave 3d files.
Included with VTour is SPi-V3d, a viewer application and Shockwave movie
for displaying the generated 3d scenes without further editing in Director.

Press release:
http://www.fieldofview.com/press/060526_VTour

VTour examples (both Shockwave and linear video):
http://realviz.com/products/examples.php?product=vt

Aldo Hoeben

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26 May 2006 - INM News Release
Here is your chance to influence the future development of INM Impressario!

To help us determine the features that are most important to you, please take a couple of minutes to answer the short survey we have prepared.

Prizes to be won!
Participants who complete the survey will be entered into a random draw to win one of three $40 gift certificates from Amazon.com

To participate in the survey, please visit:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.htm?u=461952187419

Survey ends at 12 PM Eastern Time on Tuesday, May 30th, 2006.

I look forward to your responses and feedback.

Regards,
Gabrielle Krim
Product Manager
Integration New Media
www.INM.com
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25 May 2006
Adobe discloses some Apollo details
Adobe Systems has begun to dish details of Apollo, a fruit of the company's merger with Macromedia that will allow developers to create run-time applications with Flash and Acrobat that can be used offline without a Web browser.

Industry comment
It has its uses, but it's no Director competition (Chuck Neal)
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24 May 2006 - Director.Lingo and 3D Forum
We’ve just released a new Xtra:
The Minds Eye BézierCurve Xtra contains a set of Lingo functions for generating Bézier curve points for drawing or animating. You can draw pre-defined or random curves in realtime or you can set a sprite animation to follow Bézier positions.

It also works in 3D! You can create 3D Bézier Curves or you can animate a 3D object travelling along a Bézier path (see the example Director movie in the full evaluation bundle)

It also allows you to import 3D splines or animation paths from 3D Studio MAX. The full evaluation bundle contains a MAXScript file for exporting lines to XML. The BézierCurve Xtra contains 3 functions for importing the XML file data.

You can download it from
http://www.the-mindseye.co.uk/prog/beziercurve.shtml

Any comments would be most appreciated.

Many thanks,
Trevor

Dean - The site shows the cost of the Xtra at only 30 British pounds. Sounds like a real bargain.
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17 May 2006 - Directorforum News
Directorforum becomes international
As from now the german Directorforum opens up for our english speaking friends from around the world. Today, we opened up a special forum category for your questions (and of course the answers) in english language.

We hope you'll enjoy the new feature and don't hesitate to benefit from this, as you did with the long time existing and fast to browse newsgroups archives, which are read-only for several reasons.

This is the direct link to the english forum category:
http://www.directorforum.de/forumdisplay.php?f=25

Cheers,
Martin Schaefer
Administrator

Dean - Previously, the site had the odd English question. Now, Martin has devoted an area devoted to English speaking users of his forum.
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14 May 2006 - Director.3D Forum
Shockwave 3D Gathering in Paris
Sunday, June 25th at 1 PM

Join us at the Shockwave 3D Gathering in a luxurious environment with a superb view on the Eiffel tower.

Shockwave 3D is still today the best Web3D solution with a great versatility, a widespread plugin, reliability, performance, a tool known by
dozens of thousands of developers and designers and no royalties to pay to deploy contents. Get together in Paris with some of the most talented
Shockwave 3D developers and designers to discuss current productions, tools, graphics, animation and programming techniques.

Register at: http://www.sigiscarinc.com/

Karl Sigiscar
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11 May 2006 - Director.3D Forum
The Chrome Lib website is back (for good):
http://www.chromelib.com/
Karl Sigiscar

Dean - The site had been down for a while. with some issue with the domain name. The product is a library of behaviours for Director, mainly 3D. There are a few tuts on using the behaviors in the Adobe/Macromedia Developer Centre.
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1 May 2006 - BSQUARE Press Release
BSQUARE ports Macromedia Shockwave Player to AMD’s Personal Internet Communicator (PIC)
Marks the first time Shockwave Player has been ported to an embedded computing device
http://www.bsquare.com/about/press/story.htm?PressID=419

Dean - Great news that Director is making its way into the portable computing devices market. Is the first step to a growth market for Director developers. Thanks to everyone who made this possible and keep the momentum going.
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