A Case Study of the Infinite Media, Inc. Shocked Logo: Part III
Welcome to Part III, the conclusion of the case study we began two weeks ago. This example covers motion animation, rollover commands, URL links, and a few other topics.
For those of you who have just found this column, you can link to the previous tutorials by scrolling down to the bottom of this page. The example has been moved to the top of the page for convenience.
At the end of Part II last week, we finished importing the graphics used in the tutorial into Director. We then proceeded to place the graphics on our stage and manipulate the position of each graphic in the score. This week we add the Lingo needed to complete our project. The Lingo is very simple, and screen shots of the score script windows have been included on this page as a visual reference.
Step 1: Let's start by adding a cast member script to the graphic of the Infinite Media URL that we have on our stage. To do this we need to select the cast member by clicking on it once in the cast window. Once you have your cast member selected, click on the button shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1.
This will open the cast script window; you can now type in the script as seen in Figure 2.
Figure 2.
This script uses the gotonetpage Lingo command. This command (as shown in Figure 2) allows us to click on the graphic and then be sent to the URL shown in the "" of the script. While I'm sure Mr. Parsons at Infinite Media would love for you to create links to his page, try substituting your own URL for the "http://www.infinitemedia.com."
Step 2: The second script we will want to add will trigger an effect when the cursor rolls over it. By using a rollover, no click will be needed; the action we set in the script will simply begin when the cursor rolls over the defined object. To do this lets us add the Lingo script as seen in Figure 3 in the last frame in our score.
Figure 3.
Step 3: You will notice that the script in Figure 3 states that if the rollover occurs, the playback head should move to Frame 11. At current count we only have 10 frames, so position your blurred graphic into Frames 11 and 12 as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Notice that the other cast members are also seen in Frames 11 and 12. This is very important because in the illusion we are about to create it helps to have some objects on the stage that remain unaffected during the rollover.
Now add the final touch by moving the graphic one frame to the left in Frame 11 and one frame to the right in Frame 12. This will add the illusion that the graphic is actually moving faster than it really is.
Step 4: Now we need to add the script shown in Figure 5 so that the
playback head will loop between Frames 11 and 12. We also need to add the
Lingo that will cause the playback
head to remain in that loop until the cursor moves off of the object that
triggered it.
Figure 5.
At this point if we roll over the Infinite Media logo, it starts to shake from side to side at what appears to be a high rate of speed. This is a very popular effect with a large number of people. Motion is a key factor to any animation or Shockwave. Try using different variations of this effect in other Shockwave movies.
This concludes our coverage of the Infinite Media, Inc. Shockwave. Remember if you have any questions at all feel free to send me e-mail. Make sure to tune in next week.
