very basic question

[ET Director]

Hi, I'm still a student and a beginner to Macromedia products. The animations
excite me.
For me as a beginner, both Director and Flash can do pretty much the
samething. The only obvious difference I can see is Director can play 3D stuff.

I know this is a very basic question and it is so ignorant, but I have to
choose one of them to start learning. Please someone, tell me in layman terms,
why should I use Director over Flash? or reverse?
Thanks
Ben

[coolvini]

My opinion is that Director group on people that like to programming and use
for developing the keyboard more than the mouse, (if you know what I mean).

And flash is for the people that don't know much about programming but still
won a tool that can make the presentations using only the mouse for developing.

I don't know if I am 100% correct because I know few thinks about flash.
I like to see other opinios on that.
Vini

[toulouse2k]

coolvini is correct...I would say that the basic difference is distribution
type. If you plan to mostly use the Internet...then I would recommend
Flash...if you want "heavier" presentations for CD or DVD...then go with
Director. On a personal basis, I prefer Director because I find it easier to
have finer control of my presentation elements, but again I use only use it for
big productions(more than 5megs). Flash files are limited to, I'd say, no more
than 5-6 megs to be safe. Again, Flash is an Internet animal meant for light
loads...Director is the beast of burden.

[ET Director]

Thanks to coolvini and toulouse2k. The comments are very useful for me. What
about a bit more technical issues, just like what I have already known -
Director can take in 3D animation files, Flash cannot run them(still true with
MX?).
Director has Lingo and Flash has script. Are there any major difference in the
two programs? What about the .exe, is there any difference? And what about
integrating photos and videos into the programs, can they both work as well as
each other?

[coolvini]

dear "ET Director"
I think that all this that you ask is part of the future list of the programs.
I suggest to just view the macromedia pages that speak about this 2 programs.
The main diferent of this is that the one is most for programmers.

At the end is the computer. What a computer can do, can any athoring program
do, or at least try to do.
Vini

[Jean]

I would like to say that director can import a lot more filetypes then flash

AND if i say that director can play and control flash movies, but not vice
versa... ^^
if you want a basic animation, you can make it in flash, importing that
flashmovie in director

another thing, with lingo you have parent scripts, like objects in c++ or
java. those are better to program with :)

greetz

[ET Director]

Thank you all,
Now I have a general idea about the difference between the 2 s/w. I know how to do tweening with Flash already, now I think the can start learning Director. Gee, it's kind of fun.

[Desmond22]

you shouldn't knock flash too much, you can do alot with it and if your target
is web based work then you should remember a hell of a lot more people have the
flash plugin than shockwave. Director is more powerful but theres alot to be
said for what can be done in flash. A very nice aspect of flash is that the
whole thing is visually structured in an object orientated way.
As for the programming aspect: actionscript is very similar to java script and
you can do alot with it. The syntax is less forgiving than lingo so you have to
be careful but the interface allows users to build scripts by selecting
commands from a library.(using the mouse).
My personal opinion is that if you have the time and motivation learn flash
and actionscript (you can do it in a relatively short time) to understand the
principles of programming and object orientated design, then learn
director/lingo. You'll find the language simple and appreciate the extra
features it gives you.

For reference I highly recomend the visual quickstart flash 5 book. For more
in depth projects Freinds of Ed have a good book called flash games studio. For
director: Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio: The Complete Reference by David
Mennenoh is a good buy.

Hope that was helpful
Des

[Al N.]

"ET Director" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:c5nfie$bqb$1@forums.macromedia.com...

> Hi, I'm still a student and a beginner to Macromedia products. The

animations

> excite me.
> For me as a beginner, both Director and Flash can do pretty much the
> samething. The only obvious difference I can see is Director can play 3D

stuff.

>
> I know this is a very basic question and it is so ignorant, but I have to
> choose one of them to start learning. Please someone, tell me in layman

terms,

> why should I use Director over Flash? or reverse?

One thing that wasn't mentioned in the replies to your post is that Flash is
best for vector-based projects, while Director deals best with raster images
(including video and 3D).
But not only is Flash primarily a vector product, it's also an excellent
vector drawing program.
Director's ability to create vector imagery is practically non-existent,
which is why it's great that you can use Flash files in Director.

I would disagree that the difference between the two programs is Web vs.
Whatever, as both are great for Web production AND CD/kiosk, etc. The way I
decide which program to use has most to do with the type of images I'm
using. And if I need the greater programming power that Director provides, I
create elements in Flash and import them into Director.

It's frustrating for the uninitiated to see these two programs which are so
similar and yet different in ways that seem to make no sense, the most
obvious of these being the different scripting languages. It doesn't make it
any easier for them that with each upgrade, both programs gain features that
the other one already has!

Just my 2 cent.