(color is not required, but it greatly enhances the use
of Director); digital movies require the presence of
QuickTime; a large hard drive. Contact: Macromedia Inc.
at (415) 252 2000
If I were to tell you my job as Associate Editor/Product
Reviews at MacSense wasn’t fun, I’d be lying big time.
After all, I get to play with all the newest and neatest software and hardware anytime I want. And believe me, because of this good fortune, I’m like a kid at Christmas time almost everyday of the year.
One product that really floored me when I got my hands on it was Macromedia’s Director. Director is a multimedia authoring tool that allows you to build both interactive and linear multimedia presentations. So powerful and flexible is Director, I have absolutely no idea how I’m going to tell you about everything it can do within the confines of this simple review...but let me try.
First off, Director is obese. It takes up about 42MB of hard drive space when fully installed. It’s also obese in terms of the features it has incorporated into it. Simply stated, their is absolutely no multimedia authoring job, from the simplest to the most complex, that can’t be handled with Director.
Director’s interface is set up in a stage-type arrangement. And, since Director is intended to produce presentations and movies, it’s various components are referred to with Hollywood style titles. The Cast, for example, is where the author stores the elements that will comprise the multimedia presentation. Up to 32,000 cast members can be held in the Cast database, providing practically infinite element capacity. The Score, which is the meat and potatoes of Director, is where each presentation is actually built.
With the Score, the author controls layout and design, presentation flow, animation of cast members, synchronization of all the various elements comprising the presentation, and transition from one scene to the next. The Score also provides complete control over sound, color, and tempo of the presentation. Of course, a bevy of filtering effects are available to give presentations that little extra zip and flare.
For interactive presentations, the use of Macromedia’s Lingo scripting language is required. Lingo allows the author to incorporate interactivity into the presentation, as well as provide a sense of logical flow that is impossible to attain by simply using the Score. In addition, Lingo makes exploration of the presentation possible, giving users complete control over what part of the presentation they decide to look at first, second, and so on.
But this is only the beginning of Lingo’s capabilities. It also provides control over sprite animation, text manipulation, sound control, external file management, interface design functionality, and a host of other important multimedia presentation control factors.
While extremely powerful, the real question becomes just how easy is Director to use. Is it practical for the everyday or non-professional multimedia author? The answer is this: it depends. Given its infinite power and control over multimedia presentations, Director has a steep learning curve, especially when working with Lingo and building interactive presentations. However, Director is far from rocket science. If the non-professional and casual user enjoys learning the many facets of a software title, then Director will certainly not disappoint.
It merits mention that in one short afternoon, I built a linear multimedia presentation as a present to my wife on our wedding anniversary. I took a couple dozen pictures from our wedding album, scanned them, and built a Director presentation which showed each picture for a certain period of time before it dissolved off the screen and was replaced by another of our wedding pictures. During this multimedia wedding picture presentation, the song “I Only Have Eyes For You” from the Flamingos played in the background. The presentation was both easy to build and edit. Needless to say, my wife loved the wedding album presentation.
Director is replete with instructions on how to get the most out of the product. Five manuals worth of replete. The manuals, while lengthy, are all well written and, for the most part, easily understood. Technical support for Director is top notch in quality and availability. As an added touch, tutorial material abounds, both in the manuals and software. Plenty of sample presentations are provided for exploration.
 
While extremely complex and sophisticated, Director is the standard by which all other multimedia authoring tools are judged. For the professional, Director is the clear choice, providing all the control and flexibility an author could ever ask for. For the casual and non professional user, Director provides a literal playground of stunning abilities ... and who knows, after spending some time with Director, the non-professional just may end up becoming a professional! In short, while indeed very powerful, Director provides every tool a multimedia author would ever need. This in itself makes it well worth the purchase price. Add its relative ease of use, and you have a tool that’s impossible to ignore.
 
MacSenseAE@aol.com
 
 
Director, much like Photoshop, has launched a whole cottage industry dedicated to bringing customers products that enhance their Director presentations. Below are a few short reviews of some of the better Director accessory products we have found:
 
$149 US. Jawai Interactive, Inc. (800) 600-6706
Screen Caffeine Pro is a collection of pre-built textures, variations, manipulation scripts, and graphics for use with Director. The quality of the images and other components found on the Screen Caffeine Pro CD-ROM are extremely high, making it an indispensable part of your Director tool library. The subject matter found on Screen Caffeine Pro spans a wide range of topics and interests, further adding to its functionality. All Screen Caffeine Pro artwork was created by an award winning artist and is completely original. Best of all, this beautiful artwork can be used royalty free. If you like building multimedia presentations, but aren’t much for designing the artistic elements that make up the presentation, then Screen Caffeine Pro is the way to go.
 
$139 US. Cascom International, Inc. (408) 255-3291
Cascom’s Select Effects is a nifty collection of music clips and original movies for use with Director. The movies are rich in color and smooth in playback, covering a wide range of topics sure to please the most discerning multimedia author. Music clips, as with the movies, are varied and comprise a variety of different styles and moods. The movies are somewhat generic in nature, acting more as general backdrops than anything else, but most of the movies incorporate some pretty slick special effects, making them a visual treat if nothing else. Select Effects come packaged in Volumes, each volume covering different topics and containing different multimedia accessory tools.
 
$59 US. Cascom International, Inc. (408) 255-3291
5000 Plus Image Library is exactly what its name implies. A library of thousands and thousands of varying images with a few hand-fulls of special effect animations thrown in. The quality of this library is generally high, but the images are on the rather small side which may limit their use for some multimedia authors. However, the topics covered are expansive, meaning those needing a particular image topic will most probably find it in the library. Color and tonal attributes of the images contained in the library are generally high, but can be tweaked a bit in applications such as Photoshop.
 
$180. stat media, (714) 280-0038
You know how some products just stand out from the pack? Such is the case with Instant Buttons and Controls from stat media. IB&C is an extensive collection of pre-built buttons, sliders, control pads, and many other elements which go to comprise an interactive multimedia presentation. The quality of the artwork found in IB&C is exceptional and purely professional. Simple cut and paste work is all that’s needed to use the controls in your Director presentations. A wide range of artistic styles are found among the various buttons and controls on the IB&C CD ROM, making them impossible to do without. IB&C takes all the work out of designing professional quality buttons and controls for multimedia presentations. No serious multimedia author should be without this exceptional product.
 
MacSenseAE@aol.com
 
  
MetaTools, Inc. (formerly HSC Software). Price:
$895.00 US. Requirements: Macintosh Quadra or
Power Macintosh, 24MB RAM available for Live
Picture, 10MB of hard drive space for Live Picture
installation. Contact: MetaTools, Inc. at
(805)-566-6200
As I’ve said so many times before in my reviews, image
creation, manipulation, and enhancement are staples in
the world of Macintosh. As a result of this, dozens of imaging software packages exist, some good and others not so good. MetaTools, Inc. (formerly HSC Software) has jumped on the imaging bandwagon and their offering, Live Picture, is a revolutionary change in the way digital imaging is accomplished on the Mac.
Live Picture utilizes a new technology known as “FITS”. FITS provides resolution independence for color images, the result being incredibly fast speed when working with images in Live Picture. For example, a 500MB image can be worked on at the same speed as a 5MB image. Of course, this is a very welcome feature for Macintosh imaging artists and professionals, making the way they work much more productive.
Working in Live Picture is much different than working in programs such as Photoshop. For one thing, the interface itself is a dramatic departure from the standard imaging software interface we’ve gotten use to over the years. While this is in no way bad, it does take a bit of getting use to. Commands found under the Menu Bar are also quite different and require a “get acquainted” period as well. But, once the user becomes familiar with Live Picture’s conventions and the way things work, they will be quite pleased with the results. However, Live Picture does have some limitations that we’ll discuss in just a bit.
Live Picture’s interface displays the Workspace, Toolbars, Control Bar, and Layer Stack. The Workspace is the main window where composite images are created. Three different Toolbars are provided, each performing different functions. Movement between the toolbars is accomplished with the Mode Toggle button found at the top of the toolbar. The Creative Toolbar provides the various brushes, eraser, marquee, and palette knife. The Positioning Toolbar is used to move, rotate, skew, scale, and otherwise change the perspective of the image being worked on. The View Toolbar is used to create new views, change existing ones, and otherwise make adjustments to the views themselves.
The Control Bar provides a means of changing color, setting tolerances and adjusting line widths. Each time a new tool or layer is selected, the Control Bar changes to reflect the change. This is a nice feature and gives the user complete control over each element of the creative process. The Layer Stack is used to not only view the various layers, but to activate, select, customize, move, and delete layers. This too is a nice feature in that it provides easily accessible control over the components of an image, from the background all the way to the upper most layer.
But Live Picture, even with its often ingenious innovations, does have some surprisingly missing elements one would expect to find in such a high end product. For example, cutting and pasting from the clipboard is not supported, nor can you directly import CMYK images. Additionally, you can only have one composition open at a time in Live Picture. Most Photoshop compatible plug-in modules are supported, but not all. This somewhat limits the complete usefulness of Live Picture.
Live Picture comes with a Photoshop plug-in module that allows you to open Live Picture’s proprietary IVUE images in Photoshop. This is a real plus in that it provides a degree of cross platform integrity which doesn’t stifle the creative imaginations of users. A user can create an image in Live Picture, save it, and then open it in Photoshop to perform some tasks which might not be possible with Live Picture.
Overall, Live Picture is a mixed bag. On one hand, it provides fascinating abilities and innovative technology which is exactly what the imaging industry needs. On the other, Live Picture has a few weak links which keep it from directly competing with products such as Photoshop. MetaTools publicly states Live Picture is not a Photoshop replacement, but I simply don’t understand this train of thought. Why not set out to directly compete with Photoshop? Why not attempt to become the standard by which all other imaging packages are judged? To not do so would seem that MetaTools is satisfied with Live Picture always being a runner-up and never the winner in the imaging software wars.
Live Picture comes with an excellent user’s manual and equally impressive tutorial manual. Further, it comes with a bonus CD-ROM and a training video tape which is extremely useful, especially since Live Picture is so different from other imaging packages. Technical support for Live Picture is free to registered users and high in quality.
 
Does Live Picture have a bright future? Perhaps, but only if MetaTools takes a serious approach to making it the number one imaging software package. To do this, they’ll have to add a hand-full of standard imaging features and abilities, make the interface a little easier to work within, and provide better support for third party plug-in modules. As it currently stands, Live Picture has some features which are far more advanced than commonly seen in imaging software. Their FITS technology is one such example of this. But users will demand at least most of the features found in Photoshop before they seriously consider relegating Photoshop to the closet in favor of Live Picture.
 
MacSenseAE@aol.com
 
  
Inline Software, a division of Focus Enhancements Inc.
Price: $49.95 US (upgrade $29 US). Requirements:
Any Macintosh with 2MB of RAM and System 7 or later.
Available from resellers or direct from Focus: (800)
453–7671.
The initial launch of PopupFolder was greeted with a resounding cheer across the Internet. The concept behind the unobtrusive control panel was so intuitive that a poor imitation was added in a hurry to Now Utilities. Navigating through levels of folders with a single holding click—eschewing the tedious task of opening a stream of windows—was soon part of Finder’s expected behavior. A slew of improvements brings PopupFolder v2.01 closer to the rank of a true champion.
The new version is FAST. Although version 1.51 already improved response time over v1.5, the newest version feels about twice as fast. Even a Powerbook 100 does not show its processor’s age and a IIci definitely responds like the top-of-the-line machine it once was. Even if not native yet, PopupFolder should be fairly at ease on Power Macs.
Dramatic improvements have been made in three other areas: new features, borrowed ones and customization. First, there are spectacular additions: the ability to reach 16levels deep rather than merely five, the possibility of grabing a file/folder and moving it—with System 7.5 or the DragManager installed—and a new click/auto-drop menus feature which keeps the Menu Bar, pop-up folders and pop-up menus navigable after mouse button release.
PopupFolder also adds elements found in other well-known utilities. One can now manually add aliases to be put in a dialog icon bar à la SuperBoomerang, but without the latter’s extensiveness. These same aliases can appear in a custom menu next to the help balloon, a pale version of Now Menus custom menus. And as with DialogView, dialogs can be enlarged, but without the flexibility in window size and dialog font. The primitive implementation helps keep the memory requirement to 140k—compared to a combined 298k for the three above-mentioned utilities—but it also means that the new version seizes four times as much memory as v.1.51.
Finally, pop-up folders can now be customized in the same manner as list views in the Finder. Unfortunately, this change entails the loss of the ability to have folders appear at the bottom—which was actually my preferred setting. One option allows for the display of items in the color of their label, if any. Of course, a trade-off exists between speed and customization: the more icons and colors displayed, the slower the response time.
Compatibility issues are a possible source of worry. According to Usenet messages posted to comp.sys.mac groups, there have been identified conflicts with the TrashBack extension of MacTools, with Pagemaker and PageTools, with Microspeed’s trackball, and with ZMac’s HideAlways. And while it is possible to option-drag to duplicate a file and to control-drag to create an alias, it would be nice to command-drag to move an item from one volume to another instead of merely copying it. Some users have reported problems with Now Toolbox, but I was able to replicate the conflict only on a LC III. Popup worked fine with this combination on a Powerbook 100, a IIci and a 7100/66. A Focus representative reports that both they and Now Software started investigating the matter at the beginning of September, but no solution has been found yet. The Inline division is growing its full time staff, which should hopefully accelerate debugging. Focus technical support can be reached at <focus@shore.net>.
Before shelling out any money, it might be a good idea to try the demo version, available from Inline ftp site (ftp.shore.net/members/focus). Beware, though: as of this writing, the file was in binary format (.sit) despite being associated to a non-standard file name (“NEW_PopupFolder_2.01”), a combination which makes for possible errors in transfers.
Despite all its improvements, PopupFolder’s new scope does not appear to justify a price increase from $26.95 US to $49.95 US; the borrowed features simply are not polished enough and possible conflicts remain. Moreover, Internet distribution should make it possible to spare paper and shipping costs by selling only a disk image, a serial number and a DOCMaker manual (an option especially attractive for Canadians). Copy protection would not be affected, since Popup disables identically-numbered copies over network connections at startup (a behavior expected also from Now Utilities, but nevertheless annoying when one only wants to share a PowerBook with a Desktop Mac).
 
Of course, one could wish that borrowed features be fully developed to match the competitors’ functions and justify both the price increase and the added RAM requirement. Unless Inline fully develops (and debugs) its current offering, the next version will be a much tougher sell. Current users will nevertheless want to benefit from the improved speed and exceptional core attributes. It remains an indispensable utility, and one you’ll least want to turn off.
