Using Director > Director 8 Tutorial > Set up the movie

 

Set up the movie

To begin your own version of GardenChat, you'll create a new movie and set the size of the Stage. You'll also select an appropriate color palette.

1

Choose File > New > Movie.

2

If you've made changes to the Fun.dir movie, Director prompts you to save them. Choose Don't Save.

Note that the default Stage is a different size than the Stage in the completed GardenChat movie.

3

To change your Stage size, click the Movie tab of the Property Inspector.

If the Property Inspector is not open, choose Window > Inspectors > Property. You should be in the default Graphical view, with the List View Mode icon deselected.

4

To specify a new Stage size in pixels, enter 450 in the first Stage Size field (width) and 500 in the second Stage Size field (height). After entering data in a field, click either the Stage or Property Inspector and the Stage resizes.

Because you are creating this movie for playback on the Web, you want to use a palette of Web-safe colors to ensure proper display. Director has a Web palette that you can select for your movie.

5

On the Movie tab of the Property Inspector, click the Movie Palette pop-up menu and select Web 216.

6

Choose File > Save. You can also press Control-S (Windows) or Command-S (Macintosh).

7

Name the movie GardenChat1.

8

Browse to the Learning folder within the Director application folder, and then open the My Tutorial folder; then save your movie.

You must save your file in My Tutorial; other tutorial files will point to your file in this location.

Note: As you complete the tutorial, remember to save your work frequently.