Using Director > Director 8 Tutorial > Attach behaviors to sprites

 

Attach behaviors to sprites

Director drag-and-drop behaviors offer functionality beyond what you can accomplish by simply dragging sprites to the Stage and Score. Behaviors also add intelligence and flexibility to a movie.

Instead of playing a series of frames exactly as the Score dictates, a behavior can control the movie in response to specific conditions and events.

In this tutorial, you will use behaviors to make a bee move randomly around a flower and also follow the movements of the user's mouse pointer.

When attaching behaviors to an entire sprite, rather than a frame, you can drag the behavior to the sprite in the Score or on the Stage.

1

Click frame 175 of channel 8 in the Score.

2

Drag the bee cast member to the Stage, close to the flower, and shorten the sprite to frame 180.

In addition to using the Property Inspector, you can drag a sprite's end frame to shorten or extend the sprite.

3

If the Library palette is not visible, choose Window > Library palette.

The Library palette displays categories containing all behaviors included with Director. The name of the active category appears in the Library List field at the top of the palette.

The name of each behavior appears next to an icon indicating its type.

4

Verify that you're in the Automatic category in the Library List field. Scroll down to the Random Movement and Rotation behavior. Hold the mouse pointer over the behavior icon to read the description of the behavior.

5

Drag the Random Movement and Rotation icon to the bee sprite in the Score. A Parameters dialog box appears, letting you specify how you want the behavior to perform. Accept the defaults by clicking OK.

Now you'll add another behavior to the bee, but you'll drag the behavior to the sprite on the Stage. You'll add the Turn Towards Mouse behavior, which will make the bee turn in response to the movement of your user's mouse pointer.

6

Select Animation > Interactive from the Library List pop-up menu.

7

Scroll down to the Turn Towards Mouse behavior. Hold the mouse pointer over the behavior and read the description that appears. Drag the behavior to the bee on the Stage.

Notice that a shaded rectangle appears around the selected sprite as you drag the behavior on top of it.

8

In the Parameters dialog box, from the middle pop-up menu, select Always and click OK.

You attach behaviors to frames for actions that affect how the movie, rather than a particular sprite, behaves. Now you'll attach a behavior that makes the last frame of the movie play repeatedly.

9

From the Library List pop-up menu, choose Navigation.

10

Scroll down to the Hold on Current Frame behavior and drag it to the script channel and the last frame of your movie. Hold on Current Frame is one of the few behaviors that does not require you to set additional parameters.

11

Rewind and play the movie.

Notice that when the movie reaches the last frame, it continues to play.

Remember to save your work frequently.