FLASH: Using Flash v. Director for CD projects...input from professionals

[Bryan Ax]

I'm about to get started on a project that will basically be a lot of

different learning activities for young kids...and am thinking about

changing my approach to creating the project.


But first, I wanted to get some input...


1.  In Director, the project would be a fairly standard CD-ROM with stub

projector that calls other movies, allowing kids to play with different

activities, then go back to the stub projector, passing in various high

scores from the other movies.  There is some tailoring which occurs - kids

will be asked some questions in the initial movie, then receive specific

tailored feedback about the answers they chose in other movies...i.e,

"because you're this type of person, we think you should pay careful

attention to this, this, and that".  The CD will be developed to eventually

run on both Mac and PC.


2.  Many of the graphics will be vector-based, including several animated

vector characters...I've never found a way that I'm 100% happy with for

bringing animated characters in to Director.  I've come across problems with

importing Flash audio in, had trouble synching Flash movies to audio native

in Director.  While I think overall Director does a great job of handling

Flash elements, I still have worries when I know those Flash movies are

going to need to be synched with sound.  Anyone have a foolproof method to

share?  This is probably the biggest sticking point for not just going ahead

full steam with Director - and I don't really want to turn all these nice

vector images in to bitmaps if I don't have to.


3.  BECAUSE the majority of the graphics will be Flash elements, it just

seems to make more sense from a graphics POV to use Flash for the whole

project.  Easier to synch elements, at least.  However, I've never done a

Flash-based CD - I know you can create a projector out of a Flash movie -

but can you create a stub Flash projector which calls other Flash movies?

Sorry, I should be doing all the research on this, but I'm in Japan, don't

have any book resources with me, and getting online gets expensive

quickly...


4.  I feel very comfortable with Lingo for everything from basic quizzes to

more advanced games.  However, I haven't done much beyond basic "if then"

statements with Flash's action objects.  So, there would be a learning curve

for creating things in Flash such as quizzes, and, what I'm more worried

about, the more difficult games that depend on lots of variables, lists, x

zooming across the screen only when y,z are true and q list isn't populated

and the game timer has less than 30 seconds on it...I've read a few basic

articles on doing this type of thing in Flash, but it was a few years ago

and my work experience hasn't given me any opportunities to do this type of

stuff yet.  What sorts of issues have those of you out there run in to

creating advanced games in Flash, particularly those of you who felt like

you already knew how to do this in Director...


5.  How difficult is it to store variables in one Flash movie and pass them

along to other Flash movies, when not on the web?  I've done something like

it online where you post vars to an asp page, which can then pass them along

to another Flash movie, but what about in a CD environment where you cut

directly from one movie to another?


6.  What other things am I forgetting to think about?  Should I be aware of

but haven't had the experience yet to run in to?


7.  Is there some happy medium - if I decide to do "a little of each" - can

Director movies call Flash movies on CD - and vice versa?  And share

variables between?  I would think so, but again, haven't done it, so there's

always some fear...I want to say I've read that getting variables from Flash

to Director is pretty straightforward, but going the other way isn't.


I appreciate any and all input - I know it's a lot of questions, but I

thought I should gather some more information before committing myself to

one approach or another.  If you don't want to comment on all of them cause

you're busy, but do have something to say about one point or another, please

share.


Thanks,


Bryan Ax



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