Know Director? No No not a film director…I am talking about Macromedia Director (now Adobe). Yes, now that old Director which we all thought was dead, is making buzz in eLearning industries. After acquisition of Macromedia by Adobe, much software such as Director, Authorware, Fireworks etc. were not releasing their latest versions.
As a Director addict I thought that due to the power of Flash and emergence of Flex may force Adobe to dump the Director. But Adobe embed new Director version in eLearning bundle. I remember those old days during my learning time when people generally like 3D softwares i.e. 3ds Max & MAYA, but I love Director because that is quite tough to learn or you can say complicated but really good when you want to make 2D animations with cel(illustration on paper) which is bitmap base technique. I also learn Lingo language for Director. In my view Director was very nice tool in those days for interactive multimedia, you can easily make interactive multimedia applications, interactive games and touch screen kiosks. In 2004, Adobe stops it’s further up gradation. We saw newer versions of Flash, and new technologies such as Flex etc. but every one forget Director.
I remember one incident regarding to the Director, when I was with a big Learning Services company, which deals in eLearning, we got a project, which is done completely in Lingo language of Director. Now the problem is that no body knows Director, my company’s MD approached me for that project and even initially I was also hesitant to take that project because I had left Director practice long back, but due to my love towards Director I took that project and successfully completed that before the deadline which was really a great satisfying experience. Another reason for great experience for me is that Director project was completely written in Lingo script, so quite challenging for me to complete this project in very short deadline.
Adobe launched Adobe® Director® 11 on March 25, 2008. Latest Adobe launced Director 11.5. It is having some new features such as:
1. Support more than 40 video, audio, and image file format, including SWF
2. Timesaving user interface
3. Script Browser
4. Easy multiversion output
5. Windows® support (now includes Windows Vista®
6. Mac support (now includes Intel® processors)
7. Cross-platform projector publishing
8. JavaScript support
9. Adobe product line compatibility
10. XML parsing
11. Text rendering engine
There are some bugs also, but Director fans don’t worry at least Adobe®Director® 11 is in the market. Hope we will soon get newer version of Director with fixed bugs and with more interesting and useful features.