# Creating

# Shockwave Web Pages

### by Perry Board, Rick Luna and Derek O'Dell

## C O N T E N T S

## Chapter 1 Multimedia on the Web

- Reaching Our Senses
- Multimedia on the Internet
  - What is Shockwave?
  - Shockwave versus Other Solutions
  - Working within Limitations
- From Here…

## Chapter 2 Suggested Tools

- The Essentials: Viewing Shockwave Files
  - Web Browser
  - Plug-Ins
  - Recommendations: Creating Shockwave Files
  - Macromedia Products
  - Afterburner
  - Graphics Creation Software
  - Audio
- From Here…

## Chapter 3 Putting It on the Web

- Installing and Running Afterburner on Your Director Movie
  - Inserting the Burned Director Movie into an HTML Document: Typing in the HTML
- Using WYSIWYG Web Page Creation Software that Supports Shockwave
  - Integrating Shockwave Movies with Backstage Designer
  - Integrating Shockwave Movies with HoTMetaL Pro Version 3
- Installing the Shockwave Plug-Inon Your Web Browser
- MIME Types-Configuring Your Server
  - Upload the Files to Your Web Server
  - Test Your HTML Document
  - Catering to Web Browsers that Cannot See Shockwave
- Matching Backgrounds and Movies Using HEX
- From Here…

## Chapter 4 Considerations for the Internet

- Thinking about Your Intended Audience
- Graphics
  - Color Depth
  - Palettes
- Director Tools
  - Vector Graphics Tools
  - Tiling
  - Text
- Sound
- Testing Your Movies
- From Here…

## Chapter 5 Limitations of Shockwave and the Web

- External Files
  - Linked Media
  - Xobjects and Xtras
  - Where to Put External Files
- Tempo Controls
  - Playback Rate
  - Delays
  - Wait for a Mouse Click or Key Press
- Director Features that Have Been Disabled
- From Here...

## Chapter 6 Liven Up a Page: Animations for Fun

- The Shockwave Process
- Example One: Flashing "New"
  - Step One: Create the Graphics
  - Step Two: Animating in Director
  - Step Three: Compressing the Director Movie
  - Step Four: Upload and Embed the File
- Example Two: Home Page Title
  - Step One: Create the Graphics
  - Step Two: Animating in Director
  - Step Three: Afterburner
  - Step Four: Uploading and Embedding
- Example Three: Under Construction Animation
  - Step One: Collecting the Pieces
  - Step Two: Animating in Director
  - Step Three: Afterburner
  - Step Four: Upload and Embed
- From Here…

## Chapter 7 Animations to Demonstrate or Teach

- Form versus Function
- Animated Street Map
  - The Map
  - Animating the Directions
  - Compressing and Uploading
- Tire Peel-Away Diagram
  - The Tire Graphics
  - Animating the Peel-Away
  - Posting the Tire Animation to the Web
- Advertising Banner
  - Graphic Images
  - Animating the Banner
  - Compress, Upload, and Embed in the HTML Document
- Other Ideas
- From Here…

## Chapter 8 Special Effects and Other Shockwave Techniques

- No Rectangles, Please
  - Matching the Background Color
  - Using a Patterned Background
- Sprite Blends
- Audio as a Background Soundtrack
- From Here…

## Chapter 9 Rollovers and Button Clicks

- Rollovers
  - Using the Rollover Lingo
  - Invisible "Hot Spots"
  - Using the Mousecast Lingo
- Button Clicks
  - Mousedown
  - Mouseup
- From Here…

## Chapter 10 Controlling Movie Elements with Puppets

- Using Puppets in Your Shockwave Movies
- PuppetSprite
  - Controlling Button States with Puppets
  - Changing a PuppetSprite's Location
- PuppetSound
- Other Puppet Effects
- From Here…

## Chapter 11 Using Shockwave for Data

- Linear and Property Lists
  - Linear Lists
  - Property Lists
- Graphing Information
  - Setting Up the Stage
  - Puppets
  - Entering Values in the List
  - Graphing the Data
- Other List Commands
- Further Ideas
- From Here…

## Chapter 12 Working with Lingo

- Scripts
  - Frame Scripts
  - Movie Scripts
  - Scripts Attached to Cast Members
  - Sprite Scripts
- Variables
  - Global Variables
  - Local Variables
- Writing Your Own Handlers
  - Plain Vanilla Handlers
  - Passing and Returning Values in Handlers
- Simple Lingo Structures
  - Setting Values
  - Testing Using If…Then…Else Structures
  - Repeat Loops
- From Here…

## Chapter 13 Internet Lingo for Shockwave

- Using New Lingo
  - GoToNetMovie
  - GoToNetPage
  - GetNetText
  - NetDone( )
  - NetTextResult()
  - A Sample Movie Loading Text from the Internet
  - PreLoadNetThing
  - Limitations of PreLoadNetThing
- From Here…

## Chapter 14 Further Use of Internet Lingo

- Multiple Operations
  - Identifying an Operation
  - GetLatestNetID()
- Targeting Frames with GoToNetPage
- External Parameters
  - Specifying the Parameters in the Embed Tag
  - Accessing the External Parameters
  - Valid Parameter Names
- Storing User Preferences
- Putting a Message in the Status Bar
- More Information about Network Operations
  - NetError()
  - NetMIME()
  - NetLastModDate()
- From Here…

## Chapter 15 Putting It All Together: A Shocked Site

- Current Example Sites
- The Storyboard
- Creating the Basic Structure
- Creating the Shockwave Movies
- Backgrounds
- Content
- For Non-Shocked Visitors
- From Here…

## Chapter 16 Using Existing Materials

- Using Existing Graphics
  - Resolution
  - Color Depth
- Going from CD-ROM or Kiosk to the Internet
  - Bigger is Not Better
  - Modifying Existing Animations
  - Reducing Audio
  - Content
  - An Example Transformation
- Is It Worth the Effort?
- From Here…

## Chapter 17 Alternatives to Shockwave

- Animated GIFs
  - Creating an Animated GIF
- Embedding a Java Applet
  - Using HoTMetaL Pro 3 to Embed Java Applets
  - Using Backstage Designer to Embed Java Applets
- Real Audio
- Movie File Formats: MOV, AVI, MPEG
- From Here…

## Chapter 18 Shockwave for Audio

- What Is Streaming?
- Compressing Audio for Shockwave
  - Compressing Sounds Embedded in Director
  - Creating Streamable Audio Files
- Controlling the Streaming Files in Director
  - Set the URL of the SWA Cast Member
  - Playing, Stopping, and Pausing the Streaming Audio
  - Preloading
  - The State of the Streaming File
  - Checking the Duration and Percentages of an SWA File
  - Checking the Bit Rate of an SWA File
  - Checking Errors with the SWA File
- A Streaming Audio Example
  - Collecting the Pieces
  - Assembling in Director
  - Afterburner and Embedding the Movie
- From Here…

## Chapter 19 Shockwave for Authorware

- Learning How Shockwave for Authorware Is Unique
- Who Should Use Shockwave for Authorware?
- How to Use Shockwave for Authorware
- Software Artistry-A Shocked Example
- Problems and Limitations
- From Here…

## Chapter 20 Shockwave for Freehand

- Important Considerations
- Using the URLs Xtra
- Using the Afterburner Xtra
- Embedding the Shocked Freehand File
- Limitations
- Setting the MIME Type for Freehand Files
  - How to Configure UNIX Servers
  - Configuring Mac HTTP Servers
  - Configuring WebSTAR Servers
- From Here…

## Appendix A Example Gallery

- Examples Used in This Book
  - Flashing "NEW"
  - Animated "Home Page" Title
  - Under Construction
  - Animated Street Map
  - Bicycle Tire Animation
  - Pulsing "Gallery"
  - Animated Shockwave Logo
  - Rippling PDG Logo
  - Using a Go-To Loader
  - PDG Navigation Movie
  - Retrieving Text from the Internet
  - Line Graphing Movie
  - A Completely Shocked Site
  - Streaming Audio
- Other Shockwave Examples
  - The Slider Puzzle
  - Animated Web Counter
  - Finish Line Challenge

## Appendix B Shockwave Toolkit Reference

- Professional Software Packages
  - Adobe Photoshop
  - GIF 89a Plug-In for Adobe Photoshop
  - GIF Construction Set from Alchemy Mindworks
  - Macromedia xRes
  - Alien Skin Software's Black Box
  - Adobe Acrobat
  - Macromedia Director Multimedia Studio 2
  - Caere's OmniPage Pro
  - SoftQuad's HoTMetaL Pro 3
  - Incontext Web Analyzer

## Appendix C Glossary

## Credits

Copyright© 1996 by Que Corporation.

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Making copies of any part of this book for any purpose other than your own personal use is a violation of United States copyright laws. For information, address Que Corporation, 201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46290. You may reach Que's direct sales line by calling 1-800-428-5331.

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### About the Authors

Perry Board attended Taylor University as an art major with varied career intentions ranging from graphic arts to teaching. After graduating, he went to New York City as an intern at Blender magazine, the first magazine to be published as an interactive CD-ROM. He has taken various graphic arts jobs and presently works for Phillips Design Group, a leader in interactive media. He now lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, with his wife, Theresa, who is a high school English teacher.

Rick Luna earned his BFA in Graphic Design from Ball State University in 1993. Upon graduation, he worked for a local LDIP that was just starting. His knowledge of HTML and the Internet came from searching the Internet for information and applications to build pages for the new company. Still doing freelance print work, it was a project for his current employer (Phillips Design Group, Inc.) that got him hired. Since joining PDG, he has created sites for Zipp Speed Weaponry, The Finish Line, and others, as well as having sites used as demos in Internet trade shows.

Derek O'Dell has been working in multimedia design and development for approximately five years. With a degree in Computer Systems Engineering from Purdue University, Derek has completed the programming and design of several interactive projects. Using Authorware Professional, Derek was the lead programmer for interactive CD-ROMs for Software Artistry, The Finish Line, and Zipp Speed Weaponry. Derek has trained employees of many major corporations on Authorware, Photoshop, and Premiere. Derek works for Phillips Design Group of Indianapolis. Derek may be reached at 317-297-9164 or e-mailed at derek@pdgroup.com.

PDG, Inc. is a leader in cutting edge interactive media design and development based in Indianapolis, Indiana. PDG's award-winning designs have been displayed in New York, San Francisco, and around the world in design publications, books, cover art, galleries, and exhibits. PDG has extensive recognition in the industry, as authors and consultants for published articles and books. PDG's current project portfolio includes design and development of interactive CD-ROMs, Kiosk, Intranet, Special Effects, 3-D modeling/animation, Graphic Design, and development of multimedia Internet Web Sites.

### Acknowledgments

Registered Trademark company names and logos used:

- Software Artistry and the Software Artistry logo are trademarks of Software Artistry, Inc. All rights reserved.
- The Finish Line and the Finish Line logo are registered trademarks of Finish Line, Inc. All rights reserved.
- Zipp Speed Weaponry and the Zipp logo are registered trademarks of Compositech, Inc. All rights reserved.
- Director and Authorware® are registered trademarks of Macromedia.
- Freehand™ is a trademark of Macromedia.

All other company and product names may be trademarks or service marks of the companies with which they are associated.

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