Exporting digital video and frame-by-frame bitmaps

You can export all or part of a movie as a digital video. You can use this digital video in other applications or import it back into Director. Any interactivity in the movie is lost when it is exported as a digital video. You can also export a movie or a part of a movie as a series of bitmaps: BMP in Windows, and PICT on the Macintosh.

You can export QuickTime digital video from either the Windows or the Macintosh version of Director. QuickTime must be installed on the system to export as QuickTime (version 4 or later is required for Windows; version 3 or later is required for Macintosh). You can export the AVI (Audio-Video Interleaved) format only using the Windows version of Director. When you export to AVI, all sounds are lost.

When Director exports animation as a video or bitmaps, it takes snapshots of the Stage moment by moment and turns each snapshot into a frame in the video or a bitmap file. Sprites animated solely by Lingo or JavaScript syntax are not exported.

When Director exports video or bitmaps, it always uses the entire Stage.

To export to digital video or bitmaps:

1. Select File > Export.

   The Export dialog box appears.

2. Select the range of frames you want from the Export options at the top of the dialog box:

   Current Frame exports the current frame on the Stage. This is the default.

   Selected Frames exports the selected frames in the Score.

   All Frames exports all frames.

   Frame Range exports only the range of frames that begin and end with the frame numbers you enter in the Begin and End boxes.

3. If you select Selected Frames, All Frames, or Frame Range as the Export option, select one of the following options. These options do not work with digital video.

   Every Frame exports all frames in the selected range.

   One in Every _ Frames exports only the frames at the interval you specify in the box.

   Frames with Markers exports frames with markers set in the Score window.

   Frames with Artwork Changes in Channel exports frames only when a cast member changes in the channel you specify in the box.

4. From the Format pop-up menu at the bottom of the dialog box, select a format.
   • Windows: Video for Windows (.AVI), DIB File Sequence (.BMP), or QuickTime Movie (.MOV)
   • Macintosh: PICT or QuickTime Movie

   BMP is the standard format for a Windows bitmap series. PICT is the standard format for a Macintosh bitmap file format.

5. If you are exporting video, click the Options button.

   The Video for Windows or QuickTime Options dialog box appears.

6. Select the options you want to use and then click OK.

   For AVI movies, enter a number of frames per second for Frame Rate.

   For information about the QuickTime options, see Setting QuickTime export options.

   The Export dialog box reappears when you click OK.

7. Click Export.

   A dialog box appears, prompting you to save the movie.

8. Name the file and then click Save.

   When you click Export, a dialog box appears allowing you to name the file. If you are saving in video format, only one file will be created. If you are saving in BMP or PICT format, Director automatically creates one file for each frame, attaching the corresponding frame number to each file. For example, if the name of the exported file is Myfile, frame 1 will be exported to a file named Myfile0001.

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