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What is Director 3D?

Director supports the creation and manipulation of real-time 3D objects. In essence, this allows for the construction of sophisticated interactive 3D environments. To create complex 3D models for Director applications, it's best to use a program like 3D Studio Max and then import the models to Director.

Director/Shockwave 3D is unlike other cast members in Director both in terms of the behaviour of the cast member and the way 3D sprites are controlled. You can find more about the make-up of Shockwave 3D casts here. This is an article that defines all the objects that form part of a 3D world and how they relate to each other.

One of the major differences of Shockwave 3D cast members to other media types is that they must be controlled via Lingo. Lingo is needed to animate your 3D members, to add interactivity with them and can be used to create new 3D objects.

3D cast members have a multi-layered hierarchy of properties. They contain a depiction of 3D space, called a 3D “world”. Within the world, objects - the things you see when you view the world - are referred to as 3D models, any number of which can be contained the world:

Models are similar to Director sprites, in that each model uses a model resource, just as each Director sprite uses a cast member.


A model’s “Shaders” contain information that defines the surface appearance of the model and can have textures assigned to it (these are images that are drawn onto the surface of the model to make it look more realistic). Models that form parts of a larger model, such as the wheels and doors of a car, can be linked to one another, as a “Group”, so they are easier to move as a single unit. Objects in a 3D world include cameras and lights. There are three ways of looking at the properties and contents of 3D cast members in Director:

  • the Shockwave 3D window;
  • the object inspector (Director MX only);
  • the Lingo scripting language.

In this document we introduce you to 3D Lingo. As with any 3D application, there are lots of parameters and commands – you shouldn’t worry about remembering them all, as practise makes perfect! Besides there’s a very handy Lingo dictionary always at hand…

A good starting point on working with 3D cast members in Director can be found at this location:http://www.macromedia.com/support/director/3d/director_3d_for_dir/director_3d_for_dir02.html. We suggest that you read this before progressing.

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July 2003