Making Movies for the Web
From Chapter 14 of "Director 8 for Macintosh and Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide".
Looking to add some pizzazz to your Web site? Just include a Shockwave movie- a Director movie converted for playback in a Web browser. All that your site's visitors need to do to view it is download and install the free Macromedia Shockwave 8 Player, available at the Macromedia Web site. When they've done so, their Web browsers will play Shockwave movies, which you can integrate with the other content on your Web page (Figure 1). Unlike projector movies, Shockwave movies don't require your users to exit their browsers and run a separate file.
A Shockwave movie, shown with other content in a Web browser. (Sonic Rush Racing, created by Noisecrime)
Statistics have shown that offering Shockwave movies on Web sites increases both traffic and user retention, so it's no surprise that Shockwave is the most popular way of distributing Director movies. And with more than 130 million Shockwave Player downloads, you can be sure that you're reaching a very large audience.
This chapter explains all the basics of publishing a Director movie production in the Shockwave format. You learn how to create and organize all supporting files, how to set the various browser display options, and how to set Shockwave movies to stream as they download. You'll even find tips for smoothing out streaming over challenging Internet connections.