Macromedia Director Animation

Due April 3, 1997

Create, using Macromedia Director, an animation of the solar system with planets revolving around the sun, as roughly illustrated in the picture below. However, your animation should not show the orbit circles. Be creative with sizes, colors, directions, etc. As each planet revolves, the side facing the sun should always be the lighter (i.e. sunlit) side. The fastest revolution should take about 3 seconds and the slowest revolution should take about 10 seconds.

[image]

You may use any of the animation features in Macromedia Director. Frame-by-frame animation (demonstrated in class) is one of the ways to do this. Look for shortcuts, e.g. using the animation of one planet to create the next more quickly. You will use this animation in part of the next Authorware assignment, so you may return to it to revise it as you need to.

Write up: (1) a description of the method you used to create the animation, (2) directions for me to run your animation, and (3) a brief (about one-half page) evaluation of Macromedia Director -- what you like and dislike, what was easy and hard, etc. "Pilot test" your directions to be sure they work.

Turn in: inside a campus mail envelope: (1) a diskette containing your animation file, (2) your write-up (on paper), and (3) a diskette containing your write-up (in a file). Alternatively, you may put your computer files in your personal folder on the network. The diskettes (or network folder) should include only the text and animation files, not the authoring program or any other files. There should be only one version of each file on your disk.

Grading: A good animation creates the illusion of objects in motion. Your animation will be graded on how well that illusion is maintained. Your animation will also be judged on aesthetics, that is, attractiveness and smoothness of the animation. Your write-up will be judged on accuracy and your understanding of Macromedia Director.

Reminders and warnings: Creating a good animation takes both planning and time. You may have to start over from scratch a few times, so start this assignment soon and allow yourself plenty of time for fine-tuning. Remember my warnings about saving files often, backing up, and making copies of your files! Lastly, don't make the animation more difficult than it is. The animation does not have to run forever and all planets do not have to travel at different speeds.

ID and T page for 7W:135 (February 20, 1997).
Design and code by David Klein.
Copyright © 1997 by the University of Iowa.
All rights reserved.