Director & Flash by Matt Ottewill 2003

For those new to multimedia authoring, the differences between Director and Flash can seem subtle, making it difficult to decide which is the best to learn. Both applications are effective authoring environments and each has its advocates, but because they require a substantial investment in time and effort to get the most out of them, it is usual for a developer to learn one or the other and not both. This page explains the differences and gives some advice on which to choose.

Warning

You should consider very carefully before using Director for web design, few end-users have the required plug-in installed (Shockwave player) and Director is no longer a popular choice for developers. At present (2010) we are expecting Adobe to discontinue it. It is still used for CD-ROM development but we would recommend web sites as a better interface solution.

Flash is still popular but many are predicting its demise as HTML 5 and alternative solutions are introduced.

Director

Put simply, Director is a program for making programs. Whilst not as flexible and powerful as an application development language like C+, Java or Pascal, Director has been embraced by "non-programmers" and creatives. Director includes a powerful and mature scripting (programming) language called "Lingo" which uses many common word english phrases and is more user friendly than C+, Java or Pascal.

Director can create a wide range of interactive media rich applications such as ...

Games
CDROM's
Learning/teaching programs
Kiosks
Utilities
Media controllers
etc

There are many examples on this website.

Projectors and Shockwave

Director projects can be published in 2 formats ...

1. Self standing applications (so called "Projectors"). A Director projector appears as an application/program on the Mac and the PC (where it is an .exe executable file).

2. Shockwave format content for website's. A Director project can be published in Shockwave format and viewed in a web browser. Shockwave compresses images and audio and other media to make file sizes as small as possible, but not as small a Flash projects.

Director pros and cons

Pros ...

Mature and immensely powerful
Can make self-standing applications
Can be used to make project structures of linked elements called movies (similar to web pages)
Great web and Flash integration
Many, many tools and features
3D features
Powerful scripting language for sophisticated interaction (Lingo and JavaScript)
Cross platform publishing (Shockwave, Mac & PC)
Pixel based imaging
Terrific video and audio control
Easy to understand interface metaphors (stage, cast, score etc)
Industry standard application for creating CDROM's and Enhanced music CDs

Cons ...

Steep learning curve
Director skills are not so in-demand in the commercial world as Flash skills
Video cannot be embedded, only linked in QuickTime format.
Shockwave file sizes are larger than Flash
Not suitable for creating complete website's
Although Director can control DVD video it cannot be used to author a DVD Video disc interface.
The Shockwave browser plug-in (which permits Shockwave to be viewed) is often not pre-installed on Macs & Pcs

Flash

Flash was originally developed as a way to create interactive web sites and content for web sites with smaller file sizes than Director/Shockwave. It has grown into a powerful program, much loved by a generation of designers too young to have been around when Director was the only option.

Flash imaging and animation is based on Vectors rather than Pixels. Therefore, it is possible to create interactive rich website's with small file sizes and faster download times than Shockwave content.

Flash creates so called .swf files ("swift") which are not self standing applications and require a browser plug-in or the Flash Player utility to run. Flash has been embraced by a generation of internet designers as a way of creating interactive rich web sites.

Projectors and .SWF files

Flash projects can be published in 2 formats ...

Self standing applications (so called "Projectors"). A Flash projector contains a Flash project and the Flash Player code.
.swf format content for website's. A Flash project can be published in .swf format and viewed either with the stand alone Flash player utility or with the Flash plug-in in a web browser. .swf compresses images and audio and other media to make file sizes as small as possible.

Flash pros and cons