Director Help

Using animated GIFs

You can import an animated GIF into Director with File > Import, similar to how you import any other bitmap cast member. The only difference is that when the Select Format dialog box appears, you select Animated GIF.

Director supports both the GIF89a and GIF87 formats. GIFs must have a global color table to be imported. You can import an animated GIF within a movie file or link to an external file. You also have the choice of importing the first frame of an animated GIF as a still image. As with an ordinary bitmap, you place an animated GIF in the Score in a sprite channel and extend it through all the frames in which you want it to appear. An animated GIF can play at the same frame rate as the Director movie, at a different rate that you specify, or at its original rate.

Director does not support the following inks for animated GIFs: Background Transparent, Reverse, Not Reverse, Darkest, Lightest, Add, Add Pin, Subtract, and Subtract Pin.

You can make an animated GIF play Direct To Stage, meaning that it immediately appears on the Stage instead of being first composed in an offscreen buffer with other sprites. A Direct To Stage GIF takes less time to load, but you can’t place other sprites in front of it or use any ink effect.

Set properties for an animated GIF

  1. To specify how Director removes the cast member from memory if memory is low, select an option from the Unload menu on the Member tab of the Property inspector (Graphical view). For more information, see Controlling cast member unloading.
  2. To achieve the fastest playback rate, click the Animated GIF tab and select DTS (Direct To Stage).

    When Direct To Stage is on, you can use only Copy ink and you can’t place any sprites on top of the animated GIF sprite.

  3. Select a Rate option from the Rate menu:

    Normal plays at the GIF’s original rate, which is independent of the Director movie. The GIF can’t exceed the Director frame rate.

    Fixed plays at the frame rate you enter in the FPS text box.

    Lock-Step plays at the same rate as the Director movie.

  4. To set additional animated GIF settings, click More.
    • To change the file of a linked external cast member, enter a new pathname in the Import text box or click Browse to select a new file.
    • To import a file from the Internet, click Internet and enter a new URL in the File URL text box.