Question

Convert Macromedia Director 8.0 files (.dir, .dcr) to a flash project

Asked by: jdraggi

we need to take Macromedia Director 8.0 files (.dir, .dcr)  and convert them to Flash Project Files (.fla) so that we can open and manipulate the multimedia project with Flash MX2004
 
Thanks,
John

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Asked On
2005-10-24 at 10:32:15ID21605712
Tags

director

,

convert

,

flash

,

macromedia

,

dcr

Topic

Adobe Director

Participating Experts
3
Points
250
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: LingoMasterPosted on 2005-10-25 at 20:16:46ID: 15159657

It's not possible to play Director inside of Flash, Director is the heavier footprint big brother using code extension Xtras to enable it to play other media, like Flash.

One would probably have to transfer content member by member into Flash, one member export scheme is to use castToTime menu command to place all selected bitmap member on the stage, then use built in export to image sequence comman to get a numbered series of image files.  A little lingo and the free Sharp image export Xtra can export director members to tidy jpeg images.

 

by: LingoMasterPosted on 2008-04-04 at 13:21:43ID: 21285354

A followup on the conversion of Director Projects to Flash.

I could not provide an labor effective solution at the time this question was asked,  Since then I have developed a set of tools that automate the process of converting a Director score to a Flash timeline.

After evaluating various tools, including swfmill, I arrived at a process involving custom lingo scripts that generate author mode JSFL scripts that direct Flash to recreate the timeline. at this time it recreates bitmap and text members in Flash. There's no code conversion done, other than some simple case by case macro library substitutions.

While this is not sufficiently polished to offer as a turn key tool, it might be effective to have me take care of the initial raw translation phase of a project.

 

by: bgb76Posted on 2008-07-04 at 06:03:06ID: 21932873


well here is another way import .DCR files into power point and export .PPT to any other format... see how...

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA011168811033.aspx

Yes! Even horrified when my boss asked me to convert... and googled for days...  finally i got the point of converting it... and im sharing it with you... hope you find it usefull

Cheers!
BGB
http://www.hydhost.com

 

by: mrmultimediamanPosted on 2009-08-24 at 14:38:12ID: 25172893

I tried using the powerpoint method and I cannot get the file to play. What am I doing wrong?

 

by: LingoMasterPosted on 2009-09-11 at 19:02:48ID: 25314752

Since this question was first posed, I was assigned the task of converting 100 director instructional modules to Flash.  Though the process ultimately called for recreating a fail amount of the assets, I was able to streamline the process by semi automating the transfer a reproduction of the director score and cast using customized tools.  
  The basic process involved:
Created custom lingo that scanned the score, creating a JSFL (javascript for flash) representation of the timeline, the bitmap castmembers were exported to individual external files using the free sharp image export xtra.  The JSFL script is then executed in the flash authoring environment, importing bitmaps to the library, building the timeline, placing instances of the bitmaps on stage.  Text members were automatically replaced with Flash counterparts.  Case specific macros handled some draw shape to vector object conversions.
  While far from a clean automated process, it did reduce the most labor intensive parts of recreating the director units in flash.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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