Creating a Presentation CD

lsThere have been a few postings covering some of the issues regarding creating a Presentation CD from you "SWiSH" outputs. I hope that within this we shall keep them under the 1 umbrella.

Firstly, to promote a professional look you will need a starter projector.

This is a portal that all your movies will be viewed through.

The best suggestion for this is to create a movie that looks for a movie in a subgroup. Use a folder for this subgroup (you'll see why later), in this case we'll call the folder "files"

i.e. "movie1.swf" is blank but loads "/files/moviemenu.swf" in at level 0.

Once you have this export what was earlier called "movie1.swf" as "whateveryouwant.exe" (This is done by opening your .swf output, go to file on the menu and "create projector")

Back to our "moviemenu.swf" (under the subgroup folder), you can have as many additional movies as you want branching from this, but it is important to remember that they are being viewed at all times from the "whateveryouwant.exe".

This means that to link to the movies you must always use the relevant pathways. In this case it is "/files/whatever.swf"

So for example, there is a button on "moviemenu.swf" that goes to a movie called "portfolio.swf"

You would load "portfolio.swf" into your movie by this pathway:

If you are using a back button the pathway back to "moviemenu.swf" would be:

This is the basis for navigation between the separate movies you will use.

You can have fun and instead of going back to "moviemenu.swf" you could go to "moviemenu2.swf" etc. (I did this once with 6 separate styles of main menu, each depending upon were you came back from - It was fun!)

Right, onto the next bit.

Use a graphics program like "Microangelo" to create your logo/graphic. With "Microangelo" you can change an existing image into a smaller icon. Save this as "mylogo.ani". When the CD is in a drive after this "myicon.ani" will replace the cd/dvd drive icon.

Open "notepad" and type:

Now go to your "files" folder that contains all your sub-movies, right click and select properties.

There is an unmarked box saying "hidden" - check it!

Now all viewers will be able to see is the projector file, the autorun file and your icon. Very slick!

If you burn this now you'll have a CD that works in any PC.

Now!!, if you are wanting to show your stuff to design agencies and the like, your going to have to make sure it's cross platform. This is really simple (although an update will come with more specific details).

You'll need to get hold of someone with an Apple Mac, you'll need ALL your exported files and you'll need a program for the Mac called "Toaster"

Now you'll want to create a "Hybrid" CD, this is because Macs don't work the way PC's do - they use different protocols and stuff! Burn your CD and hey presto! There you have it.

You can recopy the final version in a PC no probs, but you'll need a program like "Nero" to give you an exact copy of the original CD, not Windows reading it.

Remember Cd's can hold 800 Megs, that's a lot of stuff, you can get business card sized ones that hold 50 and that's still loads. Remember if you are putting a design on the back of your CD keep it clean and easy. The real work is in your 50-800 Megs worth of work.

Hope this helps some of you!

N.B. Sometimes for no known reason (to me anyways) a sub-movie may work better (or even just work) if loaded into level 1 instead of 0. It's rare and usually involves RAM eating processes, but it's a handy hint. Make sure though you use a bluff movie in level 1 taking you to the movie you want in level 0 – else your movie becomes stuck in the level 1 movie.

P.S. The info above could be updated if any Mac users (or anyone else) know of anything else that should be put in. You will be credited for your info -This is to stop the information in the thread becoming obsolete due to too many replies.

Thats all folks!