Current Versions: Effector Sets I & II 1.0.8, AlphaMania 2.1.1
Interactive Special Effects in Macromedia Adobe Director
Media Lab's AlphaMania and Effector Sets bundle of Xtras bring cross-platform and interactive special effects to Director. Swirling, colorization, magnification, blurring, embossing - all interactive and controllable.
These effects are programmed in straight to-the-metal C code and give outstanding performance. They are fast and reliable.
With Effector Sets you can apply multiple effects simlutaneously, and control their order. With our handy Set FX interface and a complete library of behaviors, no Lingo programming is required. For authors who do want absolute control they will find a whole library of new Lingo commands and properties available to them.
AlphaMania is the base engine - it creates a new custom cast type in Director that acts pretty much like a normal bitmap castmember. The other two Xtras, Effector Set I and Effector Set II, plug into AlphaMania and provide the special effects.
Rated 4 Mice in MacWeek
Download It!
All of our Xtras are available for Mac, Windows, and OS X. You'll find them on our download page.
These Xtras are distributed as unlockable demos. There is no time limit but until they are purchased they will deface any newly imported AlphaMania castmember with red lines, and any live effect will have a yellow pink box around it.
Buy Now! Discontinued
Features
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List of Effects
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| Here are some samples of the effects from both Effector Set Xtras. These animated GIFs were made using the actual effects, and while they show some aspects of the effects, they can not demonstrate the possibilities these effects have when they are interactive. For that, download our Effector Set Demo. | |
 HSB and RGB Colorization - two powerful effects for colorizing objects. Tired of putting 30 different versions of that widget in your movie when each one just differs by color? HSB (or RGB) colorization to the rescue! High-lighting, low-lights, shadows are all preserved, the colorization is non-destructive, and with the ability to specify masks, you can exactly color any object the way you need. |
 Blur - Each of these castmembers was blurred by the Blur effect. Controllable over time, control the speed, blur amount and resolution. Fantastic fun! |
 Magnify - Fully interpolated and animatable, magnify can be set to any percentage like %117, not just 2x, 3x, etc. The focal point for the magnification effect can be set anywhere on stage or to a place in another castmember. |
 Bevel - Set the light source's position strength and color, raise and lower the bevel on each side. Spruce up any piece of multimedia. |
 Rotate - Like all the Effector Set effects, this effect is performed at runtime as the sprite draws. Therefore, there are no additional castemembers created, and no complicated lingo to support this behavior. In this example, it is being combined with the Drop Shadow effect to correctly cast shadows no matter the rotation. |
 Drop Shadow - In this example we are simply changing the shadows position, color, and transparency, but you could additionally change the position of the light source and feathering. |
 Swirl - this tasty bit of eye-candy can be used to wiggle, warp, or flush your graphics. More fun than a barrel of monkeys. |
 Roil - you control the stretch and speed. This is truly an eye-popping effect. |
 Mosaic - a handy effect. You can control the speed, x and y box sizes. |
 Ripple - This effect must be seen to be believed. Water ripples following the mouse! |
Want more?
View a screenshot of the SetFx user interface.
Demos
All the Media Lab Xtras are try-before-buy, so you can certainly download them and test them out for yourself. But, if you want a quicker 'show me now' type of experience, here are some demos we think you'll enjoy.
The Visible Alien In Your Browser
This Alien Autopsy is a demonstration of just a few of the effects from the Effector Sets and shows off some great usage of masking with AlphaMania. Click here to see it in your browser. If you'd like to download it and examine this movie, look lower on this page.
(requires Shockwave)
After You've Installed
The following demos require AlphaMania and the Effector Set Xtras to be installed before you can run them. Those Xtras can be freely retrieved from our download page.
The Effector Sets Demo
This demo is a full interactive Director Projector that'll show you, interactively, each of the effects in the Effector Sets.
- Mac: esdemos.sit.bin
- Win: effector.zip
The Visible Alien
By far our most popular demo! This demo was originally built for speaker support, so most of the buttons in it are unlabelled and there are no on-screen explanations. But, quite frankly, who needs them? This demo will add life to any party.
- Mac: roswell.sit
- Win: roswell.zip
The Troubled Space Station Mir
Another speaker led demo, this fun demo shows off a lot of sophisticated effect usage. This one will take a bit of mucking about to be fully appreciated, as, again, none of the levers or buttons are labelled. When presented to audiences, much of this demo is given with Director in author mode - try stopping the movie and dragging around the large lever in the center of the screen.
Tutorials
DrawMethod
AlphaMania castmembers also have the ability to do "cut-through"s and act as masks to apply affects directly to the stage and whatever sprites are beneath them. Click here to see some samples of the different drawMethods working with effects.
ShockWave
AlphaMania and the Effector Sets are downloadable Xtras that can be included with Shockwave movies. Here are the instructions for preparing your movies for ShockWave download.
Macintosh System Requirements
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Windows System Requirements
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| Still have questions? See the AlphaMania & Effector Sets Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). | |
Other Xtras
Media Lab makes another Xtra called PhotoCaster that integrates very well with AlphaMania and the Effector Sets. PhotoCaster imports Photoshop files directly into Director's cast layer by layer and supports a lot of advanced options like text layer to RTF conversion and more. PhotoCaster also enables AlphaMania to import individual Photoshop layers (without it AlphaMania can import TGA and PICT files). It makes a good companion.