Should I Create Content in Director or Flash?

Many say that Shockwave is the future of the internet. However, should you bet on Shockwave Flash, or Shockwave Director? Here is a summation to help you decide:

Director is great if you want to create advanced interactivity and games for the web. You can publish nearly all kind of Web-ready "software" using Director. Also, since Director has been around for a while, many designers know the program in depth. Finally, Director will allow you to easily publish you projects to the Web, on CD-ROMs, on LANs and in other ways.

Flash is the way to go if you want to create multimedia content, with the same degree of interactivity as that which can be achieved using HTML and Javascript - and then some. Flash is already a widespread plug-in - even more so than the Director (Shockwave) plug-in. Flash has some important Internet features and is more than enough for most web-projects. Flash is built for the web, it is vector based and the file sizes are minimal. Flash streams (plays while downloading) better than Director. Using the fast animation and low CPU-demands, Flash presents itself visually stunning on nearly all systems and gives a wow-factor to even the smallest productions.

So, my suggestion is that you use Flash for your Web based content, and only use Director if you want to publish to CD-ROMs or need enhanced Web interactivity.

Alternatively you could combine the best aspects of Flash and Director for your Web creations. For example you can use Flash to create your site's interface: its layout, colors, buttons, and other aspects of look & feel and navigation so the pages will come up fast. Then you could use Director for specific areas of the site which require enhanced interactivity like games or Web based programs.

Well, that's our first look at the difference between Flash and Shockwave. The last page of the report is dedicated to links about the subject that you may find useful.