What's New in Director 8.5 > Working with Models and Model Resources > Working with models and model resources overview |  |

Working with models and model resources overview

This chapter covers the Lingo commands and properties used to work with models and model resources. The commands and properties given here in tabular form may also be found in alphabetical form, with accompanying syntax, definitions, and examples, in 3D Lingo Dictionary. Because much of a model's behavior depends on modifiers (which are attached to the model), modifiers are also discussed in this chapter. A model's surface appearance, controlled by shaders and textures, is also discussed here.

Models are the objects you see in the 3D world. You can create models within Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio. Spheres, boxes, planes, cylinders, and particle systems can be created either with Lingo or with Director 8.5 behaviors. These simple shapes are called primitives. They are the basic shapes from which more complicated models are built. (Particle systems are different from the other primitives: instead of being shapes, they create cascades of moving particles.)

For the most part, however, you should create complex models outside of Director 8.5, using a 3D modeling application, and then imported into Director in the W3D format.

Accessing properties and commands of a model or any other node type requires that the node be on the Stage or explicitly loaded with the `preLoad()` or `loadFile()` command.

The following sections describe models, model resources, and primitives in more detail, along with the Lingo used to work with them.