Everyone by now has probably bought a CD by their favorite artist, stuck it in their computer and watched in amazement as your screen is taken over and an interface is loaded for your viewing pleasure, complete with videos, sound clips, pictures and even links to the artist’s website. For a really good example of this, check out Blind Melon’s CD “Nico”. After Shannon Hoon died, they put out their last CD, which is fully loaded with extras that may never have been released otherwise.
Thousands of dollars are spent in order to put these CD’s together, but it’s really cheaper than that if you want to do it yourself. The standard for a long time was to produce these using Macromedia Director or QuickTime, but that can be expensive. Flash is a cheap substitute that does as good or better of a job of making a multimedia presentation. To do it using html can be even cheaper!
Creating The AutoRun.inf
Ok, this is perhaps the simplest part of this process, yet it is the most important. The autorun.inf file is the file that tells the computer to automatically run whatever it is you have on the disc once the CD is inserted into the CD-Rom. Without this, you would have to give instructions to the user as to what exact file it is they should open to get the presentation started. This is no good of course because you want to make your presentation as hassle-free as possible (plus it’s pretty cool to have it automatically pop-up once it’s put in their machine). To make your autorun.inf you simply open up Notepad or whatever your favorite text editor is and put in the following and save it as autorun.inf:
[Autorun]
open=nameofyourfile.exe
That’s you basic autorun.inf file. Now if you’ll notice the file extension is .exe (executable). The preferred method is to use an executable file. Flash has the ability the make .exe’s as does Director and an assortment of other programs (more on Flash .exe’s later).
Now, if you want to load something other than a program file, such as html, it’s just as easy, but you’ve got options. One, you can create the file yourself using a handy-dandy text editor, similar to above only it will read:
[Autorun]
open=start nameofyourfile.html
Simple enough? The only problem with this is, once the cd is inserted, a DOS prompt is going to pop-up just before your file loads. Some people don’t mind, some do. But there are other ways to go about this. If you’ll look around, you can find tons of freeware that will create your autorun files for you and remove the DOS pop-up. Personally, I use Karen’s Autorun.inf Editor from KarenWare.com. While you’re there, you might want to check out some of her other power tools. It’s all really great stuff.
Be sure to read the instructions on any freeware you get because, like in the case of Karen’s Autorun.inf Editor, it might create a small .EXE file that you’ll have to burn on the CD along with all your source files. For you MAC users, check to see if your burning software has an autorun feature. Toast does, as does some of the other burning software.
Also, have you ever noticed that some CD’s will show their own icon if you’re looking through “My Computer”? This little extra is very simple as well and can help draw attention to your work. Get your favorite icon editor, and there’s a ton to be had. There’s also plug-ins available for Photoshop and Fireworks that will do the trick. You’ll then create your icon. Most editors will create every standard size icon in one file to make things easier. Now once you’ve completed your icon, you simply add one line of text to your autorun.inf file making it look something like this:
[Autorun]
open=nameofyourfile.exe
icon=youricon.ico
or:
[Autorun]
open=start nameofyourfile.html
icon=youricon.ico
Now your autorun.inf file is complete and ready to roll. All you need to do now is burn your file, along with the file you want to autorun into the root directory of your CD. You can place other files in other folders on the CD, but for simplicity’s sake, you may just want to put everything in the root directory. If not, make sure all your path’s reflect the correct folders.
Executable Flash
Flash is such a great way to build enhanced-CD’s. It allows you to create animation, give a presentation, embed video and sound, create navigation, and link to outside sources. It’s even better for displaying your portfolio. On my resume CD, I have two portfolio sections. One with screen shots and thumbnails that link to some of work I’ve done. The other section contains all of the logo’s I’ve designed. The uses for Flash in this type of media are endless.
So lets assume you have all of your Flash work done and published. Now what you need to do is, find the .swf file you just created and open it in the Flash Player. Now you’ll go to: File>Create Projector. This is where you’ll create and save your executable (.exe). This is the file you’ll want to use in the autorun.inf file. You’ll notice the file size on the .exe is considerably larger than that of the .swf. This is because the file is now a standalone application. This shouldn’t be an issue considering you will be burning onto a CD. If we were talking about floppy disk or some sort of other media, I would understand the concern.
When you do publish your Flash, you may consider adding the following two great actions that can impact your presentation: Go to : Add Action>Actions>Browser/Network>fscommand
Or you can hit ESC+fs. Underneath “Commands for Standalone player” select fullscreen [true/false] and make sure the parameter says true. Go through the above steps again, only this time choose allowscale[true/false] from the pull-down tab and set the parameter to false. You can also edit the actions with expert mode and just paste in this text:
fscommand(“fullscreen”, “true”);
fscommand(“allowscale”, “false”);
The first one makes your final product full screen, and the other makes sure your file opens at 100% resolution instead of being scaled to fit the monitor. Not allowing scaling helps insure that your work is seen as you intended it to be seen.
There are some obvious applications for this type of media. So get to work, make your resumes unforgettable, your photo albums last and keep me informed. I’m always looking for new ideas on this subject.
Scott Harris a former graphic designer for murdok and currently the design manager for C.A.D. Website Design and RSStatic
