Shockingly enough, it didn't take me three months between installments this time, so we can pretty much pick up right where we left off without me apologizing or otherwise stammering through some sort of excuse. We're going to take one more peek at where some of the main interface elements you're used to from After Effects can be found in Combustion, finishing up with a extended look at the centerpiece of the Combustion workflow: the Operator Controls. Yes, I'm sure you have goose bumps the size of golf balls right now just thinking about the excitement that promises to ensue, so let's get right down to business.

We had sort of an abrupt ending to the last installment, for which I apologize, but there was a good reason. After all, I could have just kept writing and writing and writing about where things are in Combustion, resulting in an article that very well could have rivaled War and Peace in the length department (and, as some might argue, boringness department as well). So I decided to pull a Miramax/Kill Bill thing and split this particular aspect of our series into a couple of separate installments. As "they" say, onward and upward.

If this were, say, 1977, you just might see a TV commercial that goes something like this:

"Do you know me? I used to be the top dog of multimedia authoring before my parents decided to toss me in the back seat with my brother Authorware. That's why I carry the American Express card." Then you'd see that famous green card, blank of course, magically be filled in with the name "Macromedia Director," complete with accompanying old-school clackety-clack typewriter noises.

But this is 2003, and for those of you who may have only been in diapers (or even not yet alive) during the run of that particular ad campaign, suffice it to say that Director isn't quite the superstar of Macromedia's product line now that a little upstart called Flash has come along and stolen the interactive spotlight. But that doesn't mean Director isn't still alive and kicking. Far from it. It's still enough of a player to have earned a "MX" upgrade, and it's got plenty of rich QuickTime goodness packed between all the layers of luscious chocolate and creamy nougat, which is why we're all here today anyway.

We're going to wrap up our series today with a lively discussion of one of the more flexible techniques for character animation: bones. Now, in the real world, the words "flexible" and "bones" may not belong in the same sentence without requiring a trip to the emergency room, but as this is the magical land inside your computer, the two words are quite comfortable being in the same proximity. As usual, I'm rambling already, so let's just dive right in and take a look.