Menu Cells

Effects -> Splound

The Effects -> Splound command in the Motion module helps you synchronize the motion of an animated scene with an AIFF sound file.

The Splound effect generates a linear curve that represents the amplitude curve of the sound file, which is then synchronized with the time line. When you play back the animation, the sound file is also played back, with an indicator on the curve to show the amplitude of the audio at every frame. You can then manually edit the animation of objects in your scene, matching the amplitude of the sound with the movement of the objects.

For example, assume you want to animate a talking character. Once you have modified the character's face and mouth, you could use the Splound effect to generate the amplitude curve from a sound track recording of the character's voice. You could then keyframe the position of your character's mouth opening and closing at different frames to match the peaks and valleys of the amplitude curve displayed at those frames.

Procedure

Before using this command, record a sound and save it in an AIFF file. In SOFTIMAGE 3D, create a character or object that you want to synchronize with the sound file.

1. Create a null object using the Get -> Primitive -> Null command.

2. Select the Effects -> Splound command.

The Splound dialogue box is displayed:

3. Set the parameters as desired.

4. Click the Ok button.

5. Pick the null.

6. Play back the sound file to view the amplitude of the audio at each frame.

7. Assign key shapes to the character or object to match the different sounds in the sound file.

Parameters

Input AIFF

Specifies the name and location of the sound file to be imported.

Frame Rate

Number of frames per second for the animation.

Sample Rate

Represents the density of the amplitude curve. The higher the sample rate, the greater the resolution of the curve.

Range

Specifies the portion of the sound track per number of frames that you want to visualize with the amplitude curve.

Play

When you select this option, the sound file is played every time you play back the animation.

Note:: When combined with a slow refresh rate, selecting the Play option produces "choppy" sounds. For example, if it takes five seconds to refresh one frame of animation, and your frame rate is 30 frames per second, only 1/30th of a second of the sound is played at that frame.

Next, Previous, Delete, and Key

To animate the effect, Next advances to the next keyframe, Previous goes back to the previous keyframe, Delete removes a keyframe, and Key sets a keyframe. These controls can only be accessed after you have set the initial parameters in the dialogue box and clicked Ok. To return to the dialogue box and edit keyframes for the effect, select the effect icon and choose the Effects -> Edit Parameters command in the Motion module.

SOFTIMAGE 3D Reference - 19 APR 1996