Animating audio

Audio Animation plays the sound of an audio shape as part of an animation. With it you can:

• Start a sound at any moment: it begins at the moment of the animation you pick.
• Play any part of the file: any range, forward or backwards.
• Set how fast it plays: at its normal speed, faster, or slower, steadily or speeding up and slowing down with easing.
• Shape how loud it plays: with a fade at each end, and a volume you can draw across the block.

It works on audio shapes only. During animation playback, an audio shape sounds only while an audio block plays it. Playing its card on its own pauses the animation. See How the sound plays.

Creating it

Adds a block that plays the selected audio shapes.

• Operation:
  1. Select one or more audio shapes on the board.
  2. In Animation mode, choose Audio Animation in the Actions panel.
• Result: a block starts at the playhead. It is selected, and the playhead moves to its end:
  • Plays the shape's clip: from Clip start to Clip end in its Audio Settings, at normal speed, so it lasts as long as the clip.
  • Waits for a sound: on an audio shape with no sound yet, it lasts one second and plays one second of the sound once the shape has one.

With several audio shapes

• Shapes with the same Clip start and Clip end share one block, even if they use different files.
• Each different clip range gets its own block, all starting at the playhead.
• To play the shapes of one block one after another, turn on Stagger shapes and set Ref to End. See Stagger and easing.

One block at a time

An audio shape plays one block at a time, so its blocks never overlap.

• Overlaps are refused: you can't create a block, or change its Speed or Play range, so that it runs into another block on the same shape.
• Edits stop at the next block: Time, Duration, and stagger changes stop where the next block on the shape starts.
• Reassign skips busy shapes: it leaves out the shapes that already play another block at that time.
• Pasted and dragged blocks find room: a block you paste, or drag in the Timeline panel, moves to the nearest time where it fits.
• Duplicate a shape to layer its sound: the copies share the file.

The audio animation block in the Timeline panel

In the Timeline panel:

• Purple blocks in their own lanes: like video blocks (), in taller lanes under the Active Camera lane.
• A waveform between two speakers: a speaker sits at each end of the block, and the waveform of the first audio shape it plays runs between them.
• Fade lines: a line inside the block marks where the fade-in ends or the fade-out starts, and the waveform shrinks under it. Drag a fade line to change the fade.
• Volume line: with Variable volume on, a line across the block shows the volume, and the waveform follows it.
• Timeline audio, in the panel header, controls sound in your open editor:
  • On: the sound plays during playback and while you drag the playhead. This is the default.
  • Off: both stay silent, and the animation keeps moving.
  • It doesn't change exported sound.

On the board

• Audio playback has no place on the board to edit, so the block has no indicator or handles there. You set it in the Attributes panel and the Timeline panel.
• While the playhead is inside a block, the card's playhead shows where the block is in the sound.

Attributes

An audio block's settings are in the Audio Animation section of the Attributes panel.

Timing

• Time: when the block starts and ends, in seconds. Each time is outlined while the playhead sits on it.
• Duration: the block's total length, including staggered shapes and block pauses.
  • Changing it keeps the part of the sound the block plays, so it plays faster or slower, and higher or lower.
• Speed: seconds of sound played per second of animation, on average. Easing changes the speed within the block.
  • 1 plays the sound at its normal speed, 2 twice as fast, and 0.5 at half speed.
  • Changing it changes the block's duration.

Play

• Play: two values, the time in the file at the start of the block and at its end, in seconds.
  • They start as the shape's clip. From then on the block plays only this part of the file, whatever clip the shape's Audio Settings set.
  • An end before the start plays the sound backwards.
  • Maintain speed, in the Timeline panel header, decides what changes with the range:
    • On: the duration follows the new range.
    • Off: the duration stays and the speed changes.

Fade

• Fade: two values, the fade-in at the start of the block and the fade-out at its end, in seconds. 0 means no fade.
  • The fade-in and the fade-out can't cross each other.

Variable volume

Changes how loud the block is while it plays.

• Operation: turn on Variable volume.
• Result: a line across the block shows its volume, starting flat at the volume of the shape.
  • Drag a point up or down to change the volume, or sideways to move it in time.
  • Double-click the line to add a point.
  • The height is the volume, from 0 (silence) to 1 (the volume of the shape), at the start and the end too.
  • Open volume in a floating window gives the line more room, and Return volume to the attributes panel puts it back.

• Tip:
  • Three points make a dip, for music under a voice.
  • Turning Variable volume off deletes the line, and the block plays at the volume of the shape again.

Stagger and easing

• Stagger shapes: when a block plays several shapes, starts them one after another. See Stagger shapes.
• Reordering panel: with Stagger shapes on, sets the order in which the shapes start. See Stagger shapes.
• Playback easing: how the sound moves through the Play range. Linear, the default, plays it at a steady speed; other curves speed it up and slow it down, and its pitch rises and falls with them. See Easing.

How the sound plays

• Shaped by fades and volume: with Timeline audio on, each audio block sounds during playback at the shape's volume, shaped by the block's fades and its variable volume.
• Follows the block's timing: the sound follows the block's speed, easing, and direction, so it can play faster, slower, or backwards.
• Silent during pauses: a block pause silences the audio blocks it affects, and a pause marker silences the animation's audio.
• Hidden shapes still sound: a hidden audio shape's card is not drawn, but its blocks play.
• Sound starts with your first click: when playback starts before you have clicked or pressed a key on the page, the browser keeps the sound off. The animation plays silently, and your next click turns the sound on.

In exports

• Audio blocks are mixed in: a video export includes the sound of the audio blocks along with the sound of videos, as the animation plays it, when Audio bitrate (kbps) is above 0.
• Hidden shapes are heard: a hidden audio shape's sound is in the export, with no card in the picture.

In the Player

A board with audio plays its sound with the animation, starting with the viewer's first click, tap, or key press. Until then, the animation plays silently.

Actions

With an audio block selected, the Actions panel offers these block actions:

• Delete: removes the block. See Block actions.
• Cut, Copy, and Paste: move or copy the block to another time or sequence. See Cut, copy, and paste blocks.
• Reassign: changes which audio shapes the block plays. See Block actions.
• Create Block Pause: stops the sound for a moment and then carries on. See Block pauses.