The Properties panel provides quite a few sound effects, some of which might
be of interest to you. You can expect to find in the drop-down list next to
Effect, such items as Fade In and Fade Out, Fade from Left to Right, and Fade
from Right to Left. You'll need to access Custom from the list to access the
Edit Envelope dialog box. (Click the glasses below to see the dialog box.)
The Practice Session builds the following Flash Movie, click the glasses to view the movie.
Here is a bit of description for each of the above Sound Effect items:
Click for the Descriptions...
Left Channel/Right Channel
This choice will display different wave forms if the original sound was
stereo. If you happen to choose mono sounds, you still get the left and
right channels so you can create panning effects, and be able to change
the volume level of each channel too. (See Panning
below).
Envelope lines
These lines indicate the volume level at any particular time in the sound. Usually, when the line is at the top, the sound is playing at 100% volume.
Envelope handles
These are like keyframes within the sound. If you wish to change the volume at a specific point in the Timeline, click anywhere on a line and a handle will be inserted. A corresponding handle will be inserted in the same spot on the other channel as well. Now you can increase or decrease the volume at that spot, perhaps to pump up the volume or almost mute the volume during a sequence of the movie's timeline.
Time In
This lets you establish the starting point at which the sound begins to be heard. (You're not telling the sound to start any later, but the sound you hear will begin wherever the Time In marker is placed.)
Time Out
The last item let you decide where the sound becomes a factor, this one lets you determine when the sound no longer is a factor. (This little trick reduces the file size of the sound since you are not playing the entire track.)
Stop/Play
This is important for you because just seeing how the sound looks on the Timeline is not as good as actually hearing the sound effect for your self.
Zoom In/Out
This tool lets you zoom out so the entire sound fits inside the current window. If you zoom in you'll be more precise on the placement of the markers or envelope handles.
Display units (Time or Frames)
This tool changes the units displayed from time units (seconds), to frame units. Time is not as useful when you want to match your sound to a particular frame.
Panning
This is an effect that has the sound coming in from one direction and leaving the other direction. The real trick is that you lower the volume for one channel while you increase the volume for the other channel.
Loop Settings
If you have a sound that was created to be looped, you can tell Flash to
replay the sound for as many loops as you wish. If you find a professionally
prepared sound can loop so seamlessly that you can listen to it and not
even notice it's looping; it will just sound like it's endless.
The bottom line with all of the above tricks using sound is that you never really change the original sound that lives in the Library. You are only editing the instances of that original sound, so go have a blast learning how to do this! But before you go crazy with sound effects, try the Hands-on task below first.
In this task you'll add sounds to a sample movie by following these steps:
Download if you haven't already the file called "keyframing.fla" from the following Web site.
www.phillipkerman.com/teachyourself/sourcefiles/keyframing.fla
Once this file is opened inside of Flash MX, view the movie, then open the Sounds common library from Window > Common Libraries > Sounds.
Open the Library for Keyframing by selecting Window > Library or (Ctrl+L). Position the two open libraries so they appear side by side.
Drag the following sound items from the Sounds library to the Keyframing file's library: Beam Scam, Smack, Visor Hum Loop.
You have now made it possible to add these sounds to your file because they are inside that files Library. Start by making a new layer just for sounds. Then name this layer "Background Music".
Select the first frame of Background Music and look at the Properties
panel. From the Sound drop-down list, select Visor Hum Loop.
To make it loop continuously, type a bunch of nines (999999999999)
into the Loops field.
Select Control > Test Movie. The sound loops nicely, and it
adds a bit of drama to the movie. Next we'll add some incidental sound effects.
Select Insert > Layer and name the layer "Sound Effects".
You will be inserting a sound effect right when the X smacks the
M, which happens at about frame 17. In frame 17 of Sound Effects
select Insert >Keyframe (F6).
Select the keyframe you just inserted and from the Properties panel select
Smack from the Sound drop-down list. Just leave the default settings
(Event Sync and 0 Loops) because you don't want this sound to loop.
Select Control > Test Movie. The Smack effect is good, but the hum
keeps humming throughout the whole movie.
To stop the hum, select frame 29 of the Sound Effects layer and
select Insert > Keyframe (F6). Make sure you're selecting
just this keyframe, and then use the Properties panel to inset the Visor
Hum Loop again, but this time select Sync Stop to cause any instances
of this sound to stop. (Test the movie again to listen to the results.)
Finally, you'll add a sound effect for when the sparkle animates.
At frame 30 of Sound Effects select Insert > Keyframe (F6),
select just this keyframe, and then insert the Beam Scan sound.
This movie version will be much better with the sound added. These sounds
only add 3K to the total file size. One thing you can try is to remove
the excess silence at the start of the Beam Scan sound. Just select frame
30 in the Sound Effects layer and press Edit... on the Properties
panel. Then you can cut sound off the beginning by dragging the Time In
marker in the Edit Envelope dialog box.
Exporting Sounds
Pr 1
Hide the Flash Movie
Sounds and Sound Effects in Animations
