Soundtrack completion using SoundEdit and Director

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Project Goal

This is the final phase in the creation of an animated element for our web page. To complete the soundtrack and the animation we will:

For the first step we return to SoundEdit; the following two steps will be done in Director; for the last step we will use a text editing program.


Sound Editing

  1. Re-open your sound file using SoundEdit.
  2. Adjust the waveform display to better see the parts you are interested in
  3. Click in the waveform display, and drag to highlight the portion of the sound that you want to modify.
  4. Verify that the selection matches the sound you want by using Play (in Control menu): only the selected portion of the sound will be heard.
  5. To easily identify and retrieve the selected portion of the sound, create a Label (in the Insert menu). When the highighted default label appears, enter a brief name for the selection.
  6. While the segment is selected, it can be color-coded using the Color submenu of the Modify menu.
    color-coded and labeled waveform
  7. Once you are satisfied with your selection, apply to it one or more of the commands from the Effects menu. As always, make sure that you have a backup of your sound in case you cannot undo an experiment you end up not liking. Below are some examples based on this original waveform:
    Waveform before effects
  8. When done, make sure all your sounds are saved (as AIFF files), then quit SoundEdit to free up memory.

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Assemble Soundtrack

  1. Launch Director and re-open your animation file.
  2. Use the Import command in the File menu to find and open the sounds you have edited. Make sure the file frmat pop-up menu is set to 'All Files' or 'Sounds', otherwise you won't be able to see your files. Make sure the bottom pop-up menu is set to 'Standard Import'.
  3. Display and scroll the Cast window, if necessary, to see the sound cast members that you just imported into your animation file (they will be marked with a loudspeaker icon).
  4. Click to select the sound that you intend to loop as background ambience. Click the button marked with an 'i' at the top of the Cast window:
    Info button in Cast window
  5. In the Properties dialog that appears, turn on the 'Loop' checkbox. This will force the sound to repeat. Click 'OK' to close the dialog.
  6. Display the Score window. If necessary, click the Hide/Show button in the right margin to display the Effects Channels. You should see the Sound channels, indicated by loudspeaker icons.
    the 'Show/Hide Effects Channels' button
  7. Drag the looped ambience sound from the cast window to the first frame of sound channel 1 in the Score:
    Drag sound from Cast to Score
  8. Adjust the duration of the sound (by dragging its resize handle) to match the duration of the animation.
    dragging the sound's resize handle in the score
  9. Drag the hit sound(s) to the appropriate frames in the animation, in sound channel 2 of the Score. Adjust their duration(s).
  10. Play back the animation. If everything sounds OK, Save the file in preparation for conversion to Shockwave format.

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Export to a Shockwave for Director file

  1. In the Xtras menu, choose the 'Shockwave for Audio Settings' command. In the dialog that appears, adjust the settings to minimize file size while retaining as much audio quality as possible:
    ShockWave Audio settings dialog
  2. In the Modify menu, choose the 'Playback' command from the 'Movie' submenu. In the dialog that appears, choose settings that let viewers see you animation sooner (before it completes downloading):
    Movie Playback settings dialog
  3. Make sure your animation is saved (File-->Save). Any eventual edits to your animation must be made to the original Director file, because the Shockwave file cannot be changed.
  4. In the File menu, choose 'Save As Shockwave Movie'. When prompted to save the Shockwave file, find your folder on the desktop, then enter the filename (all lowercase) according to the following rules:
    Save Shockwave file dialog Click 'Save'. A progress bar will appear while Director processes your animation.
  5. Before you quit Director, make a note of the size (in pixels) of your animation (see 'Width' and 'Height' in the Modify-->Movie-->Properties dialog).

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Create a new HTML file for the Web page bearing the animation

  1. Find SimpleText on your computer's hard drive and launch it.
  2. In the untitled document which appears, create the basic framework of a generic HTML document. Type the following HTML tags, each on a separate line terminated by a return (the left angle bracket '<' is shift-comma, the right angle bracket '>' is shift-period):
    <HTML>
    <HEAD>
    </HEAD>
    <BODY>
    </BODY>
    </HTML>
  3. Press return after the <HEAD> line to insert a blank line. On the blank line enter the TITLE tag pair:
  4. Add a blank line between the two 'BODY' lines and enter the tag to call up the animation:
  5. File-->Save. Enter the filename (all lowercase) according to these rules:

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Add a Link in the HTML File for Your Homepage to Point to the New Web Page

  1. Drag the icon of your homepage HTML file and drop it on the icon for SimpleText.
  2. After the HTML file opens in a document window, click to place the insertion point where you want your viewers to find the link to the animation.
  3. Enter the tags and the text for the link. Sam Sample typed this:
  4. Use File-->Save to update the HTML file for your homepage.
  5. Place the new DCR file, the new HTML file, and the old HTML file with the new edit, in the drop folder on the file server--so they can be posted to the web server.

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Additional Info:


Copyright by Sandro Corsi. Last modified 13 Oct 98.