Animation to Music

[Wokka]

G'day,

Working with architecture has not given me much exposure to all the other features of C4D. I want to put together an animation of a bunch of planes with images of my work attached to them. I really want them to move dynamically in time to music but can't figure out how to veiw the music file whilst mucking around with the keyframing etc. I've searched for tutorials to no avail. I know I could probably do this better in FCP but I don't have it and I'd like to give it a go in C4D.

Any ideas????

Thanks

[radioVOY]

i cant help you with c4d, but i can do tha on 3d max by opening the track view editor-sound-properties-and add sound file. by this way you can view the wave sound of the file and the time slider run the frames and the sound togheter so you can follow the sound with you render.

 

for sounds or loops go to http://www.flashkit.com and you can find hundreds of sounds for free.

 

hope this help.

[brammelo]

It's all there in the Reference Manual (index: sound), but to put it in a short overview: there's two types of sound use in C4D. Either you use sound to sync your animation to the sound track. Or you put sound "physically" (speaker) in your 3D scene and render it out (microphone).

 

The second option can be interesting, but unfortunately the sound rendering doesn't consider the acoustics of the scene. So you can get a nice dopler effect on that cartoon ambulance that's chasing through your scene, but it doesn't go much further than that.

 

The first option allows you to play back the sound track when you run the animation. You can even scrub through the time line, and hear the sound. As an extra, you can show the sound grahp in the Time Line Editor, so that synching with the peaks in your sound track is easier. Here's a short step-by-step:

 

1. Make sure you have the track in either AIFF of WAV. No MP3 or other compressed files.

2. Open the track in the Browser

3. Place a Null. This is to be used as an anchor object for your sound track.

4. Open the Time Line editor and select the Null.

5. Add a sound track to the Null (File > New Track > Sound)

6. Drag the sound track from the Browser to the newly made Sound Track in the Time Line Editor

7. Press the Sound Playback button. You'll find that button near the Frame Slider, next to the Stop, Play and FFWD buttons - it's the one with the speaker icon.

 

Now press play (and make sure the lenth of your animation is sufficient to play back the wanted parts of the track). It also works when you drag the Frame Slider - called sound scrubbing.

 

Good luck,

BaRa

 

P.S.: Xpresso has a Sound Node, that outputs the volume of the right and left track (stereo sound). You can use the output to drive whatever you want in your scene. Might come in handy when you have to animate a stage with disco effects.

[Wokka]

Thanks BaRa for you comprehensive explanation. Much appreciated!!

The past deadline has gone but I'll certainly have a go next chance I get.

Maybe on the weekend if the wife doesn't get too annoyed.

Cheers

Wokka