About "Time-based values" Propertly

[Ramón López]

Hello! This one is an old issue about I have never asked before but always have "worried" to me, here I go:

 

1.- As you can see in the picture, in a propertly like Volume (in example), if I click over the value, a number box appears waiting for a figure be entered and a little arrow at left appears too.

2.- Then I press that arrow inside the little square and now I can choose between three options:

• The "Arrow" (for Use cache or other action's value (¿...?))
  
• A "Padlock" (for Constant value).
  
• And a "Watch" (for Time-based value).
  

3.- I choose the "Time-based value" one (the Watch) cause with this I expect/suppose it'll become in an animatable value propertly, is't?

4.- But... then I make changes in the value over the time and any keyframe is created and the propertly is always the same in time

 

So... I'm obviously misunderstanding something here and, of course, I want to know! Someone knows the truth about this (to me at least) little mystery? Well, I hope... And THANKS in advance if so!

[robcat2075]

I believe that in actual practice, A:M only allows audio volume to be a "constant".

 

I think the fact that it displays a choice is probably just a programming oversight.

 

But I'd love volume to be keyframable. You could make an A:M report of this and request it, but it might get a low priority since you could vary the volume of a wav file in an audio editing app before importation.

[Ramón López]

Ouh... So I was right and this is something like a little bug/oversight? Well, now I know that I did the correct thing reporting it in the past, very well, I was not totally sure about that...

 

Now... thank you very much to resolve my doubts, as you said it'd be great can change volume (or any other proper value property) over time clicking on that "Watch", just as I thought that it should work... I think that really could be a very good feature request to make life easier, cause actually we should use, in example, an expression attached to other animatable value or similar to get the same results and finally can result in a litte unnecessary mess? Well, not a priority as you said but could be cool...

 

Hmmm, BTW... as you can see HERE now I still know how report a bug in "A:M Reports" site but I'm not really sure yet about how can I make feature suggestions, or is the same thing for both? Didn't think so, is it? So any help on that will be appreciated too, BYE!

[Rodney]

There are several options/variables in v14 Beta that haven't been fully implemented.

Volume is apparently one of those but its not clear whether it will be implemented in v14 or some later version.

 

As Rob said, currently Volume is not adjustable or animatable over time even though the framework for implementing it is there.

 

My reading on it:

Not an oversight. Not a bug. The evidence of Hash Inc working hard to give us a future feature enhancement.

[robcat2075]

now I still know how report a bug in "A:M Reports" site but I'm not really sure yet about how can I make feature suggestions, or is the same thing for both? Didn't think so, is it? So any help on that will be appreciated too, BYE!

 

use AM Reports and under "Severity" choose "Feature"

 

And in the heading put "Feature request: ....."

[Ramón López]

use AM Reports and under "Severity" choose "Feature"

 

And in the heading put "Feature request: ....."

 

Well, but THANKS! So another resolved doubt , I have accumulated several Feature Requests along the last months so I thing it's the moment to start to write... BYE!

[jpappas]

Hey guys,

 

Actually I was playing around with Expressions a little while ago and I was able to manipulate the volume of a WAV using an Expression. This may be a little different than what you are looking to do, because I guess you want to keyframe volume levels, but I wanted to bring it up as another option for what it's worth.

 

The WAV file was a constant sound of a propellor and the Expression made the volume ramp up or down depending on how close the plane was to the camera, thus it was an automatic way of making something sound near or far, all handled by A:M. Let me see if I can track down that post.

 

-Jim

[jpappas]

Found it!

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=224419

 

 

This simple example worked so well, I launched into more complex examples, like having one propellor WAV panned hard right, another panned hard left, and having an A:M expression handle the stereo effect as well as the volume. (and then I started thinking, wow! we could use expressions to 'attach' sounds to objects and have distance and panning handled automatically!)

 

But alas, once I had two sound files being controlled by expressions at the same time, the sounds were constantly breaking up as they played, even in the rendered animation. I couldn't seem to solve that one!

 

-Jim

[Luuk Steitner]

But alas, once I had two sound files being controlled by expressions at the same time, the sounds were constantly breaking up as they played, even in the rendered animation. I couldn't seem to solve that one!

 

That's too bad. I hope they get the sound working better in the coming updates. I always had trouble with the sound in A:M. But onces it works you should actually have an option to change the pitch of the sound by expressions. That way you can create a doppler effect and it will be much more realistic. Maybe that could also be done using different sound files with different speeds. It's worth a try I think.

[robcat2075]

But onces it works you should actually have an option to change the pitch of the sound by expressions. That way you can create a doppler effect and it will be much more realistic. Maybe that could also be done using different sound files with different speeds. It's worth a try I think.

 

Really, that's a job for a dedicated sound editing app. Audacity can do that and is free. Audacity can change the pitch, with or without changing the speed.

[Ramón López]

Oh, Yeah! I was reading that post in the past with a lot of interest for my part cause I always have dreamed with a 3D program that let you play with the sound in that way, ahhh... it'd be so fantastic that kind of automation for surround sound! Just like a videogame... But well, unfortunately the audio part in all this pieces of software is usually forgotted and/or very limited (although I've never could undestand why (well, I really can understand it (that's money, that's time, etc...) but it simply make me a "little" sad)), so I think we'll have to wait a lot of years, when programmers don't be able to make more realistic/quick renders, or more perfect dynamics, or anything and they start to be bored and... idle? Jeje, and start to pay more attention to this kind of "secondary" things, it'd be nice and if it be possible to be freezed until that day arrives I'll do it

 

PS: Hmmm, and I'm a little worried about that problems that you are talking about, really I have not tested the expressions method with more than one audio file so I had never noticed it... Now I'll make some more experiments to see; ah, and THANKS for your interest guys!