| ThingMaker Documentation Chapter 3) Introductory Tutorials

| Tutorial 3: Adding Sound In this short Tutorial you will import a sound and add it to the Thing you created in Tutorial 2. Here are the steps you'll perform in this Tutorial: 1. Open an existing Scene file 2. Import a Sound into the Gallery

3. Add the Sound to the Thing in the Scene

4. Duplicate the Sound across the Thing

5. Use the Make same as Default parameter

Getting Started
1. Run the ThingMaker application.
If it's not already running, launch ThingMaker.

2. Choose Open from the File Menu.
If you did not save the current Scene files, ThingMaker will prompt you to save changes to the file.

3. Open the file tutorial3.tms.
This file is located in the path:
drive:\Program Files\Parable\ThingMaker\Tutorial\tutorial3.tms

When the file opens, you'll see that the Thing in the Scene is built from the animation you worked with in Tutorial 2. But if you Play the Scene you'll see that this Thing is slightly different from the previous Thing because we have added an image to the MouseClick State.

Import a Sound
Like all other media, sounds must also be imported into the Gallery before they can be added to a Thing.

1. Choose Add to Gallery.

2. Choose Wave files (*.wav) in the File Type Dialog Window.

3. Click on the file growl.wav to select it.
drive:\Program Files\Parable\ThingMaker\Tutorial\growl.wav

When you click on the file, details about the sound are displayed at the bottom of the Open File Dialog Window. You can see the File size, the bit depth the sound was recorded at, the number of channels recorded and the sound's running time.

4. Preview the sound.
Click the Preview Button and ThingMaker will play the sound. Click the Button again to stop the playback.

Compressing Sound
ThingMaker provides an option for compressing or compacting the size of the sound files when a sound is imported. You can specify to compress the sound by checking "Compress" in the Open Dialog Window if it is not checked. By default, this parameter is set to "On." Because of the high quality of compression and the significant size reduction that the sound compression routine achieves - the uncompressed growl.wav file is 36.4Kb, while compressed, it is 2.4Kb - we recommend that you always compress sound when importing it into this program. The Sound Settings sheet displays an Icon that indicates whether the sound is compressed or not.

You cannot compress or uncompress the sound once it has been imported. Instead, you must import the sound again if you change your mind.

5. Click the Open Button.
ThingMaker imports the sound and adds it to the Gallery Window.

Things that only contain sound are represented by a Sound Icon in the Gallery.

Adding Sound to a Thing
Sounds are added to Things just like other media are. Simply drag it from the Gallery into the Settings Palette for the Thing in the Scene.

1. Open the Settings Palette.

2. Select the Dog Thing in the Scene Window.

3. Click the MouseOver tab in the Settings Palette.
We are going to add the sound in the MouseOver State. You don't actually have to switch to MouseOver before you add the sound. You can drag the Sound to a State Tab instead. When you "drop" it in, the program will bring the Settings Sheet and Tray for that Tab to the foreground. If you want the sound in the current selected State, you can drag the sound to the Settings Tray for the current State. It accomplishes the same thing.

4. Drag the Sound Thing growl from the Gallery into the Settings Tray for MouseOver.
The Sound Icon will now appear in the Settings Palette.

Adjusting sound parameters
The Sound Settings Sheet displays parameters for the sound.

1. Click the Preview Button.
ThingMaker plays the sound. Click the Button again to stop its playback.

2. Click Continuously.
We want the sound to loop - that is, to play over and over - while the cursor is on the Thing.

3. Test the Thing.
Play the Scene. Move the cursor over the Thing. The growling animation should be playing, and the growling sound should be playing too.

Play to end of sound is not checked in this example. If it were, then the sound wouldn't stop when the cursor exited the Thing. It would play to the end of the sound and then stop. This can be very useful for a sound, such as an alarm, that you don't want to be interrupted.

4. Check Play to end of sound.
Test the Scene again and see how the Thing has changed.

Make Same as Default
Notice that the Make same as Default option is grayed out. This is because the sound exists only in the MouseOver State; in other words, you won't find a Sound Icon in the Settings Tray of another State. If a Sound existed in Default, this option would be available.

1. Click and drag the Sound Icon from the Settings Tray to the Default Tab.
ThingMaker will switch to the Default State of the Thing and display the Settings Sheet for the Sound.

2. Change the sound so that it is set to Play three (3) times.

3. Click on MouseClick.
You'll see that the sound has also appeared in the MouseClick State. That's because when you add a sound to the Default State, it is automatically duplicated in the MouseOver and MouseClick States. In this case, when we added a sound to Default, the Sound Icon also appeared in the MouseOver and MouseClick States, but check your Settings Sheets carefully. While the sound is the same in the Default and MouseClick States, it is not the same in the MouseOver State; the parameters are different. That's because a sound already existed in that State. ThingMaker left the original sound in the MouseOver State when it made the changes to the Thing.

When you add a sound to the MouseOver or MouseClick States, the sound is added only to that State. When you add a sound to the Default State, it is added to all three States - unless a Sound already exists in one State, and is left as is.

4. Click on MouseOver.
Notice that the sound is still set to play Continuously and the Make Same as Default Button isn't checked.

5. Click the Make Same as Default check box.
Set the sound to the same parameters as the Default State. This will set the sound to play three times.

6. Check OK in the warning message.
ThingMaker warns you that you are going to lose the changes you have made, because the program is going to set the parameters for sound just as they are in Default.

7. Sound parameters should change to the Default sound's parameters.
The sound's parameters should now be an exact copy of those in Default. If you were to change the Default parameters at any point, then the parameters in MouseOver and MouseClick States would automatically change, too. Try it!

8. Click the Play to End of Sound check box.
When you check this box, the Make same as Default setting will automatically uncheck. You can easily change the parameters in the MouseClick and MouseOver States so that they are different from those in Default by making the adjustments you want on the individual State Settings Sheets, and yet you can also quickly revert to the settings in Default by checking Make Same as Default.

The Make Same as Default check box is also available when you work with animations and images.

When you click Make same as Default, ThingMaker duplicates not just the parameters, but the media itself. If you had a different sound in the Default and MouseOver States, then clicking Make same as Default in the MouseOver State will replace the sound in MouseOver with the one in Default.

What's Next?
Now that you have mastered working with media in ThingMaker, you're ready to learn how to "Make Things Do things." Tutorial 4 starts you on your way with the Path Tool and Drag Action.

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