- Discuss what your own opinions are about sound in a Flash movie or Flash Web page.
- What if a visitor doesn't have speakers or has a hearing disability?
- Will this impact your Flash movie in any way?
- What do you think can be done about this?
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Thirteeth Week Topic: 4/13 to 4/19/09
BLOG topic Week THIRTEEN: If there is one thing that people almost expect to get with a Flash movie is sound. Sound can be an effective way to communicate and sometimes it can be off-putting; your job is to walk that thin line between both.
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19 comments:
Hi,
While learning about incorporating sound into Flash documents, I see what can be developed with experience. Contextualizing movement to music, there is so much cross-over to choreography, that
the visual/sound aspect of animation really resonates with me. The sound- accompaniment for animation, being a sensory addition is indespensible, for hearing individuals and those with speakers on their computer, yet with thinking about non-hearing individuals going to a web-page, without having the advantage of listening to the composition, I think this might seem like a let down, from the complete point of view- but remember, that they don't have a chance to hear anyone's Flash animation. With this in mind, a way to include them would be to direct the visual aspect of the animation for dynamism- as the visual-direction renders feelings- in a similar artistic vein. From feeling the visual impact- alone- isolating the scene, to visual content-an animation director could, while making the Flash document, watch- to have emotions carried visually, independent of the sound track, modeling the final output with sound- but with additional visual strength for non-hearing individuals, or for those who just don't have speakers to listen to the soundtrack of their Flash animation.
Not having sound, would impact the overall contribution of an animation director's vision, yet not relying on just the audio to provide stimulus- and developing the delivery of the visual framework, I feel then, that what can be done is only limited by what we think can be done. Which is left to gaining more experience.
Hi, I meant to say, the sound importance shouldn't be overlooked in the Flash experience.
The other day,I thought about the ALT tags for photos, and feel the music should have an ALT tag of its own.
A
Sound is wonderful and can add realism to animation, however I think it is important to always give the viewer the option to turn it off.
Additionally animation should be designed to be equally enjoyed without sound for the hearing impaired visitors to your site.
I totally agree with Julie. For a commercial website, sound can be useful if done tastefully AND you can control the volume - which I haven't learned yet (haven't finished all the exercises yet, maybe it's covered). The same is true, of course, of any animation; it can be useful or just an annoying distraction, depending upon how it is used.
And the website should stand on its own, without the sound, or you risk alienating or offending the hearing impaired.
Personally, I have my speakers on low in case a particular website that I allow script to play also has sound, so it doesn't scare the bejezes out of me. I have a program loaded to Mozilla called NoScript, because my IP (yahoo) insists on having annoying ads bouncing around all over the screen while I'm trying to read my email. I've discovered that most websites load a lot faster with that turned on, so I assume flash and or script or sound slow down the loading process, which could be a problem for dial-up customers.
Of course, for particular websites (games, music, etc), sound would be an important component.
Does anybody know where "monet.jpg" is? I cannot find it anywhere....I'll use another big picture file if I cannot find it.
thanks
I had the file in the next weeks installment of Moodle, which is still hidden. I normally don't get motivated students who work ahead, so you caught me off guard. Sorry.
I have just placed a link in each version of the DEMOs block in Moodle, you'll see it right under the Demo itself.
Hi Prof Al -
I don't think I'm working ahead? Demo06 is listed in the Dreamweaver spreadsheet for April 19. Ah well, it works differently for CS4, and I figured out how to do it (using web info). And I used a cute picture I had on my own website.
Also missing from CS4 are the Timeline Effects. Evidently you need to use the Motion Editor to accomplish the same thing, but I haven't been able to figure it out for the exercises in the book (Lesson 4, ch 4). Any ideas, or are you loading stuff to Moodle for that, too? (I couldn't find anything).
I don't like to enter a web site that contains uncontrollable sound effects. I also believe most people feel the same way as me.
I would be very hesitant in putting sounds into any Flash created Web site.
I would consider creating a video presentation or themed Flash movie in which sound will aid in conveying information, or explanations; other than that, I would not add background sound to a Web site.
Giving the User an option of seeing scrolling text in addition to or without the actual sound, is one way to deal with Users who have hearing disabilities, or do not have speakers, or who don't want to hear the presentation.
Help! I am trying to do Exercise 13.2 and when I try to do step 5. Export for ActionScript - that check box does not light up and will not let me check it. Am I doing something wrong? Does anyone else have this problem?
I felt that I understood this assignment better than the last one.
I am a little nervous about the final project but it should be intresting.
has anyone started on it yet?
I finally found the problem, I had to click on "Import for runtime sharing" to turn it off. I guess that got left out of the directions.
Hi Zak, Yes, I started the final, I am glad to have a pc to sit in front of. I can upload from here, too!!!
Digital capturing of footage, is easier when the memory cards are emptied first.
I am now using the CS3 trial software, 29 more days!
Fireworks CS4, trial for 20 more days!
I like Fireworks to create my bg pictures. :)
Sorry about the mispell, Zaq
I personally have found very few web sites that use Flash and Sound well. Most of the time, the sound is poor or just annoying - like people talking about a product they like. The Flash screen keeps me from getting to the information on the web site that was the reason I went there in the first place.
If a visitor doesn't have speakers or has trouble hearing, the Flash movie needs to be able to impart information without sound. You could design your Flash movie to pulse like it had rhythm, so that it mimicked sound.
I have done Exercise 16 four separate times now and still cannot get it to stop playing music when I push the stop button. Since everyone else seems to have finished, could someone please tell me what step is left out of the instuctions that I am missing. HELP!!!!!
Kalli:
There are several points that things could have gone wrong, I will suggest a few.
One is that you did what I did and added the sound file to the original project instead of the movie symbol. Pay careful attention to the order of steps 5-8, I figure that this might be where you went wrong.
The second is that you made an error on the action script. I would suggest checking to make sure that the script is attached to the correct places (i.e. stop();)
The third possible error is that you didn't have the play or stop button selected when you added the actionscript.
I can't think of to many other areas that could cause this problem.
As was stated, sound can help or hinder a site. Just the right amount of sound can make the visitor's visit that much more enjoyable. It can also make it a total pain.
I would suggest making sound a secondary part of the site, that way it doesn't matter much if it can't be heard. The visuals for the site should make up for the lack of sound.
Ben,
Thanks for trying to help me. However, it wasn't any of those problems. As I was doing it for the fifth time, I realized that in Step 20, he wanted me to type music on and not Frame Label music on - because he had it all in bold, I thought I was supposed to type the whole thing. I fixed that and it worked like a charm. Thanks again for responding to my request for help.
Judy, I'm not putting a lot of emphasis on trying to do CS3 stuff in CS4 since we will be switching over to CS4 in the Fall Semester. The only things I've been working on are to see if the older ActionScripts 1.0 and 2.0 will work in CS4 and they do. 2.0 features Behaviors and they were very user friendly, and they still are in CS4 as long as you don't use ActionScript 3.0. I'm reviewing new textbooks for the class and of course they are all on CS4 stuff. I'd say don't loose any sleep over old CS3 conversion stuff, there are plenty of things that you can do. And, in the videos I've linked to, you can see and create some interesting stuff on your own. I like the idea of Bones and if I can get something put together quick enough I'll post it in Moodle.
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