Working with Sound in Flash CS5

Sound can greatly enhance your flash movies. Let's examine how to work with sounds in Flash.  First recall the BOAT8.FLA file  .

Step One: Locate the sounds you wish to use. These can be .mp3, .wav, .aiff, .au and Adobe sound document files .asnd. Use the Import to Library... option in the File menu to browse and select the desired sound file.

Find a sound file to use, then click the Open button. Click here to play a Sea Gull Sound effect. (SeaGulls.wav file included in this tutorial). If you want to use this sound file right click the above link and choose 'Save Target as...' and save the file SeaGulls.wav to your H:\ drive. Then import it to your library as instructed above.

Your sound will be placed in the Flash Library (F11 or in the Window menu), for you to access.

Step Two: Create a new layers in the movie in which to place the sound you want to use. Name the layer 'sound'. NOTE: You'll have to create a new layer for each sound you want to use which is different.

Step Three: Select anywhere in between frames 1 and 48 on the sound layer and then select the SeaGulls.wav file (or whichever sound file you imported to your library in step 1) from the Sound Name drop down menu in the Properties Panel.

You should now see the actual sound wave in the layer you have created.

Now, let's look at the other controls in the Sound section of the Properties Panel.

Effect allows you to insert prebuilt sound effects such as cross-fade (from left to right or vice-versa) and fade-in or fade-out.

Sync is a very powerful component. You've got four choices

1. Event - this is normally used for sound fx. The sound will start playing and will continue to play until it runs out, WHETHER OR NOT THE MASTER TIMELINE IS MOVING.
2. Start / Stop - These two work together. Normally, they're used for music. Start starts the sound playing until it runs out and stop stops it.
3. Stream - This does NOT stream the sound like Real Audio. Stream locks the sound to the timeline. When the timeline advances, the sound plays. When it stops, it stops. This is useful for sound which MUST be synchronized carefully to the animation. One such example is lip synching

Finally, set the sound to loop.

Step Four: Save your movie, then test it using CTRL-Enter.  Save as:  BOAT8.FLA

FINISHING UP!!

To complete your nautical masterpiece, Create a background layer / scene.  In the first frame of the layer draw a scene that includes water, the sun, some clouds and a small lighthouse (on a small island??).  When you complete the scene you will have to render it over the amount of frames in your movie.  This is done by simply clicking on the final frame (Frame 50).  Then select Keyframe from the Insert menu.  Your background scene should now be rendered over all the frames in your movie.  NOTE:  You may have to organize your layers so that the background is at the base (root) level, below all other layers.

SAVE AS:  FINALBOAT.FLA