Overview

Using the Character Editor, you can precisely time sounds within an animation. Sounds can be placed on keyframes in animation events. This is particularly helpful when the timing of an animation changes.

The following is a step by step process of achieving this:

• Select the particular animation that you would like to attach sound to, by opening a .cga, .cdf, or .chr file within the Character Editor.
• Go to the Animation Control tab.
• The play button cycles the animation allowing you to choose the moment at which you would like a particular sound event to play.
• Move the slider to that time position. For fine tuning, hold down Shift or Ctrl while sliding.
• Click New Event. Triple-click the event that appears in the list box, to rename it. This event name needs to be sound.
• Click Select Sound to select the appropriate sound event from the sound browser.
• Play the animation to audition the sound setup.
• The timing can now be adjusted by clicking the event in the list box and adjusting the slider. The Time text box will be automatically updated. You can also enter a value in the Time text box.
• The precise position of the sound can be achieved by attaching the sound to a particular bone in the object. Click in the Bone column in the event list box to pop-up a window for selecting the bone.
• Click Save. This creates the .animevent file, which is stored with the .cga, .cdf, or .chr file.

• Double check that the animevent database entry is in the .cal file of an animated entity (for example, AnimEventDatabase = objects\weapons\us\scar\Scar_EventDataBase.animevents).

Using this method, sound events can be placed on humans, moving parts, prefabs, or weapon reloads. The following example shows the sound setup of the doors of an LTV.

See the following article on how to setup Animation Based Foley and Footsteps.