Better and better, so it is time to add audio!

Better and better, so it is time to add audio!

Each new generation of Cheetah has added many wonderful features. Now, I think it is time to add an audio wave form to the timeline.

Please, this one feature would make Cheetah unbeatable at this price point.

Thanks again.

Just an audio waveform? Wouldn't that just make it a ridiculously bad video editor? I'd rather see Martin's valuable time used to make a game of Snake appear in the About window.

Actually, for me too, audio in the timeline would be a huge benefit. This and motion blur for animation, would mean more could be done within Cheetah.

Audio is the only feature I still desperately need in this program. I use it to teach an animation class, and it is wonderful except for that omission. Trying to export and use Premiere to add the audio is not a great process. Just a simple audio track or two would be huge.

I support the addition of audio to sync voices while in Cheetah.

In the meantime, I sync the mouths by first using Papagayo's very useful and effective lip sync adjustments in that free software after loading in the wav form, then save the file in there, keep the file open, and then compare those frames to the frames in Cheetah, then frame by frame, assign the appropriate mouth as indicated in Papagayo's timed and manually adjusted file.

To simplify that:
1. Sync audio file with mouths in Papagayo
2. Carefully assign the synced audio sound with the appropriate mouth in Cheetah for my character.

It would be possibly faster directly in Cheetah 3D. For any film or cartoon, this would be a nice addition.

Yeah, we used to use Papagayo as well, but it is not supported in Mac OS 10.7 (Lion) and above, so that's not longer an option. :-( I have been experimenting with JLipynch and Yolo to see if they could substitute, but they are nowhere near as good as Papagayo, which was a workaround to begin with.

All we need is a simple audio track, like Blender has, and it would be fantastic...

I love Cheetah3D but I think I may have to figure out a way to move to Maya if there are no plans for audio support in the near future. It's just becoming too difficult to properly teach animation without it.

I too hope that Martin finds time to add audio in the not too distant future, for obvious reasons...

“A truth whispered among animators is that 70% of a show's impact comes from the sound track.”
– Michel Dougherty
“The right music can help your animation flow, and sound effects can give your work a solid feeling that adds to the illusion of life.”
– Mark Simon
“Sound effects play an important role in conveying action. Music helps express emotion.”
– Michael Geisler

But I also like how Martin invests his time wisely to make Cheetah as performant and user-friendly as it is now. Every new addition is a step foreward. We'll see :wink:

Yes. Thanks also for the info that Papagayo is not compatible with 10.7. That stinks. :frown:

I think the whole challenge of audio with Cheetah, is Cheetah will have to more or less, act like a Movie Editor Software like Final Cut Pro X, Final Cut Express, etc, where it combines and outputs movies with audio.

So the key would be:

1. Add an audio Track with Waveforms.
2. Add a volume control to adjust with points to key frame the audio.
3. Add a copy/paste, cut audio option to adjust audio for dialog, sound FX.
4. Offer a scrubbing tool, so you can move frame by frame while hearing the vowels, sounds with each frame. Like for mouths Ah, eh, oo, T, oh, F, mm...
5. Be able to playback and test your results.
6. Be able to render out and have the Audio in sync on the .mov file.

If I had to program that myself, I can imagine it's not a 1, 2, 3 task, so it will take a concentrated effort no doubt to work out any bugs, problems, etc.

With that in mind, yes, an Audio Editor in Cheetah 3D would be welcome. In the meantime, I've managed to get equally good results using Final Cut Express and Papagayo, for now.

A full featured audio editor might be overkill for a 3D application. Nice maybe, but still overkill for most things.

But to be able to see the waveforms, and hear the audio while scrubbing, maybe by holding a modifier key, and then drop markers onto the audio time line to remind us of key points, certain syllables, sound effect cues, etc., that would be handy.

Yes Please Audio!!!!

I too would love to see audio added to Cheetah3D, that would make adding my music to my videos much easier!!!

filip c said:

I too hope that Martin finds time to add audio in the not too distant future, for obvious reasons...

“A truth whispered among animators is that 70% of a show's impact comes from the sound track.”
– Michel Dougherty
“The right music can help your animation flow, and sound effects can give your work a solid feeling that adds to the illusion of life.”
– Mark Simon
“Sound effects play an important role in conveying action. Music helps express emotion.”
– Michael Geisler

But I also like how Martin invests his time wisely to make Cheetah as performant and user-friendly as it is now. Every new addition is a step foreward. We'll see :wink:

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I second this response!