Audio question?

[OneWatt]

I've got an audio track I'm trying to fade out as the subject moves out of the frame. I can't seem to find a key frame feature for audio volume ... nor have I yet spotted on in the FX section nor in the online documentation. 

Am I missing such a feature or is this simply not possible within OpenToonz/Tahoma2D? 

(I know I can adjust the entire audio track's volume overall - akin to changing a layer's opacity - but can't find anything re: adjusting an audio layer's volume once the animation roll begins.) 

[Rodney]

Right now the only way to adjust volume in this way in OT/T2D is to move parts of the audio track to different columns where each columns volume is set higher (or lower).

This then gives a fade in or fade out effect to the audio.

Keep in mind that cells in the xsheet/timeline are just exposures of whatever 'level' is being used.  

We could do the same thing with fading in/out of images as well.

To my knowledge there is no classical way to adjust audio volume over time.

It would be really nice to get a dedicated audio developer attached to Opentoonz as that is an area where much improvement can be made.

The fact that we can separate audio on a frame by frame basis is actually rather unique in Opentoonz however so I would hope to never lose some of that in order to gain more modern audio capability.

Most use audio in Opentoonz as a temp track and then use a dedicated audio program for the task.

Free programs like Davinci resolve can not only adjust volume on the fly but create surround sound and so much more.

As such my recommendation would be to create three columns with three levels of volume.

This will let you get a general sense of how the audio will play out later when using the dedicated audio program of choice.

- Rodney

[OneWatt]

Rodney - Thanks for the thorough reply. You've confirmed what I'd begun to conclude but hoped wasn't the case. 

To be clear: ShotCut, Audacity, and various other FOSS tools are readily available to fine tune audio once in the composited final version of an animation ... so the solutions are already out there. Alternatively, I could create a "faded-out" mp3 clip in one of those other platforms and then import that "faded" version into T2D, instead of dragging in the original (constant-volume) clip. Either way gets the job done.

Yet if there had been a way to fade in/out audio clips using parameters within OT/T2D, I'd have been remiss not to have asked in case I'd simply overlooked it. 

FWIW, I find that seeing and hearing animations + critical sound FX live together within T2D provides invaluable info that helps me further tweak the visual content itself, add elements, exaggerate movements, etc., and so working with sight & sound together is something I'll try to continue wherever practical. 

Cheers and thanks for all you're doing.