Play sound effects with actions

- Do you want to have sound effects triggered with your actions? Well, luckily, it's easy to do. You just need to download one extra software. (playful music) I have two actions for my Bob character here that I want sound effects for as I record live. So, this one, when I hit the Z key, his zit grows and goes back down. And then, when I hit the X key, it explodes. I know it's gross, but it's fun.

So, I want sound effects to go along with that. So, I'm not able to do that directly in Character Animator. However, using this other great software I've found, Soundplant, which is available for both Mac and PC, you can do it. Now, Soundplant, just go to soundplant.org and the software is free to use for 25 sessions or you can make a small payment for having the professional version, being able to use it from then on. And yes, I did buy a license for my use of it here.

The great thing about Soundplant is it triggers sounds using your keyboard. So, let's take a look at how this works. So, this is the Soundplant software and I've already made the Z key attach to one my sounds. It's a stretching sound. So, let's hit the Z key and listen. Okay, now what I want to do is add a sound to my X key. It's pretty simple. I'm just going to click on the X key. I'm going to come over here to open sound. I'm going to find my sound effects.

And, I want this balloon pop sound. I'm going to click open and you'll see it's attached. So, when I hit the X key, that popping sound. So, let's go back to Character Animator and I'm going to hit the Z key. Wait a minute, where is the sound? Well, it's one of the options that in Soundplant that will allow us to use it. So, again, it's working here but, it only works when the Soundplant software is on top and open at the moment.

That's called background key input. Right now, it's turned off. So, by turning it on, when Soundplant goes into the background, it will continue to work. So, let's minimize this. Now, we'll hit the Z key. Every time I hit it, I'm seeing the action and I'm hearing it. Now, let's hit the X key. (laughs) I just get such a kick out of that. So, it's really fast and easy to use and you can add realtime sound effects to your character animation and you can even save the key maps where you design all your sounds to go onto your keyboard.

Just don't forget to turn off your background key input (laughs) on your Soundplant, or as you're typing your next email, it's going to be really loud and filled with a lot of interesting sounds. (upbeat music)