Animations not syncing in Storyline

Hi there Amy,

Are the animations not showing up on time when you preview the course, is it only happening after you publish, or both?

If you haven't already, you may want to check out the following tutorial:

Syncing Animations

If you're still unable to get this working, are you able to share the .STORY file here, so I can take a look at what's happening?

Thanks!

Christine 

It happens in both preview and publish. Also, when I play the audio from the timeline, it doesn't sync with the pauses in the waveform. And if you pause the audio while playing it from the timeline and then move the cursor, the audio doesn't move to the correct spot.

Ignore how ugly the module is. We are required to use the powerpoint template for elearning.

I can't seem to upload the file. Can you give me your email address?

Hi there Amy,

Sorry about that! If the file is larger, it may not post here. If you'd like, you're welcome to send it over to us in a support case.

You'll be able to attach the .STORY file on the second page of the following form:

Articulate Support - Submit a Support Case

Please be sure to include a description of your issue. Please also include the URL for this thread in the form. Also, please share the case number with me. You're welcome to do so here, or in a private message. This way I can follow the progress of the case and update this thread.

Thanks again :)

Christine

Hi, Amy:

You've probably already tried this, but here's what I'd do.

1. Delete all of my cue points

2. Press the play button to hear the audio, and pause it when you get to the point in the audio when you want the animation to happen.

3. Right click on the object that's to be animated and select "align to playhead."

Apologize if you've already done that. --Daniel

No problem, Daniel. I actually had not done that. I was setting cue points by pressing C while the audio played. I also tried manually setting them up without cue points. Unfortunately I did try your suggestion and the animations are still not syncing. The lag further and further behind the longer the audio plays. I will submit it to the support case link.

Thanks,

Case # 00336067

I forgot to add to my submission that it is slide 2.6

Hi there Amy,

Thanks very much for the case number. I updated the notes to specify the slide for you, as well.

I did go ahead and take a look at  the file. I don't believe I'm running into the same issue on my side, but I'd need further clarification from you to determine this.

When I preview the slide's timeline in the slide, the shapes on your slide come in almost perfectly (with the exception of Health Hazard and Environment, but looks like those may be intentionally overlapped on the timeline) with your vocal prompts for the topics. The same seems to be the case for me when I preview the the project as well. So, again, I'm not sure if this is how it's functioning for you, or if it's an issue with it playing properly when viewed on your machine. 

If you'd like to give me your permission, I can publish and upload the project, so you can view it - or I can make a screen recording of what I see on my end. I just don't want to post it publicly, if you're not comfortable with that. If that's the case, I can send you the information via email and the support case.

I'll also add this information to the case notes, so our support team has access to this information. If they're able to find any issues, or if they're able to replicate the issue on their end, I'll be sure to keep you updated.

Thanks, Amy!

Amy and Christine, I have noticed the same problem, and it is limited to HTML5 output viewed online.  HTML5 output will play fine locally, but the longer the timeline / audio is, the more and more it becomes out of sync as it plays.

I am even using a custom preloader web object to preload the assets before starting the course and it does not work.

Depending on how long the timeline is, as well as assets on the page, HTML5 output will also take quite a while to load whne hitting next/previous/replay...

Hey Mark! I just responded to your other post here. 

I'm having this same problem - the longer the slide, the further behind the animations lag. I keep moving them further & further up in the timeline but it's a guessing game. I also noticed that even though I have the slide ending concurrently with the end of my audio track, there is an extra 5-10 seconds of dead time at the end before the next slide will start.

Any ideas on how to resolve this? I am publishing to HTML5 which is a requirement for this course.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Sara,

As Leslie mentioned above,  this is something that has been reported to our QA Team and they are working on understanding the complete issue and coming up with a solution. Once we have that we'll share back here in the forums to keep you posted. 

Thanks!

Hi,

I'll be interested in the resolution to this issue too. I've imported PPT slides into Storyline, some of which I have animated in PPT/Articulate Studio. I'm trying to align my imported audio with animations I've created in Storyline and in PPT. When I change the animation point, Storyline plays back the animation in it's former position in the timeline. It is not animating at the updated time. How can this be corrected?

Thanks!

Thanks Phyllis, and we'll keep this thread updated as our QA team looks into it. If you click "subscribe to replies" at the very top, you'll get an email with any new posts.

Is this issue resolved? Is it an SL issue or user issue?

Hi Ed and welcome to Heroes!

I don't have any updates to share at this time, but since it's reported to our QA team it's a issue that they're looking into. 

I am having a sync issue as well. The longer I work in Storyline and the more slides that are added to my project, a sync problem begins to occur. A lag starts to occur between the audio and the text that is suppose to appear. The only solution that I have found to this problem is to totally shut down and reboot my computer. Simply closing Storyline and reopening it again does not fix this problem. Also, just restarting my computer does not work. I have to totally shut down and reboot my computer. This gets annoying having to do this 2 to 3 times a day. Is there any solution to this problem?

I am having the same problem.  I have been adding audio to a number of storyline files and all have been fine until today.

I am currently working on a storyline file that consists of 20 slides - I am using Audacity to create short WAV files and have been syncing with the pauses in the waveform, until now this has worked fine.

I am currently working on slide no. 3 and even if I align the first paragraph to the playhead it still does not work correctly.

Any help or advise would be very gratefully received.

By the way, is there a preferred format for audio?

Hi Kathy,

Regarding the format for audio, this page on Adding Sound says

he following file formats are supported in Storyline:

• AAC
• AIF
• AIFF
• M4A
• MP3
• OGG
• WAV
• WMA

And in terms of codec/ bitrate this support page says

Although Articulate Storyline and Articulate Studio '13 support a wide range of audio file formats (AAC, AIF, AIFF, M4A, MP3, OGG, WAV, WMA), not all codecs and bitrates are supported. If you encounter either of the issues described above, we recommend converting your audio files to 16 bit 44 KHZ PCM WAV for best results.

Thanks very much for that Rebecca.  I have finally managed to finish what I was working on.  As I worked through it was only a few slides that I had problems with and spookily, if I found that if I removed the white background from the text boxes on one slide the problem stopped.

I feel sure it was just a fluke but I will check the format of my files.

Your help is very much appreciated - I am on something of a steep learning curve at the moment but every day in every way I am getting better and better! 

Hi Kathy,

It does take time, but little by little it all begins to click.

If you continue to have issues with syncing, I'd suggest getting in touch with Articulate support. I'm sure they don't want users to have to do things like remove color fill from text boxes in order for syncing to work properly. They really do want their products to work well for their users. Particularly when a problem is "repeatable" they like to know about it, so they can look at the file and tease out the underlying cause.

This community is also a great place to get help. 

Hi Kristina,

Have you confirmed that you're working with all local project files? 

• Work on your local drive (your C: drive).Working on a network drive or a USB drive can cause erratic behavior, includingfile corruption, loss of audio, and other unexpected behavior. 
• You should also make sure the directory pathto your project files and your published output is less than 260 characters(for example C:\Articulate).
• Avoid using special characters, accents orsymbols in your file names.

Additionally, have you tried to conduct a repair of Storyline?  If you're able to confirm the above and conduct the repair, please feel free to share your .story file with our team here. 

Kathy,

It sounds like you've solved the problem you were experiencing, but as Becky mentioned (couldn't have said it better myself, Becky!) if you continue to experience odd behavior, we'd be happy to take a look at your .story file. If you choose to share it with our Support team, please be sure to let us know the specifics of your computer set up as well. 

I have something similar,  I imported 3 PowerPoint Slides which have specific animations coming in, one after the other, and in PowerPoint they play 100%.  (it's almost like colored bars coming in showing costs and risks.)

My problem is:  Once the 3 slides are imported into Storyline 360, the animations work, but my bar sizes have changed wherever there is text on the shape?  

Anybody who can help, I will greatly appreciate some guidance.  

Warm Regards

Estee Tyler

Hi Estee,

Thanks for reaching out and sharing your .story file! I noticed the same issue, and it seems this shape is considered non-native to Storyline and is turned into an image. 

With text on the shape as well, the image was compressed to fit the shape area. I tried to expand one of the instances and noticed the text wholly misaligned with the shape.

I recommend removing the text from the shape before importing, and then adding the text back in Storyline to see if that helps the issue. If you'd like a hand, feel free to share your PowerPoint file with our support engineers.

Here are other items to keep in mind when importing!

• Storyline 360: Tips for Importing Microsoft PowerPoint and Articulate Presenter Content