Launch Sound to Vision Browser

ASSETS

Updated March 21th, 2025



Introduction

Sound to Vision (SToV) facilitates users to create audio-reactive and audiovisual content. In SToV 'assets' refer to a visual tile which can be dragged onto the timeline, and represents a form of visual building-block which can be used to compose visual scenes. The most basic form of asset in SToV are the imaage and video assets, however beyond these two basic types there are a variety of other asset types which can be used or created. SToV provides a number of built in assets which can be readily used, but also the user is encouraged to import their own media to form their own assets or to create assets from scratch using one of the tools provided.



Media Types Supported by SToV

Assets can be created by the user dragging in files from their computer. The types of imports that Sound to Vision supports are summarised below, and can be broadly characterised as image, video, sound and miscellaneous types. Image types that can be imported include:

Video types supported

Sound types supported

Miscellaneous types which are supported

These formats are all supported by SToV with the images and videos forming assets when they are imported. Sound formats and the STOV type can be imported but do not form assets specifically, though a stov asset will often contain a number of assets which will populate the 'Imported' asset card when it is loaded.



Asset Cards

Assets in SToV are organised as image tiles on asset cards. Each card contains mutable tags some of which relate directly to the class of the asset others which are optional. The assets which appear on a particular card are dependent on the tags present. As standard, SToV has multiple cards each with different tags which can be used to filter the available assets in different ways. For example, if a card has the tag 'video', only assets which are videos will appear on that card, whereas 'photo' would filter all the assets and show only photo assets in that card. If a video is more than 30 s in duration, it will also have the keyword 'long'. Tags that represent specific asset types (e.g. 'video', 'photo' etc) are blue whereas, optional tags are grey (e.g. 'long'). An additional important tag is 'imported' which represents all assets which have been imported by the user. By combining the tag 'imported' with for example the 'video' tag will result in that card only showing videos that the user has imported.

Figure 1. An asset card with the 'imported' tag

The above figure shows an asset card with the 'imported' tag, in addition it shows several buttons at the top of the card and the asset tile icons below the tags and a 'x' button below the tile icons. The 'x' button allows the user to remove these assets from SToV asset pool but it doesn't actually delete the underlying media file from the computer, nor will it remove the asset from the timeline. The controls at the top of the asset card allow the user to manipulate the card. The first icon (the horizontal bars) can be clicked and allows the whole card to be dragged. Through dragging the card into other cards it is possible to change the order and position of the cards. The order and tags will be remembered by the browser between sessions. If there are many asset present in a card the arrow control buttons can be used to browse through them.



Asset Types

The photo asset is for static images and photos. If you drag your photos into SToV they are usable as photos in the timeline as well. This video asset type includes all forms of video media. When placed on the timeline, video assets play in sync with the timeline. The reactive assets are a special class of asset which refer to graphical elements which are explicity programmed to react to the different signals in SToV. They can placed on the timeline and will respond directly to any audio also loaded in or they can be edited using the Reactive Editor. The stack asset is a specialisation of the photo asset whereby you can dynamically link a number of photos together and then move between them conveniently and at high speed. The primitive asset is for static images and photos. The text asset is for static images and photos