- Platforms: Desktop
- Plans: All (Individuals, Schools, Business)
- Team roles: Creators, Administrators
Elevate your 3D models into a truly immersive, multi-sensory experience by adding audio to complement the interactive visuals. Human Studio offers two audio options:
- Text-to-speech narration
- Upload your own audio files
Keep reading to explore the differences between these options and learn how to enable each one.
Text to speech narration vs. audio files
Text to speech narration
When enabled, our text to speech (TTS) narration feature reads the current chapter's chapter description out loud. This can help learners to absorb complementary information about a 3D model while allowing them to maintain their focus on the interactive visuals. Presenting visual and verbal information together can also facilitate more effective information recall, leading to better learning outcomes.
Text to speech narration is available in all eight of our supported languages. Once enabled, our system will detect the language in which your chapter description is written and narrate the text in the appropriate language and accent. For example, a chapter description written in Spanish will be narrated in Spanish with a Spanish accent, as you can hear in the example below.
Audio files
As an alternative to text to speech narration, you can choose to upload your own audio file to any chapter in the BioDigital Human. This option is ideal if you prefer to record your own narration or would like to add a different type of auditory information—such as instructions or even heart or breath sounds—to your models.
Both audio options are controlled via the Play/Pause Audio button in your published model. See How to play audio in a published model for more details.
Upload requirements
If you are uploading your own audio files, review the following requirements before you get started. Files that exceed these limits will trigger an error message during upload.
- Supported file formats: .aac, .mp3, .mp4
- File upload limit: One (1) per language per chapter
- File size limit: 50 MB per audio file
Tip: Before proceeding, make sure your model is already open in Studio. For instructions, see Customize 3D models in Human Studio from Explore or My Library.
Enable text to speech narration
Take the following steps to enable text to speech narration in your model:
- Hover over the chapter name and select the Edit Chapter Settings button.
- Navigate to Text to Speech Narration and click the box next to Enable for this chapter.
Tip: Click the Apply to all chapters icon to apply the audio settings to all chapters on the current tour. This cannot be undone.
- You can click the play button to hear a sample of the audio.
- Click out to save.
Upload your own audio files
Take the following steps to upload audio files to a chapter in your model:
- Select a chapter from the Chapters panel on the left and click the Add New Block button.
- Scroll down and select Audio.
- Select Upload Audio from the block you added or drag and drop your audio file into the Audio block.
- If applicable, select your audio language from the drop-down menu.
- Drag the content block to your desired location
- (Optional) Repeat as desired to add new audio blocks or select Add a File to add more audio to the block you just created
- Click Done.
Using audio controls
Once either type of audio has been added to a chapter in a 3D model or tour, you can listen to it by clicking the unmute audio icon, which can be found in the information panel on the "View" page or in the published model.
Note: Browser security restrictions require end users to opt in before audio can play in a given browser. Due to this restriction, our audio is muted by default when the 3D model loads, and the user must click the unmute audio icon in order to hear it play. However, if you enable one of our 3D interaction prompts when you publish your model, the act of clicking or tapping the "Interact in 3D" prompt will automatically unmute the audio, thereby bypassing this additional step for the user.
You can also click Play from Beginning and Unmute or Mute.
Audio is muted:
Audio is unmuted:
These audio controls are enabled by default when you publish, so if you add audio to a model that is already in use, the controls will automatically appear in your published model.