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Animation

Import an audio file

Warning On Windows, you can’t import sound files that have the .wav Apple file format. However, you can convert your .wav sound files to Windows compatible file formats like IMA ADPCM or PCM.

To load an audio file into your scene

Do one of the following:

• Use File > Import. A file browser lets you select the name of the sound file to import.
• Locate the file and drag the file into one of the Maya modeling views.
• Locate the file and drag the file onto the Time Slider.

The peaks of the sound waves are visible in the Time Slider, and the Time Slider is ready to play or scrub the sound.

To display sound on the Time Slider

1. -click the Time Slider.

A pop-up menu appears.

2. In the pop-up menu, select the audio file you want to hear from Sound > audio file.

The audio file’s waveform appears in the Time Slider and it plays during playback.

To use contiguous audio files with animation

Suppose you create an animation that begins with a flash of lightning, then plays the sound of thunder, then ends with the sound of rainfall. You have two different sound files, thunderstorm.aiff and rainstorm.aiff.

The following example describes how to import and play the two sound files after the animation.

1. Create a lightning animation.
2. To import the sound files, open the window where you’ve put your sound file, and then drag the thunderstorm.aiff file onto the Time Slider.

A thunderstorm audio node is created, and you will see the sound waves in the Time Slider.

3. Drag the rainstorm.aiff file onto a scene view.

A rainstorm audio node is created. The Time Slider continues to display the thunderstorm sound. The animation starts with 3 seconds of lightning. The thunderstorm sound starts after 3 seconds of play.

4. Select Display > Sound > thunderstorm > and change the Start Time to 72 (3 seconds at the default Time Unit of 24 frames per second).

You will now see the sound waves representing the thunderstorm sound appear in the Time Slider starting at time 72.

5. To play your animation with sound, open the Animation Preferences window and ensure that Playback Speed is set to Real-time (24 fps) and click Play.

The rain sound begins at 5 seconds (or time 120 on the Time Slider).

6. Open the Display > Sound > rainstorm > window and set the Start Time to 120.
7. Press Play to view (and hear) your animation.

To view your animation with both soundtracks (the thunderclap sound followed by the rain sound), you will have to render your animation to video and overlay each of the soundtracks onto tape.