Working with sound files in Maya:

Maya supports two different sound file formats: aiff and aifc.

If you have a sound file that is in a different format, you can use the SGI utility mediaconvert to convert your sound file to either aiff or aifc format.

There are three ways you can load a sound file into your scene:

Use the File --> Import function to load a sound file. The file browser will open, and then you can locate and select the name of the sound file to import

or Locate the file on the SGI desktop, and use the middle mouse button to drag the file into one of the Maya modeling views

or Locate the file on the SGI desktop, and using the middle mouse button, drag the file into the Time Slider. If you use the third option to load the sound file onto the Time Slider, the peaks of the sound waves will be visible in the Time Slider, and the Time Slider will be ready to play back the sound.

When a sound file is loaded into a Maya scene, an audio node is created with the same name as the filename. This node contains a reference to the location of the sound file. If you move the sound file to a different location, you will have to make sure that you change the filename referenced by your audio node.

Displaying sound
Although you can import as many sound files into your scene as you wish, only one soundtrack can be displayed in the Time Slider, and therefore played back, at a time. The DisplaySound function shows you a list of the audio nodes that are in your scene. To select the soundtrack that you would like to work with, determine the audio node corresponding to the soundtrack you would like to hear, and select that menu item. The sound's waveforms will be displayed in the Time Slider, and that sound file will be used during playback.

To disable sound during playback, choose Display ---> SoundOff.

To access the sound options for audio nodes, select the Display ---> Soundfilename- options box.

To Delete an audio node from your scene:

1. Select Display > Sound and choose the name of the audio node that you wish to delete. In this example it is called kazoom.
2. Open the Script Editor window by selecting Window > General Editors > Script Editor, or click on the icon to the right of the command line, and type: delete kazoom

Sound scrubbing
If you click with the left or middle mouse button and drag in the Time Slider, the soundtrack will play as you drag it. This can be useful for locating a specific time at which a particular sound or portion of sound begins. For example, if your soundtrack includes, "Hi Claudia," then you may wish to locate the exact frame at which the "C" sound begins so that you can synchronize the character's mouth forming a "C" sound with the soundtrack.

Tip: It may be easier to locate the beginning of a particular sound in a soundtrack by having the sound continuously repeat until you drag the Current Time Indicator to the next time in the Time Slider. To enable this feature, open the Animation Preferences window and turn on the Repeat Sound option.

Sound playback
In order to hear sound during the playback of an animation, the playback speed must be set to a constant rate so that May can determine how slowly or quickly to play the soundtrack. To set the playback speed, open the Animation Preferences window, and set the Playback Speed option. Sound will play back as long as the speed setting is not set to Free, as a setting of Free indicates that the animation should be played back as fast as possible. This can cause a variable playback speed depending on the complexity of the scene, the load on the machine, and other factors. Choosing a Playback Speed of Normal will play the soundtrack (and the animation) in real-time.