Claudia Herbst-Tait
Professor
Department of Digital Arts
Pratt Institute


You Talkin’ To Me?


Create a new project and make sure it is set. Put sound files in the... you guessed it, Sound folder.
Maya creates a link to the sound file. If you move the sound file, the link will be lost...


Let’s start by downloading a sound clip from a famous movie.


Right-click the sound clip you like, go to Save Target As… Set Save as Type: Wave Sound (btw, Maya may not like the use of numbers in the sound file name.)


Import the sound clip into Maya. Go to File, Import, or simply click & drag it from the desktop or folder into the timeline.


The sound file now exists in Maya as a node. You can find it in the Hypergraph.


In the timeline, right-click, go to Sound, select your sound… if you have multiple sounds, you can right-click in the timeline, select Sound, then chose the Trax Editor.
Make sure to line up your sounds correctly in the Trax Editor.


Sounds can be turned off, or muted, in the timeline or in the Trax Editor.


In the Animation preferences, set the Playback to Real-time.


Plug in your headphones…


Listen to your sound of choice. Ah!