Example audio workflow

This example workflow describes how to set up the audio for an animation that begins with a flash of lightning and ends with some rain fall. You want to play the sound of thunder after the lighting strike, and end with the sound of rain falling. You have two different sound files, thunderstorm.aiff and rainstorm.aiff.

The following steps describe how to import and play the two sound files with the animation.

To play multiple audio files with animation

1. Do one of the following to import the thunderstorm.aiff and rainstorm.aiff sound files:
   • Select File > Import from the main menu bar. A file browser lets you select the name of the sound file(s) to import.
   • Drag the file(s) from a file browser into one of the Maya modeling views, or onto the Time Slider.

   Audio nodes for the two sound files are created, and solid lines representing each sound file display in the Time Slider.

   Now that you have the sound files imported, you can adjust the timing of when they will play.

2. -click the Time Slider and select Sound > thunderstorm > .

   The thunderstorm audio node attributes display in the Attribute Editor.

3. Set the Offset value to 72.

   This sets the thunderstorm audio to play at frame 72 - or 3 seconds into the animation - so that the first rumble of thunder occurs just after the lightning animation plays. (3 seconds at the default Time Unit of 24 frames per second).

   Tip

   Click (near the Playback controls) to open the Time Slider preferences and ensure that Playback Speed is set to Real-time [24 fps].

   The thunderstorm sound waves in the Time Slider now display at frame 72.

4. -click the Time Slider and select Sound > rainstorm > .
5. In the Attribute Editor, set the Offset value for the rainstorm audio node to 120.

   The rain sound now begins at frame 120, or 5 seconds into the animation.

6. Press Play to view (and hear) your animation.