EI Technology has released the public beta version of Sonica, a plug-in for the Maya rendering suite. The software is used to synchronize animation in Maya to sound; it does this by extracting spectrum and waveform animation from a track, and generating dependency nodes that can be connected to others for different effects. Multi-tracking is supported, and pre-made scripts are included for common representations of sound such as vertical bars.
Spectrum is broken up into bands, allowing users to isolate elements such as drums and vocals, and waveform nodes can be used to pair animation with amplitude, ideal for graphics such as a vibrating speaker or a record player. The Mac version of the plug-in is compatible with Maya 7 and 8.
