An MA file is a project created with Maya, a 3D modeling and animation program. It contains information that defines the geometry, lighting, animation, and rendering properties of a 3D scene. MA files are saved in an ASCII text format, while binary Maya project files use the .MB extension.

MA files are saved in the mayaAscii format, which means that they are stored in ASCII text and you can open them in a text editor. This is useful in case you need to manually edit your project because of a corrupt file. One drawback to the MA file format is that it can lead to large file sizes since it essentially contains a long list of text commands. An alternative to saving your project as an MA is the .MB file, which is saved in the mayaBinary format. This file replaces the text with numeric values, which reduces the file size but also makes it uneditable with a text editor. NOTE: Maya was originally developed by Alias Wavefront. The company was acquired by Autodesk in 2006.