The MEL Companion: Maya Scripting for 3D Artists (Graphics Series) - Softcover

Stripinis, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1584502754 ISBN 13: 9781584502753

Publisher: Charles River Media, 2003

Synopsis

The Maya Embedded Language, or MEL, is the very foundation of the Maya application: it's what makes it so powerful. And, if you know MEL, you can make Maya work more efficiently for your own projects. Whether customizing the workspace, modifying the tools that already exist, or creating new tools, an artist versed in MEL is ready to exploit the true power of Maya. The problem is that MEL can be very intimidating to artists and other non-programmers. To an artist, MEL represents a whole other world filled with words like variable, conditional statements, and vector cross-product. Like any other programming language, MEL has its own vocabulary and rules of grammar. To master it, you simply need to learn the rules: you don't have to become a programmer. The MEL Companion helps artists do this. In the first part of the book, you'll learn about the syntax, vocabulary, and structure of MEL - its grammar. You'll learn some basic math concepts, such as types of numbers and simple math equations, and at the end of part one you'll explore concepts for building and constructing programs. The second part covers the construction of scripts that detail some of the ways you can use MEL. You'll learn about expressions, primitive objects, lighting and rendering, tool creation, interface customization, and reading and writing files in and out of Maya. The MEL Companion was written by an artist for artists. To get the most out of this book, you should have a fundamental knowledge of working in 3D and the Maya program. In addition, although you might not have an extensive knowledge and understanding of mathematics, you should have some willingness to learn the basics of working with numbers. Other thanthat, everything else is explained in language that is hopefully as clear as it is entertaining

About this title

Synopsis

A computer animation veteran, Stripinis introduces the Maya Embedded Language to readers with a fundamental knowledge of working in three dimensions and the Maya program, and are willing to learn the basics of manipulating numbers. He explains the syntax, vocabulary, and structure; then describes how to construct some scripts. The disk contains ite

Edition details

• Publisher: Charles River Media
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1584502754
• ISBN 13: 9781584502753
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 468