MEL Scripting for Maya Animators

Informationen zum Autor Mark R. Wilkins is a technical director at DreamWorks Animation SKG, where he helped develop a production pipeline using Maya for effects and character animation. Mark also provides training and technical assistance to animators using Maya. He previously worked at Walt Disney Feature Animation in a variety of positions including software engineer and scene setup supervisor. He has contributed to a number of films, including Dinosaur , Mission: Impossible 2 , Minority Report , and Madagascar . Mark holds a degree in physics from Harvey Mudd College. Chris Kazmier is a senior technical director at Sony Pictures Imageworks, where he creates computer-generated effects for live-action films. He has worked on projects ranging from The Haunted Mansion to Sony's first all 3D feature animation Open Season . Previously, Chris worked at DreamWorks on Sinbad and at PDI/DreamWorks on the Intel Aliens ad campaign. Credits also include Fox Animation Studio's Titan AE and Anastasia . Klappentext Maya artists and animators face complex problems that are not easily solved with the built-in capabilities of the program. MEL (Maya Embedded Language)! the scripting language included with Maya! enables users to automate and customize their work. Programming in MEL is often the first programming task of any kind attempted by an artist or animator. However! learning to program is hard for many artists! and it is very hard to learn how to program MEL by just reading the Maya documentation. In the first edition of MEL Scripting for Maya Animators! Mark Wilkins and Chris Kazmier provided very clear explanations of basic programming concepts to an audience without programming experience. That book earned the reputation as the best introductory book on MEL. Since that edition! Maya has released two new major version upgrades and its user base has continued to grow. Now in a second edition! the book is fully updated to Maya 6 and includes a number of brand new features! such as a discussion of global procedures! new chapters on fixing programming bottlenecks! advanced user interface techniques! and optimizing character rigs. Zusammenfassung Suitable for those who want to learn the fundamentals of Maya! how to automate tasks! personalize user interfaces! build custom tools and solve problems with MEL! this work features chapters on fixing programming bottlenecks! advanced user interface techniques and optimizing character rigs. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface;Special Acknowledgment; Chapter 1 Maya Under the Hood; Chapter 2 The Basics of MEL Commands; Chapter 3 Using Expressions; Chapter 4 Controlling Particles with Expressions; Chapter 5 Problem Solving with MEL Scripting; Chapter 6 Variables and Data Types; Chapter 7 Using MEL Commands; Chapter 8 Manipulating Nodes in MEL; Chapter 9 Controlling the Flow of Execution; Chapter 10 Procedures and Functions; Chapter 11 Naming Nodes! Scripts! and Variables; Chapter 12 Designing MEL User Interfaces; Chapter 14 Custom Dialog Boxes; Chapter 15 Making Advanced Dialog Boxes with formLayout; Chapter 16 Making Advanced Dialog Boxes with Web Panels; Chapter 17 Improving Performance With Utility Nodes; Chapter 18 Installing MEL Scripts; Chapter 19 Examples Using MEL with Particle Dynamics; Chapter 20 Examples Using MEL with Solid Body Dynamics; Chapter 21 Example of a Simple Crowd System; Chapter 22 Examples Using MEL in Character Rigging; Index ...

Autorentext
Mark R. Wilkins is a technical director at DreamWorks Animation SKG, where he helped develop a production pipeline using Maya for effects and character animation. Mark also provides training and technical assistance to animators using Maya. He previously worked at Walt Disney Feature Animation in a variety of positions including software engineer and scene setup supervisor. He has contributed to a number of films, including Dinosaur, Mission: Impossible 2, Minority Report, and Madagascar. Mark holds a degree in physics from Harvey Mudd College.Chris Kazmier is a senior technical director at Sony Pictures Imageworks, where he creates computer-generated effects for live-action films. He has worked on projects ranging from The Haunted Mansion to Sony's first all 3D feature animation Open Season. Previously, Chris worked at DreamWorks on Sinbad and at PDI/DreamWorks on the Intel Aliens ad campaign. Credits also include Fox Animation Studio's Titan AE and Anastasia.

Klappentext
Maya artists and animators face complex problems that are not easily solved with the built-in capabilities of the program. MEL (Maya Embedded Language), the scripting language included with Maya, enables users to automate and customize their work. Programming in MEL is often the first programming task of any kind attempted by an artist or animator. However, learning to program is hard for many artists, and it is very hard to learn how to program MEL by just reading the Maya documentation. In the first edition of MEL Scripting for Maya Animators, Mark Wilkins and Chris Kazmier provided very clear explanations of basic programming concepts to an audience without programming experience. That book earned the reputation as the best introductory book on MEL. Since that edition, Maya has released two new major version upgrades and its user base has continued to grow. Now in a second edition, the book is fully updated to Maya 6 and includes a number of brand new features, such as a discussion of global procedures, new chapters on fixing programming bottlenecks, advanced user interface techniques, and optimizing character rigs.

Zusammenfassung
Suitable for those who want to learn the fundamentals of Maya, how to automate tasks, personalize user interfaces, build custom tools and solve problems with MEL, this work features chapters on fixing programming bottlenecks, advanced user interface techniques and optimizing character rigs.

Inhalt
Preface;Special Acknowledgment; Chapter 1 Maya Under the Hood; Chapter 2 The Basics of MEL Commands; Chapter 3 Using Expressions; Chapter 4 Controlling Particles with Expressions; Chapter 5 Problem Solving with MEL Scripting; Chapter 6 Variables and Data Types; Chapter 7 Using MEL Commands; Chapter 8 Manipulating Nodes in MEL; Chapter 9 Controlling the Flow of Execution; Chapter 10 Procedures and Functions; Chapter 11 Naming Nodes, Scripts, and Variables; Chapter 12 Designing MEL User Interfaces; Chapter 14 Custom Dialog Boxes; Chapter 15 Making Advanced Dialog Boxes with formLayout; Chapter 16 Making Advanced Dialog Boxes with Web Panels; Chapter 17 Improving Performance With Utility Nodes; Chapter 18 Installing MEL Scripts; Chapter 19 Examples Using MEL with Particle Dynamics; Chapter 20 Examples Using MEL with Solid Body Dynamics; Chapter 21 Example of a Simple Crowd System; Chapter 22 Examples Using MEL in Character Rigging; Index