Trying to learn Maya programming from the documentation can be daunting whether or not you are a programmer. The first edition of
earned the reputation as the best introductory book on MEL, Maya's scripting language. Now fully revised and updated, the second edition also includes new features, such as a discussion of global procedures, new chapters on fixing programming bottlenecks, advanced user interface techniques, and optimizing character rigs. New chapters on utility nodes and Maya's Web Panel feature provide new ideas on how to use MEL in applications.
This new edition has kept the popular style of the first edition that offered very clear explanations of programming concepts to those without programming experience. A generous collection of code examples and Maya scene files is included on the companion Web site. This is a book for animators, artists, game developers, visual effects developers, and technical directors who want to learn the fundamentals of Maya, how to automate tasks, personalize user interfaces, build custom tools, and solve problems with MEL.
* Fully updated with several new chapters.
* Profusely illustrated and includes a companion Web site with numerous code examples and scene files.
* The authors bring their extensive experience in professional production studios to provide expert guidance.
Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review
Great book for starters to MEL, September 1, 2008
By
Erkan Ozgur Yilmaz (Istanbul, TURKEY)
Actually, this is the second time I buy this book, I bought it for one of my friend who has just started to learn MEL.
The book will bring you to mid level very soon. I liked the examples at the end, where you learn how to code a simple crowd simulation system with obstacle avoidance.
It is a good book, I absolutely offer this book to everybody just started to learn MEL (not just for animators).
Pretty Darn Good, April 7, 2008
By
Jordan W. Bartlett (Brisbane, QLD, Australia)
I am still reading the book, but in terms of whether it is what it is advertised, yes it is very informative on the subject of MEL Scripting.
the chapters are in a very logical sequence, and each chapter leaves you satisfied that you wont have to go somewhere else to learn more.
i am also confident that the book will suppliment my 3d rigging and animation ability and allow me to do much more with much less..
my desk-side reference, January 20, 2008
By
C. Janney (City of Lost Angeles, USA)
I have both the first and second editions. Very helpful for reference for the more seasoned user, and a great cover-to-cover for the beginner. Well written and easy to follow. Now, can we get one for Python?
Where are the scripts???, July 23, 2006
By
4th year Animation StudentIf you release a second edition you need to support a second edition, that includes the publisher's website and the downloadable scripts that go with the book....this book is okay, but who has time to type in all of the sample scripts to learn. For not including the scripts I give it a 2.
All in all good book,BUT, December 25, 2004
By
O. Perry (rehovot Israel)
Reading the book cover to cover, I found myself obligated to write a review here about it .
I will divide my review to Good and Bad
The bad:
This book is DEFINTLY not for animators, means, it's for programmers, if you are an art person and never seen or heard about programming, this book will be very difficult to learn.
Second. a LOT OF errors!! And I don't mean errors on the text, if you download the files in the site(which should be updated) they contain a lot of bugs!! some times while reading it, I found myself debugging the author CODE!! Outrages!
Third, some of the chapters are not in place!, for example the author start in chapter one using all sorts of parameters and varibale,but only in chapter six he bothers to explain about them
Forth, as mentioned earlier there are chapters on vectors, recursive functions and more, this is for sure not for beginners, and for sure not for persons with out some math background or programming background
.
Fifth, there is to much examples on the GUI and less examples on practical things, like moving particles and stuff( there is some of it , but few..)This is sad because some of the examples the author does write are very good.
The good
This is basically the only book on MEL, and if you are joining a big team and you have some background in programming and some mat skills, you will find it very interesting because not only the author explain code, his examples are interesting, cover most of the basics in the studio needs, and some of the tips he is giving during the book worth gold, he explain many times how to work in group, how to program to someone else and what to think about before you even start to program, it can easily be seen that the person who wrote it work in the subj .
All in all a good book to start , but in some point t it missing the point
lengthy chapters with no actual code or explaining any useful things
It seems as if the author try to catch it all...
To explain things to beginners while giving advice for novice programmers...
