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| Preface | |
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| Special Acknowledgment | |
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| Maya Under the Hood | |
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| In this chapter you will learn | |
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| Why Look Under the Hood? | |
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| The Dependency Graph, Attributes, and Connections | |
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| Using the Hypergraph to Explore the Dependency Graph | |
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| Transform Hierarchy and Parent/Child Relationships | |
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| Examining the Hierarchy | |
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| Transform and Shape Nodes | |
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| Exploring Transform and Shape Nodes, Instancing, and History | |
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| MEL and Maya's User Interface | |
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| What to Remember About How Maya Works Behind the Scenes | |
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| The Basics of MEL Commands | |
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| In this chapter you will learn | |
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| Can I Use MEL Without Scripting? | |
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| Command Line and Command Feedback Line | |
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| Command Shell | |
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| Script Editor | |
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| Script Editor Versus Command Shell | |
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| Script Editor's Messages as MEL Code | |
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| Making a Shelf Button for a MEL Script | |
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| Saving a MEL Script | |
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| Seductive Dangers of the Status Message Area | |
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| The whatIs Command | |
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| Basic Structure of MEL Commands | |
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| Where to Find Information About Maya and MEL on the Internet | |
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| Newsgroups | |
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| How to Use MEL Scripts Found on the Internet | |
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| What to Remember About How to Use MEL Without Writing Scripts | |
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| Using Expressions | |
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| In this chapter you will learn | |
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| What Is an Expression? | |
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| How Does an Expression Work? | |
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| Equals Sign: Equality and Assignment | |
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| How Maya Implements Expressions | |
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| Is Maya's Expression Language the Same as MEL? | |
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| When (and When Not) to Use an Expression | |
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| Defining Relationships Between Attributes | |
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| What Is Operator Precedence? | |
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| Walkthrough of Maya's Expression Language | |
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| Definitions of Variables | |
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| Computing the Values of Attributes | |
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| Assigning Computed Values | |
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| Eyes | |
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| Analyzing the Problem | |
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| Planning the Eyes' Animation Controls | |
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| Writing the Expression | |
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| What to Remember About Using Expressions | |
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| Controlling Particles with Expressions | |
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| In this chapter you will learn | |
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| Two Kinds of Particle Object Attributes: Per Object and Per Particle | |
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| All About Vectors | |
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| Two Kinds of Expressions: Ordinary and Particle | |
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| Ordinary Expressions and a Newton Field | |
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| A Simple Particle Expression | |
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| A Few Hints for Efficient Particle Expressions | |
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| Helical Particles Around a Curve | |
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| What to Remember About Particle Expressions in Maya | |
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| Problem Solving with MEL Scripting | |
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| In this chapter you will learn | |
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| MEL's Role in Maya: Building Scenes | |
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| Strategies for Planning MEL Applications | |
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| The Simplest User Interface | |
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| Creating, Editing, and Querying Nodes in MEL | |
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| Adding, Setting, and Getting Values of Attributes in MEL | |
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| Connecting Attributes in MEL | |
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| Creating and Connecting Expression Nodes in MEL | |
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| Using MEL to Automate Setup for Spiral Particles | |
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| What to Remember About Writing MEL Scripts | |
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| Variables and Data Types | |
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| In this chapter you will learn | |
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| Declaring Variables (and Not Declaring Them) | |
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| Environment Variables | |
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| MEL Statements and Type Checking | |
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| Simple and Aggregate Data Types | |
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| What to Remember About Variables and Data Types in MEL | |
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| Using MEL Commands | |
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| In this chapter you will learn | |
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| What Is a MEL Command? | |
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| Structure of a MEL Command | |
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| Using MEL Commands in MEL Scripts | |
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| Avoid Using MEL Commands in Expressions | |
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| What to Remember About Using MEL Commands | |
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| Manipulating Nodes in MEL | |
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| In this chapter you will learn | |
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| Using Is Command to Find Nodes by Name or Other Properties | |
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| Using Select Command to Manage Object Selection | |
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| Creating Nodes in a Maya Scene | |
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| Finding a Node's Parents and Children | |
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| Finding Information on Node Connections | |
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| About Maya's Node Types and the Node and Attribute Reference | |
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| What to Remember About Managing Nodes in MEL | |
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| Controlling the Flow of Execution | |
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| In this chapter you will learn | |
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| Controlling the Flow of Script Execution | |
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| Basic Conditional Operations: if-else and switch | |
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| Loops | |
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| What to Remember About Controlling the Flow of Execution in MEL | |
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| Procedures and Functions | |
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| In this chapter you will learn | |
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| Top-Down Design | |
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| A Trip to the Grocery Store | |
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| What Are Procedures and Functions? | |
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| Geometry-Constrained Locators | |
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| Recursive Antenna | |
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| What to Remember About Procedures, Functions, and Top-Down Design in MEL | |
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| Naming Nodes, Scripts, and Variables | |
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| In this chapter you will learn | |
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| Why Naming Conventions Are Important | |
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| Naming Scripts | |
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| Naming Variables | |
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| Naming Nodes | |
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| Adding a Name Prefix to Objects in a Hierarchy | |
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| Changing Name Prefixes in a Hierarchy | |
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| What Are Namespaces? | |
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| Strategies for Using Namespaces | |
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| What to Remember About Naming Scripts, Variables, and Nodes | |
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| Designing MEL User Interfaces | |
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| In this chapter you will learn | |
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| What Is a User Interface? | |
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| What Maya Users Expect to See from a MEL Script | |
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| Questions to Answer Before Designing a User Interface | |
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| Designing and Testing a User Interface | |
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| Structure of a Dialog Box | |
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| What to Remember About Designing User Interfaces in MEL | |
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| Simple MEL User Interfaces | |
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| In this chapter you will learn | |
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| Collecting Information from Users | |
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| Validating User Input: When and Why | |
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| Asking for Confirmation with confirmDialog | |
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| Asking User for Text String with promptDialog | |
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| Asking User to Pick File or Directory with fileDialog | |
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| Handling Warnings and Errors with Warning and Error Commands | |
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| Using Regular Expressions and match to Validate Data | |
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| How Regular Expressions Work | |
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| Validating Integers | |
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| Validating Floating-Point Numbers | |
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| Validating Object Names (Without Namespaces) | |
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| Simple Dialogs and Input Validation | |
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| What to Remember About Simple MEL User Interfaces and Input Validation | |
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| Custom Dialog Boxes | |
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| In this chapter you will learn | |
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| How to Structure a Script That Uses a Custom Dialog Box for Input | |
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| Dialog Boxes and Their Contents | |
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| Making the Example Dialog Box | |
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| Common Types of Controls | |
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| Common Types of Layouts | |
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| Dialog Box for Making Geometric Primitives | |
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| What to Remember About Building Custom Dialog Boxes in MEL | |
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| Making Advanced Dialog Boxes with formLayout | |
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| In this chapter you will learn | |
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| Why Use formLayout? | |
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| Planning a Dialog Box for formLayout | |
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| Using formLayout: Overview | |
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| Using formLayout: Defining Placement Rules for UI Objects | |
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| Example: Implementing a Dialog Box with formLayout | |
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| What to Remember About Making Dialog Boxes with formLayout | |
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| Making Advanced Dialog Boxes with Web Panels | |
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| In this chapter you will learn | |
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| What You Need to Know Before You Proceed | |
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| What Are Web Panels? | |
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| Learning Web Authoring | |
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| How a Dialog Box Built with Web Panels Works | |
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| Planning a Dialog Box for Web Panels | |
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| Creating a Web-Based Dialog Box for Maya | |
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| Launching a Web-Based Dialog Box from MEL | |
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| Implementing a Dialog Box using JavaScript | |
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| Ideas for Dialog Boxes Built with Web Panels | |
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| What to Remember about Making Dialog Boxes with Web Panels | |
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| Improving Performance with Utility Nodes | |
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| In this chapter you will learn | |
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| What Is a Utility Node? | |
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| When Should You Consider Using a Utility Node? | |
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| How to Create and Connect a Utility Node | |
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| Using the plusMinusAverage Node to Find the Midpoint Between Two Locators | |
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| Common Utility Nodes | |
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| What to Remember About Improving Performance With Utility Nodes | |
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| Installing MEL Scripts | |
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| In this chapter you will learn | |
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| Installing a Script to Make It Available in All Scenes | |
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| Installing a Script to Run When Maya Starts | |
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| Installing a Script into a Script Node in a Scene | |
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| Installing Custom Menus | |
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| Managing Button Shelves and Creating Custom Shelf Icons | |
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| What to Remember About Installing MEL Scripts | |
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| Examples Using MEL with Particle Dynamics | |
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| Introduction to Particle Goals | |
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| Particle Goals on a Surface | |
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| Using Goals on Multiple Surfaces | |
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| Using Goals on Surfaces, Part 2 | |
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| Examples Using MEL with Solid Body Dynamics | |
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| Particle Collisions | |
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| Collision Events | |
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| Collisions Between Objects in Solid Dynamics | |
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| Solid Dynamics and Particles | |
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| Example of a Simple Crowd System | |
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| Creating a Vehicle | |
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| Vehicle Interaction | |
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| Vehicle Environment | |
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| Fine Tuning and Completing the Script | |
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| Full Script Reference: crowdSystem.mel | |
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| Examples Using MEL in Character Rigging | |
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| Character Controls | |
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| Building a Character User Interface | |