mel home

“if you have to do something more than once, script it”

MEL is Maya’s pre packed programming language which provides enormous flexibility to create their own scripts and graphical user interfaces (gui’s). In comparison to a language like C++, mel is a lot less complicated to learn; there are no memory management issues, you don’t have to worry about importing modules and it doesn’t support object oriented programming. If you want to get to grips with the simple aspects of programming, this is not a bad place to start. Online under the extensive Maya help tab you will find not only an exhaustive library of all the mel commands, but also example code showing its implementation.

This is not where the help stops; there is a massive online resource offering support on pretty much anything you can imagine and a number of forum’s where more specific assistance is offered. I have read a number of books and watched a few tutorials on programming which is a good place to begin, but the key to learning any programming language is to use as much as possible until it sinks in.

In addition to mel, Autodesk have implemented python into the equation as an alternative. The general consensus is python simply offers far more functionality and is considered easier to learn than most other languages.

Until now, my use of programming has been a little sporadic, I tend to dip in and out pending on what project I am working on but have created a number of tools to assist my workflow which can be found in the tools section. Please feel free to download them and use them to your heart’s content.

As always please feel more than welcome to offer your opinion, your input is greatly appreciated!

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