This course brings the talented artist into the fold of the technical-side of Maya. Learn the basics of Python, and its place in your 3D workflow, with visual examples and real world problems. Get a kick-start on adding some automation into your life, and solving common problems in a fraction of the time. By the end of this video, you should have a deeper understanding of one of the languages Maya speaks under the hood, and how to start viewing your scenes in terms of glorious Python code!
Why python? Learn why you, as an artist, should even concern yourself with learning a scripting language, and why Python is perfect for you! Sometimes problems need a solution that is far less time consuming than a manual fix. Sometimes just your transform/rotate/scale manipulators won’t be there to help. Lets set up a small real world problem that, by the end of this video, should be a breeze to solve.
The Basics Exploring the syntax of Python, an object-oriented language. We take a look at how to get started in playing around with the code, the terminology, and the tools that Python makes available to you. Object types, functions, loops... Lets start building up that toolbox!
The Maya Script Editor This will be your home during your time as a Python Padawan. We check out all the features that have recently been added to Maya 2011, to make the python programming experience even more comfortable. Learn how to access all of the commands made available to you, and how to find help on the usage of each one. We will take what we learned in the previous chapter and start exploring visual examples of the code. By the end of this chapter, you will now how to turn individual lines of code into reusable functions.
Development, Environment, and Workflow By now, you have seen the power that is at your finger tips. You know enough to start experimenting with new ideas. We will now find out how to configure Maya a little bit to make your code easier to re-use, and distribute. We also present some more areas to be investigated down the road, in your path to becoming a Maya scripting master.
Bonus: Intro to Maya UI Writing python scripts and tools are great. But it would be a lot more fun if we could wrap them up into UI dialogs, and give the user some visual options. This bonus section takes a tool we wrote in a previous chapter, and throws together a simple popup dialog to visually expose the tool options. The code for this UI is included in the project for you to explore!
Justin Israel Justin is a California based artist who graduated from Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) with a Bachelor’s in Film and Video production. He started his Visual FX career at Stan Winston Digital as an artist and then developed strong pipeline/programming skills at Sony Pictures Imageworks while working on Spiderman 3, I Am Legend and The Watchmen. Justin currently works as Sr., Pipeline Developer on the award winning television series South Park, designing tools for Maya, Nuke, and general pipeline. His passion for live-action visual effects and film leads Justin to gain fundamental knowledge in all facets possible. His experience includes paint, roto, compositing, python and pipeline development. His work includes feature films such as Commander & Chief, The Compass, Bride Wars, Tropic Thunder, Mamma Mia, I Am Legend, Spiderman 3, The Watchmen, Fantastic Four and more.
Justin has worked as both an artist and a visual fx supervisor, in film and television, as well as directing and practical lighting experience, and constantly looking for new challenges and opportunities to learn. Justin's website justinfx.com.
