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Practical Maya Programming with Python

You're reading from   Practical Maya Programming with Python Unleash the power of Python in Maya and unlock your creativity

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Product type Paperback
Published in Jul 2014
Publisher
ISBN-13 9781849694728
Length 352 pages
Edition 1st Edition
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Author (1):
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Robert Galanakis Robert Galanakis
Author Profile Icon Robert Galanakis
Robert Galanakis
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Table of Contents (12) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Introspecting Maya, Python, and PyMEL FREE CHAPTER 2. Writing Composable Code 3. Dealing with Errors 4. Leveraging Context Managers and Decorators in Maya 5. Building Graphical User Interfaces for Maya 6. Automating Maya from the Outside 7. Taming the Maya API 8. Unleashing the Maya API through Python 9. Becoming a Part of the Python Community A. Python Best Practices Index

Chapter 7. Taming the Maya API

Maya's Python command system, MEL, is extremely powerful. You can use it to automate and customize Maya to an incredible degree. Python and PyMEL have largely superseded MEL because they are much more powerful and flexible. We've put this power and flexibility to great use by creating composable libraries, robust error handling, an automation system, and maintainable GUIs.

What we haven't yet discussed is Python's role in augmenting, and in many cases replacing, C++ in Maya programming. There are some things that the command system and MEL are designed to not do. Dealing with the Maya Application Programming Interface (API) is one such thing. Python, however, can utilize most of the Maya API that C++ has access to. In Chapter 8, Unleashing the Maya API through Python, we will see how Python allows us to do things we cannot even do in C++, and easily create custom Maya plugins in a very Pythonic way with no boilerplate.

Before we...

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