We're #2!!

# 1 05-02-2003 , 06:11 AM

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For the past several days, our book "MEL Scripting for Maya Animators" has been the number 2 selling book about 3D on Amazon.com, after "Digital Lighting and Rendering" by Jeremy Birn!

For all of computer graphics, as of this afternoon we were #27, after 14 books on Adobe products, 3 books on digital photography, and 8 books on web design!

And for all programming books, we were #33!

Thanks to any of you who have bought a copy or said something nice to a friend about the book! I mean it!

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:banana:

-- Mark

Mark R. Wilkins
author of MEL Scripting for Maya Animators
www.melscripting.com

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# 2 05-02-2003 , 06:43 AM

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Wow, contrats!!!

I've been thinking about getting that book for a while now and now that I see how good every says it is, I'm really thinking about getting it

again, congratulations!

-Emo

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# 3 05-02-2003 , 06:53 AM

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Wow, what a acheivement Mark W. Great job and I will surely pick up a copy of this book when I get to the Mel scripting level of maya. 3 things push me towards that, one.. you socially interact with other 3d artists such as here on SM. Second, the review on this book seemed quite high user added image

. Thirdly, if any book is rated 2nd in 3d graphics then thats great user added image

"I should call you sugar maple tree cause i'd totally tap that" haha

email - mattwettstein@gmail.com

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# 4 05-02-2003 , 06:54 AM

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Congrats Mark!

Emo (and everyone else), get the book. It's really good. I have it. My lead artist has it. I've recommended it to all my techie students. Very good book. user added image

Danny Ngan
Animator | Amaze Entertainment
my website | my blog | my job

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# 5 05-02-2003 , 07:31 AM

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Ok, so mark.. I am just trying to understand a bit more exactly what is covered in this book. Like because i am a newbie my question to you is. Why Animate with Mel Script when i can animate in the Maya interface user added image

. Also, can you just explain to me very breifly (anyone) what exactly mel script animating is? Thankyou

"I should call you sugar maple tree cause i'd totally tap that" haha

email - mattwettstein@gmail.com

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# 6 05-02-2003 , 07:34 AM

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congrats man good to see something you made do well isnt it user added image

Thanks for wasting your time reading this line.

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# 7 05-02-2003 , 07:48 AM

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congrats

how much is this book (AU$ preferrably... or US$)? Is it suited to all levels of animators (even newbs)?

Take a glance at my <a href="https://forums.simplymaya.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9428">Porsche 959</a> WIP

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# 8 05-02-2003 , 07:49 AM

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You don't animate directly with MEL, though you can animate with expressions:

MEL is a system for automating the process of building parts of a Maya scene. You can make objects, change their attributes, create or destroy connections between them, or create expression nodes with MEL. You can also build user interfaces that can allow someone to provide input to your script.

Maya's expression language looks a lot like MEL, but is slightly different. Expressions are *nodes* that take input from one or more objects' attributes, perform calculations or other operations on them, and provide a value that's plugged into another object's attributes. MEL scripts might build expression nodes within a scene, or you might make expressions by hand.

Expressions are often useful when you want to use the shape or animation of one object to control another object's motion, shape, or some other quality. For example, you might want to apply a force to a particle that's determined by a complex relationship between that particle and the locations of its neighbors. You could do this with a particle expression. Object expressions are another type, useful in, for example, creating high-level animation controls that control many joints of a character's skeleton at once.

MEL scripts, on the other hand, mainly are useful for tasks you could do in the interface but would find mind-numbingly tedious. For example, if you wanted to copy an object fifty times, rename it in some specific way, and apply a random shader selected from a number of shaders you'd created, you could do so by hand, but it would be time consuming. Alternatively, you could write a MEL script that would perform these operations a specific number of times, or possibly be installed as a shelf button or menu item for you to pick when you wanted to apply this operation to any item you have picked.

Character riggers might build MEL scripts that will create additional, standardized controls on a basic skeleton that they've clicked out manually. Lighting TDs might build MEL scripts that will render a series of render layers in order, writing the output into different image files that can be used in a composite. Character animators might write a MEL script that will reflect a walk cycle's animation across the center axis of a character, or make easy the storage of libraries of animation for a character. Effects animators can probably use MEL and expressions for just about everything they do (though there are sometimes other good approaches.)

Does that give you an idea of what you might do with MEL, or would you like me to be more specific?

-- Mark

Mark R. Wilkins
author of MEL Scripting for Maya Animators
www.melscripting.com

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# 9 05-02-2003 , 08:05 AM

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I realized that I didn't quite answer what the book covers.

The book covers the basics of creating expressions and MEL scripts for character setup and effects animation, then goes on to describe how various parts of the programming language work in more detail. There's a lot of discussion of how to think through programming problems, and it's structured to be fairly gentle for the non-programmer.

The second half of the book is made up of examples of MEL scripts and expressions in various contexts, like effects and character setup.

The book does expect that you'll know your way around Maya's interface, but it doesn't necessarily demand that you have a huge amount of Maya knowledge. It's probably a good idea to work through a general Maya text (such as Learning Maya) before getting into MEL, however.

-- Mark

Mark R. Wilkins
author of MEL Scripting for Maya Animators
www.melscripting.com

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# 10 05-02-2003 , 08:09 AM

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WOW man, you explained that about as well as you could explain turning a computer on!! :wow:

Well done!!! AWESOME summary!!

Take a glance at my <a href="https://forums.simplymaya.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9428">Porsche 959</a> WIP

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# 11 05-02-2003 , 08:50 AM

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As for the price:

Amazon.com in the U.S. sells the book for US $35 (about AUS $60) and charges between US $5 and US $25 for shipping to Australia depending on how fast it has to get there.

I believe there is no customs tariff on books shipped from the U.S. to Australia, but I'm not 100% sure. However, you may have to pay additional taxes, such as GST. I wouldn't know, though.

Within Australia, the list price of the book is about AUS $117, and the online bookstores I saw that could order it from the U.S. were all selling it for around AUS $112.

If you don't have to pay GST on a shipment from the U.S., you might just consider ordering from Amazon.com, as it will be significantly cheaper.

-- Mark

Mark R. Wilkins
author of MEL Scripting for Maya Animators
www.melscripting.com

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# 12 05-02-2003 , 05:28 PM

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Book sounds great, im heading off to buy it...

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And after calming me down with some orange slices and some fetal spooning,
E.T. revealed to me his singular purpose.

--TOOL, 10,000 Days---

</pre>
</html>

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# 13 05-02-2003 , 05:52 PM

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Thats great stuff Mark - i have ur book on order - cant wait for it to arrive!! user added image

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# 14 06-02-2003 , 12:19 AM

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Got mine today along with Maya Savvy 4.5. I am looking forward to reading both books.

I am going to start with the MEL book as I really need to learn more about it.

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# 15 06-02-2003 , 01:42 AM

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Very please to see it going so well for you mark user added image

David.

From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs damage my videotapes?"

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