Professional MEL Solutions For Pruduction Book/CD Package

Mayas Embedded Language is the heart and soul of Maya, the most powerful 3D application on the market today. MEL provides Maya with a versatility and adaptability unmatched in the CG industry. It is MEL that allows technical directors to customize Maya to fit each pipeline, to work around each limitation, and to write tools that expand Mayas already impressive set of capabilities. Mastery of MEL is as essential to a TD as a scalpel is to a surgeon.

This book shows you how MEL is being (ab)used in high-end visual effects production by picking apart scripts written in the production of recent feature films. The exhaustive and in-depth nature of this book makes it useful for a broad audience: from the MEL novice who wants to learn MEL to the advanced scripter interested in developing strategies for production problems.

The companion CD contains all of the scripts discussed in the book, meticulously formatted and commented; two videos illustrating the usage of the extended layer manager and aniMate; all of the Maya scene files needed for the discussion of MEL and expressions; and all the images in the book.