Animal Logic’s Software Engineer Marco Giordano Shows Off a Personal Project: A Compiler Running a Custom Language in Maya

Autodesk Maya’s foundation is MEL or Maya Embedded Language. It’s an easy way to make tools, issue commands or make Maya do things it doesn’t do. MEL has limitations though, but don’t worry you can also use Python in Maya. If you were a little savvier, you could write C code and compile your very own nodes and plugins. Marco Giordano goes a step further by creating his very own custom language to which he has written a compiler — And he has it running inside of Maya.

Watch Marco do a quick introduction to the project, where he shows off his custom language running inside of Maya through a Maya Node. “In the future, I want to get a nodal graph on top of it in the same way fabric did,” Marco says. Fabric engine was a platform for developing high-performance tools for the visual effects and games industry, which unfortunately is no longer. Fabric Engine shut down a little while ago. Still, Fabric made a strong case for having an environment for creating fast tools.

Marco makes the source available for people who want to tinker. “Keep in mind this is a WIP I recommend not to use it yet but you are free to poke around.” Marco says.