Ed Whetstoneon returns with part two of his tutorial, Procedural Modeling with MEL Scripts in Maya – Day 2, an introduction to using external MEL files and procedures, functions, loops, and scripted interaction within the Maya workspace. We’ll be going over basic coding practices, and putting together a nifty geometric object that would be very difficult to create without scripting.
“In this tutorial, we will be creating an external script file with four “procedures” – self-contained scripts that are meant to achieve specific goals. The first procedure will take any number of objects selected in the Maya viewport and create a chained hierarchy for easy double-transformations. The second script will un-parent selected objects, and the third will move the pivot points of selected objects to the world-space origin. These three scripts will allow you to easily create some interesting effects with multiple objects. The fourth procedure will combine all of the first three to create a ‘Fermat’s Spiral’, similar to the complex whorl found on sunflower heads.”
