MEL Scripting a Character Rig in Maya (Paperback)

Whether for big budget films and game productions or lower budget TV and Internet content, creating flexible and believable character rigs is an essential skill required to bring any 3D animation to life. As the leading software used for cutting-edge animation, Maya has an established rigging toolset for creating realistic character controls. Traditionally, however, the process of manually building custom rigs in the software interface has been time-consuming and expensive for those who want to produce high-quality 3D characters. Now for the first time and from the author of the best-seller, Maya Character Creation, comes an in-depth guide on how the pros are using MEL (Maya Embedded Language) scripting to streamline and automate the rigging process. With MEL Scripting a Character Rig in Maya, you’ll learn how you can build custom character rigs in a matter of seconds, as opposed to days or weeks.

In this detailed guide, you’ll learn:

• The techniques used to build a complex character rig in the software interface, followed by instructions for writing the equivalent MEL code for scripting the entire process.
• Fundamental concepts of creating animation controls in Maya, from the basics of creating, editing, and binding skeletons, to more complex rigs with controls that employ spline IK and channel connections.
• Important coding techniques such as using conditional statements, loops, variables, and procedures.
• How to create a character animation GUI (Graphical User Interface) that makes animating the character easy and fast.
• Important skills for building rigs using numerous hands-on exercises, all code examples and Maya files available on the companion Web site.

無論是大預算的電影和遊戲製作，還是較低預算的電視和網路內容，創造靈活且可信的角色骨架是將任何3D動畫帶入生命的必備技能。作為領先的用於尖端動畫的軟體，Maya擁有一套成熟的骨架工具集，用於創建逼真的角色控制。然而，傳統上，在軟體界面中手動建立自定義骨架的過程對於那些想要製作高質量3D角色的人來說，耗時且昂貴。現在，首次由暢銷書《Maya角色創建》的作者帶來了一本深入指南，介紹專業人士如何使用MEL（Maya嵌入式語言）腳本來簡化和自動化骨架製作過程。通過《MEL Scripting a Character Rig in Maya》，您將學習如何在幾秒鐘內建立自定義角色骨架，而不是幾天或幾週。

在這本詳細的指南中，您將學習：

• 在軟體界面中建立複雜角色骨架的技巧，然後編寫相應的MEL代碼以腳本化整個過程的指示。
• 在Maya中創建動畫控制的基本概念，從創建、編輯和綁定骨架的基礎知識，到使用樣條IK和通道連接的更複雜骨架控制。
• 使用條件語句、循環、變量和程序等重要編碼技巧。
• 如何創建一個使角色動畫變得簡單快捷的角色動畫GUI（圖形用戶界面）。
• 使用多個實踐練習來建立骨架的重要技能，所有代碼示例和Maya文件都可在附帶網站上獲得。