Notes on final projects: Be sure to include division of labor for group projects Think of web page as a diary/journal: after the basic proposal, put ether weekly or event driven entries with updates include images, text, what ever it takes for me to understand that progress is being made ---=Now on with the Mel Scripting Notes=-- Window > General Editors > Script Editor. history window top command input window bottom // = "comments" notes to self, won't be executed case sensitive ";" = end of command sphere; delete; sphere -radius 5 -name Planet; move -relative 3 0 0; move -r 3 0 0; //same as above Help > Mel Reference for list of commands highlight lines and then File > Save selected to Shelf Download script from courses web page in script editor: file > Open Script read the comments in the file note the line that says global proc string spiral( float $ht, float $radius, float $numRounds) The three variables within the parentheses, $ht, $radius, and $numRounds are arguments to the procedure spiral. They represent values that you must enter when you execute the spiral.mel script in a later step. The variables specify the height, radius, and number of rounds for the spiral curve that will be created when you execute the script. The entry float is short for floating point, the data type of an argument. A floating point number is a number with a decimal point rather than an integer. Try to execute the script: spiral 5 2 10; Now try the tutorial on page: http://www.nthd.org/nthd/58 Modify it in some way (perhaps load another object?) Field of cows example another useful example http://kotisivu.mtv3.fi/karppa/pier.html http://www.garryrunke.com/tutorials/ObjectsToParticles/ObjectsToParticles.htm ------ Mel tutorial http://www.zjprogramming.com/html/mel_recipe.html http://www.ewertb.com/maya/ http://www.ewertb.com/maya/mel/mel.php?howto=95 http://www.nthd.org/nthd/58 (really good Mel example) http://www.learning-maya.com/mel.php Assignments: http://www.nthd.org/nthd/58 (really good Mel example) Make something (car, animal, teapot) use maya script to lay down tracks, or path, or environment Dominoes http://www.fx.clemson.edu/~jkundert/Syllabi/MEL.html Build a Volcano automatically. Using a MEL script, create a volcano from an empty scene. This volcano should have geometry (volcano shape and ground plane), and should have modifyable particle "lava". To allow user control over the volcano, create a simple GUI window that allows control over particle velocity, spread, and size (using the attrFieldSliderGrp slider and text box group). For extra credit, allow control over the amount of randomness in the eruption too. Sample GUI code: window -t "Volcano Window" -wh 400 200 windowName; columnLayout -cw 200; button -l "Click this button to do something" -c "doSomething" buttonName; text " "; attrFieldSliderGrp -l "Change something" -min 0 -max 10 sliderName; showWindow myWindow; Animation options: Rube-Goldberg device to turn on a light (like mouse trap game)