Chapter 1, Getting Started with Maya, covers the basics of using Maya's script editor and getting set up to write scripts of your own. It also covers the differences between Maya Embedded Language (MEL) and Python. The basic parts of Maya's built-in commands are covered, along with the different modes (create, query, and edit) in which they can be invoked.

Chapter 2, Creating User Interfaces, introduces the reader to creating user interfaces for their scripts. It covers creating windows, adding layouts, and filling them with controls. Nested layouts and custom menus are also explained.

Chapter 3, Working with Geometry, covers using Python to work with geometric data. It starts with how to retrieve information about models, both polygonal and NURBS. It also covers creating new curves and new faces, as well as manipulating existing data to deform a model.

Chapter 4, Giving Things a Coat of Paint – UVs and Materials, deals with getting models ready for rendering, both working with UV data as well as creating and applying shading networks.

Chapter 5, Adding Controls – Scripting for Rigging, covers topics related to using scripting for rigging, including how to create bones and edit their properties. It also covers how to create set-driven key relationships and how to set up inverse kinematics (IK).

Chapter 6, Making Things Move – Scripting for Animation, deals with querying and setting keyframe data to create and modify animation. It also covers copying keyframes from one object to another and using code to create custom expressions.

Chapter 7, Scripting for Rendering, covers topics related to actually generating frames. The examples show how to create lights and cameras, and how to render images. It also covers using the Python Imaging Library (PIL) to combine images after they've been rendered.

Chapter 8, Working with File Input/Output, covers the topics needed to build larger toolchains by importing and exporting custom data. Reading and writing both text-based and binary formats is covered.

Chapter 9, Communicating with the Web, covers how to retrieve information from the Web for use in Maya. The parsing of both XML and JSON data is covered, as well as sending POST data to a website.

Chapter 10, Advanced Topics, covers several more advanced topics, including script jobs and script nodes. It also covers how to create a custom context to make scripts that work more like Maya's built-in tools.

To get the most out of this book, you'll need a copy of Maya and a programmer-friendly text editor. There are a great number of text editors out there, and many people have strong opinions on which they prefer. At a minimum, you'll want an editor that saves in plain text and offers the option to display line numbers. You'll also likely want an editor that offers syntax highlighting for Python.

All of the code for this book was written using Sublime Text (https://www.sublimetext.com/), an excellent and low-cost text editor that is great for Python, as well as many other tasks. You don't have to use that though; any text editor that allows you to edit plain text will work just fine.

Almost all of the examples in the book rely on nothing more than Python and Maya, but there is one example that uses PIL. To install PIL, you'll likely want to use PIP, a package manager that makes installing Python packages easy. You can get that at https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/.

This book is for anyone that wants to use Python to get more out of Maya. It's expected that you have a decent familiarity with Maya's interface and toolset. Knowledge of Python or other programming languages is helpful, but not required.

In this book, you will find several headings that appear frequently (Getting ready, How to do it..., How it works..., There's more..., and See also).

To give clear instructions on how to complete a recipe, we use these sections as follows:

In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "We can include other contexts through the use of the include directive."

A block of code is set as follows:

import maya.cmds as cmds

print("Imported the script!")
def makeObject():
    cmds.polyCube()
    print("Made a cube!")

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "Open the script editor by going to Windows | General Editors | Script Editor."

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