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  • Book Overview & Buying Practical Maya Programming with Python
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Practical Maya Programming with Python

Practical Maya Programming with Python

By : Galanakis
4 (12)
Buy this Book
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Practical Maya Programming with Python

Practical Maya Programming with Python

4 (12)
By: Galanakis
Buy this Book

Overview of this book

Practical Maya Programming with Python is a practical tutorial packed with plenty of examples and sample projects which guides you through building reusable, independent modules and handling unexpected errors. If you are a developer looking to build a powerful system using Python and Maya's capabilities, then this book is for you. Practical Maya Programming with Python is perfect for intermediate users with basic experience in Python and Maya who want to better their knowledge and skills.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)
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Preface
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Preface
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What this book covers
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What you need for this book
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Who this book is for
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Conventions
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Reader feedback
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Customer support
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1
1. Introspecting Maya, Python, and PyMEL
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1. Introspecting Maya, Python, and PyMEL
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Creating your library
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Exploring Maya and PyMEL
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Building the pmhelp function
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Summary
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2. Writing Composable Code
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2. Writing Composable Code
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Defining composability
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Learning to use list comprehensions
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Writing a skeleton converter library
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Writing a character creator
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Improving the performance of PyMEL
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Summary
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3. Dealing with Errors
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3. Dealing with Errors
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Understanding exceptions
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Living with unhandled exceptions
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Golden rules of error handling
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Practical error handling in Maya
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Building a high-level error handler
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Installing the error handler
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Improving the error handler
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Summary
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4. Leveraging Context Managers and Decorators in Maya
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4. Leveraging Context Managers and Decorators in Maya
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Inverting the subroutine
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Introducing decorators
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Introducing context managers
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Context managers for changing scene state
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Creating the denormalized_skin context manager
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Creating a decorator to record metrics
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Advanced decorator topics
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Summary
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5. Building Graphical User Interfaces for Maya
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5. Building Graphical User Interfaces for Maya
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Introducing Qt, PyQt, and PySide
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Establishing rules for crafting a GUI
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Installing PySide
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Supporting PySide and PyQt
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Creating the hierarchy converter GUI
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Integrating the tool GUI with Maya
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Working with menus
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Working with Maya shelves
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Summary
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6. Automating Maya from the Outside
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6. Automating Maya from the Outside
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Controlling Maya through request-reply
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Designing the automation system
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Understanding the Maya startup routine
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Building the request-reply automation system
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Practical uses and improvements
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Summary
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7. Taming the Maya API
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7. Taming the Maya API
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Explaining types
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Introducing Maya's API and architecture
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Learning the Maya Python API by example
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Creating a Maya Python plugin
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Using PyMEL in a plugin that loads during startup
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Summary
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8. Unleashing the Maya API through Python
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8. Unleashing the Maya API through Python
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Understanding Dependency Graph plugins
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Demystifying Python metaprogramming
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Designing the node factory
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Building the node factory
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Extending the node factory
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Summary
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9. Becoming a Part of the Python Community
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9. Becoming a Part of the Python Community
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Understanding Open Source Software
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Creating a site directory for third-party modules
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Working with Python distributions in Maya
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Contributing to the open source community
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Engaging with the wider community
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Summary
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A. Python Best Practices
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A. Python Best Practices
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The args and kwargs parameters
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String formatting
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String concatenation
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Raw strings and string literals
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Path building and manipulation
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Unicode strings
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Using the doctest module
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Adopting Test-Driven Development
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Using the GitHub repository for this book
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Index
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Index

Chapter 7. Taming the Maya API

Maya's Python command system, MEL, is extremely powerful. You can use it to automate and customize Maya to an incredible degree. Python and PyMEL have largely superseded MEL because they are much more powerful and flexible. We've put this power and flexibility to great use by creating composable libraries, robust error handling, an automation system, and maintainable GUIs.

What we haven't yet discussed is Python's role in augmenting, and in many cases replacing, C++ in Maya programming. There are some things that the command system and MEL are designed to not do. Dealing with the Maya Application Programming Interface (API) is one such thing. Python, however, can utilize most of the Maya API that C++ has access to. In Chapter 8, Unleashing the Maya API through Python, we will see how Python allows us to do things we cannot even do in C++, and easily create custom Maya plugins in a very Pythonic way with no boilerplate.

Before we...

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