Preface

When Autodesk added support for Python into Maya 8.5, few people understood the implications. It was a decision that has fundamentally changed the way 3D art gets done. Now, years later, we stand on the edge of realizing its promise.

The promise of Python in Maya goes beyond just a familiar language with a great syntax. Any language could have been chosen to bind to Maya; and most would have been more familiar, and with a better syntax than MEL, and easier to use than C++. So, why Python?

The promise goes beyond a powerful language with lots of built-in features. Python is said to have batteries included, but so do other languages, and Autodesk certainly has lots of batteries in Maya that now also exist in Python. So, again, why Python?

The promise goes beyond having a single language for scripting, API use, and plugins. It goes beyond the endless third-party libraries maintained by a large community. It goes beyond having powerful development tools.

The promise of Python in Maya is all of these things and more. You can learn how to use the language by leveraging a wide variety of resources that have nothing to do with Maya. You can easily translate what you know of MEL and the C++ API and use it in Python, but with an improved development velocity and maintainability of code. You can use your favorite standard Python editor and tools. You can learn about the language from a technical and design perspective and apply that to improve your programming in Maya. You can be part of a large, vibrant, diverse community of developers on the forefront of multiple areas of technology.

Join me as we explore topics that will allow you to unleash the power of Maya through Python. Together, we'll learn how Python works both under the hood and over it, how Maya integrates with Python, and how the elegant PyMEL builds on that integration. We will drill down into what makes Python code beautiful and idiomatic, and how we can use these concepts and Python's language features to make our Maya Python code expressive and elegant. We will leverage third-party solutions for networking and user interfaces, to compliment and extend what is included with Maya and Python. We will decouple Python code from Maya dependencies, making our work go smoother and faster

This book is not a reference. It is not a cookbook, and it is not a comprehensive guide to Maya's Python API. It is a book that will teach you how to write better Python code for use inside of Maya. It will unearth interesting ways of using Maya and Python to create amazing things that wouldn't be possible otherwise. While there is plenty of code in this book that I encourage you to copy and adapt, this book is not about providing recipes. It is a book to teach skills and enable.

This is a book which, I hope, helps realize the promise of Python in Maya.