Teaming up with @voMethod on this one. Mr. Seth Gibson offered some help and extra content for my GDC Power Python talk. Unfortunately, I was limited to 50 minutes so I did not get time to illustrate some great examples he offered. Now we have the time, so here is a nice piece on[…]
You may have heard about unittests in the past, and most likely, like myself, didn’t really know what they were or why you would want to use them. Even if you talked with someone who did use them and loved ’em, they still had a difficult time explaining what they really were. Well I’ll do[…]
One of the first things to check when a (python) script is not loading or importing properly is your *pythonpath* environment variable. This is because Python modules are VERY dependent on path location. So if you ever get an error that says something like this: or then you better check your pythonpaths by using simple[…]
There are some great posts and pages explaining how to setup Wing IDE to remotely debug a Maya session. Eric Pavey first posted how to do this at his WarpCat Blog along with how to send commands back and forth to Maya from Wing. Luckily, now, many of us are starting to use this workflow[…]
Do you ask yourself any of these questions? a). Ever wonder what the big deal is with Python vs. MEL? b). What is all of this Python Classing and PyMEL nonsense? c). Why go to the trouble of using a complicated IDE? The answers are in my talk from GDC last week. Hope it helps[…]
Turns out that I’m always, repeat, always re-writing, and re-organizing my code. If you’re like me, you’ll want to leave your old functions or classes & methods in place while you re-write or move them. Then you’ll want to leave little tags everywhere there is an old call to one of these. Seth Gibson (@voMethod on Twitter)[…]
(Lifted from Didip Kerabat’s blog HERE) Unlike Java, where static method and class method are the same thing, in Python there is subtle difference: Say function a() is defined in Parent Class, while Sub Class extends Parent Class If function a() has @staticmethod decorator, Sub.a() still refers to definition inside Parent Class. Whereas, If function a() has @classmethod decorator, Sub.a()[…]
PyDev has debugger: Turns out Pydev has a nice plugin/package calling the module pydevd.py. Instructions on generic usage are here: http://pydev.org/manual_adv_remote_debugger.html When we say remote, it doesn’t have to be on another computer, it can be on your own computer, it is just debugging a script that is not being run from within your Eclipse[…]
Debugging Maya with the Wing Python IDE has been one of the greatest breakthroughs in Maya scripting/programming development in recent memory. I first heard about this possibility from WarpCat’s blog: http://warpcat.blogspot.com/2009/02/remove-debugging-from-wing-to-maya.html My latest project requires some MotionBuilder scripting again and now that I am used to scripting like a pro w/ a real IDE and[…]
So I had to re-write our exporter the other day. Needing to optimize the vertex iterator, I decided it was a good time to push into Maya’s Python wrapped API, ‘cept the examples available are practically nil. Until I found Chad’s awesome script: http://www.chadvernon.com/blog/downloads/cvxporter/ Made for the directX schema, he still has awesome examples of[…]
NGUI for Unity by Charles Bernardoff via PACKT Publishing available here: http://bit.ly/1lp1Do7 I had the opportunity to review the first book on the mega-popular NGUI user interface plug-in for Unity. NGUI is a great UI system for < $100 that you can add into your Unity projects. It is quite in-depth and very powerful so it[…]
I was fortunate enough to stumble into a free trial of PyCharm right at the glorious 3.0 release. There was a flurry of rants and raves running through the Tech Art community upon this release and for good reason. With 3.0, JetBrains released an Open Source “Community” version which is fully featured. After using for[…]
If you’re like me, you like to always be using the latest version of an Autodesk product. The 2014 series has just been released and it is always quite a bit of work to convert you’re existing toolset up to the latest build. In the case of Maya 2014, there are more than just a[…]
This is how you subclass PyMEL’s Transform Node to create custom shapes and node types that inherit all the methods of Maya’s Transformational Objects. Subclassing PyNodes is one of the (so-called ‘experimental’) hidden gems of PyMEL. This feature allows you to take advantage of all of the factory generated methods on each Maya node type.[…]
Done Before There are dozens of useful sites and blog posts for how to incorporate PyQT into Maya (Tech-Artists.org alone has over 130 threads!) Nathan has some of the best overviews, here: nathanhorne.com I’ve found it necessary to add my own to the mix because there are a couple of tricks I’ve found to make[…]
So I’ve finally updated, modernized, and re-released the ancient, seminal introduction to python scripting for MotionBuilder. I spent quite a bit of time re-formatting it in iBooks Author and released it on the iBooks store here: and UK store: and Canada store: New features include: Member function updates for MotionBuilder 2012 ‘Interactive Images’ of scripts[…]
It occurs to me that many of you don’t yet have what is probably the best reference to date on everything python in Maya. So the blatant, condoned shameless plug comes right now: Go to http://amzn.to/mayaPythonBook and pick up a copy. A Kindle version might be interesting: http://amzn.to/mayaPythonKindle Read the quote on the back. 😉
I suspect the time has come for us to finally recognize Minecraft as a digital creation platform and not just a game. Case in point, virtual computers. Kids around the world are just now making: 16-bit computer (Arithmetic Logic Unit) 256-bit computer Dual Core CPU 16 bytes RAM Display monitor and 3D printer These technologies[…]
It seems like there are more and more posts, queries, and threads about Maya’s different scripting languages. I figure it’ll be nice to have a nice listing of the languages, their benefits and uses. Here is a quick breakdown: MEL: Entire application is basically written in MEL Super simple, easy to learn Very limited in[…]
Jason Orendorff wrote an awesome module some years ago to make it quick and easy to manipulate file paths and file names. I was fortunate enough to be exposed to this module and class via PyMEL’s package which included it. Here is our test path and we’ll slice it and dice it in all kinds[…]
