Tecnologia em Jogos Digitais

Por Daniel Cardoso Tavares

Olá a todos,

gostaria de indicar o curso que a CGSociety estará iniciando neste dia 25 de junho sobre Python para MAYA. Trata-se de uma linguagem de programação, ensinada desde o início, para leigos, que (também) serve para programar dentro do MAYA. Isso não é importante apenas para programadores, mas também para artistas “avançados”, como os que fazem nossa graduação e que aprendem também a programar.

O curso custa USD 599,00, algo em torno de  R$ 1200,00.

O curso tem duração de 8 semanas, online, e será ministrado pelo professor Shaun Friedberg, que entre suas proesas tem os seguintes créditos:

The Hobbit: Part 1
X-Men: First Class
Rise of the Apes
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
Gulliver’s Travels
Predators
The A-Team
Avatar

Esquema semana a semana:

Week One: Introduction to Python in Maya
In week one, we’ll talk s little about what Python is and what we can do with it, in and outside of Maya. We will also learn how to fish for information in the Python docs, Maya docs, and online. The majority of examples will be executed inside Maya where we will also walk through setting up a development environment.

• 1. Introduction to the course and what to expect
• 2. What Is Python and what can we do with it
• 3. How to run and source Python scripts from within Maya
• 4. Getting to know the docs for Python both in Maya and on-line
• 5. Helpful commands; dir(), help(), type()
• 6. How to Set Up an IDE (Interactive Development Environment) or Script Editor
• 7. Basic Maya Commands

Assignments this week – Get an IDE or script editor plugged into Maya, install software: Python, Ipython, Java (depending on your IDE) Due this week. Workload: around one hour.

Week Two: Python Anatomy 101
It’s important to understand a few core concepts before we get bogged down. Week two will be driven by examples inside Maya involving manipulating and creating geometry, basic file handling and more. Shaun will introduce commenting, doc strings and the importance of making your code readable, and quickly cover the Zen of Python, along with a few of my Shaun’s own words to code by.

• 1. Variables
• 2. Strings
• 3. Numbers
• 4. Lists
• 5. Dictionaries
• 6. Sets
• 7. Logic
• 8. Loops
• 9. Commenting and Doc Strings
• 10. The Zen Of Python
• 11. Functions

Assignments this week – We will be covering a lot of ground and learning a lot of new Maya commands in the process. For your assignment this week, use what you have learned so far to write a script which will get and store information about mesh in your scene. i.e. faces, vertices, etc. Due this week. Workload: up to three hours.

Week Three: An introduction to Maya nodes and converting Mel to Python
A great way to learn Maya commands is to get feedback from the Mel script editor and convert them to Python. In week three we will talk about how Mel and Python are integrated into Maya, and some of the benefits of using Python over Mel and vice versa.

• 1. How is Python implemented in Maya
• 2. Converting Mel to Python
• 3. Python vs. Mel (Why not just use Mel)
• 4. How to call Mel from Python and Python from Mel

Assignments this week – You will be provided with a list of commands and a function to convert from Mel to Python. Due week four. Workload: up to four hours.

Week Four and Five: Useful Maya commands, and structuring re-usable code
Up to this point we have covered isolated scripting while learning a lot of the basics. In week four you’ll learn about getting and setting attributes and making sure you are querying the right node type, and other debugging tips, while adding to your repertoire of useful commands, and building reusable functions. In Week five, you’ll build on what you learned in Week four by adding levels of complexity to your calls. You will introduce options for randomizing values, and take it a step further by writing a spherically random function.

• 1. Node types
• 2. Random functions
• 3. Getting and setting attributes, relatives, specific selections, etc.
• 4. Writing our own simple version of the Mel sphrand command in Python
• 5. Putting it all together into reusable code

Assignments this week – Write your own function to randomly edit a nodes transform attribute, either rotation, translation or scale, or randomly generate nodes in a given area. Due week five. Workload: up to five hours.

Week Six: Python and Xml
This week we will talk about using Xml to store and pass on data. We’ll discuss a few concepts regarding how to format and manage your xml. We will read and write xml files as well as build an Xml file which describes a Maya scene.

• 1. What is Xml
• 2. Which Python Module to use
• 3. Parsing (reading) Xml
• 4. Writing Xml
• 5. Create an Xml file representing your Maya scene

Assignments this week – Write a Python script to write out an xml representation of your Maya scene. Due week seven. Workload: up to three hours.

Week Seven and Eight: GUI Building in Maya
In week seven we will review some of our options, commands and paradigms (basic design flow), and implement a few simple examples. Once we have the basics down, week eight will be about implementing more complex and production ready examples, along with some tricks of the trade.

• 1. What are our options for building UI’s in Maya
• 2. Layouts
• 3. Controls
• 4. Menus
• 5. Putting it all together
• 6. Making examples out of context, and just for fun
• 7. More complex and production ready examples
• 8. A few tricks of the trade

Assignment this week – Create a UI, however simple or complex. The emphasis on this project is the flow of your script not how fancy the functionality is. Due week eight. Workload: up to six hours.

Maiores informações: http://workshops.cgsociety.org/courseinfo.php?id=254&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=facebookad&utm_campaign=frijun254

Acompanhe pelo Facebook: Profissionais de Jogos