Welcome to Python for Maya: Artist Friendly Programming!

Description

Welcome to Python for Maya: Artist Friendly Programming!

This course will take you from your very first line of Python code to creating advanced user interfaces with all that fluidity we expect of a professional. You'll learn skills that will help you work faster by automating repetitive tasks so you can focus on the work you want to be doing. This can in turn also add incredible value to you on the job market and help you move up the ladder faster.

Whether you're a beginner or already familiar with Python, there's a lot this course can offer you. Projects are split up by difficulty and there's a project for you whether you're a modeller, animator, rigger or lighter.

Here's what we'll cover:

• Python Fundamentals: functions, classes, if statements, etc...
• Advanced Python concepts like lambdas,partials, regular expressions, etc..
• Writing User Interfaces with Maya Cmds and Qt
• Writing data to disk and loading it back in to Maya as JSON
• Creating command line tools
• Setting up a professional workflow
• The Qt interface framework: custom widgets, signals and slots, stylesheets etc

Additionally, this is currently the only course that covers changes introduced in Maya 2017.

You'll have full source code access with comprehensive comments to follow along with, as well as other resources that will help you learn when you're done.

I taught myself Python several years ago when I was an artist, and today hundreds of artists use my tools everyday. I'll be using the same project driven methods to teach you Python.

Ready to start your programming journey? Let's go!

Resources

The most important resource is:

https://github.com/dgovil/PythonForMayaSamples

This has:

• Links to all the software you'll need.
• Source code for all our projects with comments.
• Other resources to further your education.

What are the requirements?

• Maya 2011 or higher (2017 preferred).
• A computer with an internet connection

There will be links to everything else you need on the github page.

What am I going to get from this course?

• You'll have the skills to build tools that will speed up your work.
• The necessary workflow to build code that can be shared with your team or studio.
• The necessary skill set that we'd ask of a pipeline developer in major studios.

What is the target audience?

• Beginners with no programming experience
• Intermediates with some experience looking to hone their skills

• This course is for artists who want to learn Python programming to make tools, work more efficiently or add job value.
• The course is targeted to beginners with no programming experience as well as intermediate's who want to learn new skills.

Course content

• Introduction
  • Introduction
  • Overview Of Materials
  • The Script Editor
  • Hello World
  • Hello Cube
  • The Cube Rig
  • Variables and Types
  • Maya's Programming Languages and Libraries
  • Nodes in Maya
  • The History of Python: 2 vs 3
  • Saving Out Scripts
  • MEL For Maya
• Object Renamer
  • Introduction
  • Finding Help
  • The LS command
  • If Statements
  • For Loops
  • While Loops
  • Finding The Type of Objects
  • If, Else If and Else
  • Setting Up PyCharm
  • Functions
  • Dictionaries: Keys and Values
  • String Formatting
  • Scopes in Python
• The Gear Creator
  • Introduction
  • Creating The Python Script
  • Creating the Gear
  • Modifying the Gear
  • Classes: Custom Types and Interfaces in Python
  • The Gear Class: Converting our functions to classes
• The Animation Tweener
  • Introduction
  • Overview of UI Libraries in Maya
  • Writing the Tween Function: Getting Data
  • Writing the Tween Function: Setting Keys
  • Creating the UI
  • Reusing the UI for our Gear Creator
  • Adding Scripts to the Maya Shelf
• The Controller Library
  • Introduction
  • Qt: An Overview of the Popular UI Library
  • Qt vs Maya Cmds
  • Duck Typing
  • Qt.py: A portable wrapper for Qt
  • Importing Qt modules
  • Creating The Library Directory
  • Saving Controllers
  • Finding Saved Controllers
  • Loading Controllers
  • Our First Bug
  • Reading and Writing Data to JSON
  • Capturing Screenshots
  • Looking up Qt Documentation
  • Displaying the Qt Window
  • Building the Qt UI
  • Making a Gallery view for the Controllers
  • Signals and Slots
  • Making the UI function
  • Ideas to Improve the Controller Library
• The Light Manager
  • Introduction
  • PyMel: An Alternate API in Maya
  • Starting the UI and Partial Functions
  • Creating a Custom Widget and Lambdas
  • Finishing Our Custom Widget: Visibility and Intensity
  • Finishing Our Custom Widget: Controlling Color
  • Creating Portable Code and the Logger module
  • MQtUtil: Combining Qt with Maya controls
  • Try/Except: Handling errors
  • Exporting Our Lights
  • Importing Our Lights
  • Ideas to Improve the Light Manager
• Finishing Up
  • Command Line File Renamer: Reading Command Line Parameters
  • Command Line File Renamer: Moving Files
  • Other Python Libraries: Sys and Subprocess
  • Other Script Editors for Python
  • Setting Up Sublime Text
  • Setting Up Eclipse
  • The End!