Hello World

It's like 4:00 on Saturday morning and I can't sleep so here is an update on my programming escapade. I am almost half way through my class (it is only like a month long) and although I have not done all that much programming yet I am becoming comfortable with the syntax. Thanks to Matt, I have successfully acquired and installed Visual Studio.net and produced the requisite "Hello World" program. For those who don't know, writing a program that tells the computer to print "Hello World" is like an initiation or right of passage for programming. I suppose the Maya equivalent would be rendering a sphere or something.

In addition to keeping up with my C homework I have been trying to read up on MEL scripting. I was glad to find few substantive differences between C and MEL. The biggest difference so far is that MEL requires a $ before all variables (Im sure there are more differences). For those interested in MEL, Bryan Ewert has a great site dedicated to both MEL and API. The documentation that comes with Maya has also been very useful. In my latest complimentary issue of HDRI (thanks guys), Robin Scher has an article called "Uncle Robin's Mini Guide to MEL volume 1:". He does a nice job of laying out the basics of programming in MEL. I am looking forward to Part 2 of the article as it will get into writing actual scripts.

All this programming talk is bringing me back to my LOGO days. Back in the 80's I took a class in LOGO, I was like 7 or 8. All I can remember is that we worked on the Apple2e and spent weeks making digital spiralgraphs. Some things never change.

Learning C

So for a while I stop posting because I was being lazy and enjoying the good weather. More recently I have not been posting because I have been too busy with work and starting my new class. I am taking intro to programming with C at UMASS Lowell and so far so good. I know it is kind of stupid to commute all the way back to Lowell, a block from were I lived for the last two years, but that's where the class is being taught. The Prof seems cool and I am eager to see if I can implement any of my new programming chops in Maya and Flash.

I have been doing a ton of 3D at work so my desire to work on Maya at home has waned over the last month or so. One of these days maybe I will get clearance to post pics of my work product. I imagine Mayaloge will pick back up after my wedding/honeymoon. For now it is going the way of Gute Nacht Roboter

Another Render Test

FX Car Crash Challenge

The Submissions are in for the FX car crash challenge and there are some pretty cool entries.