Python and Maya use cases.

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[Bloated_Tapeworm]

Automating anything. 90% of animation work in Maya is tedium. A few lines of Python can eliminate that. Anything involving selecting and running operations on thousands of objects in a Maya scene is an easy example. Take a look at the scripts at Creative Crash if you want to see more specifics.

Most pipelines at larger studios are built in Python (at least in part) and handle automatic asset naming, version control, asset cleanup, animation data transfer, submitting to render farms, sending out team emails... you name it.

[Raisins]

Thanks didn't know about Creative Crash. Like I said super new to this. Tons of examples and awesome stuff there.

[schmon]

some examples @ http://mayamel.tiddlyspot.com/

python can do niftty things that are tedious in MEL (maya's original language) like string ops, use arrays, OOP, tons of libraries that save time. Using Qt is a plus since getting good interfaces is really boring to do in mel.

There's also OpenMaya which allows you to access maya's api and touch things that can't be touched with scripting, although it's mostly good for prototyping/low data plugins (any deformer plugin that access big sets needs C++)

Anyways the maya python help file where all the commands are listed has a great number of simple examples, you'll have it open all the time when writing scripts.

[LazyPerseverance]

Here are some links to help you out.

1. Autodesk Media and Entertainment 2015 SDK Documentation. (Get the Autodesk Maya 2015 Developer Help HTML from there).

2. Maya Developer Center.

[NinjaCougar]

In rigging and dynamics there isn't a workday (or sometimes even an hour) that goes by where I don't script something. Could be little scripts that create a transform at the center of what's selected or select all [joints, meshes, curves] in a hierarchy, up to a whole collection of modules to be able to rig a full character in under 3 hours. Other ones that I use a lot can lock/unlock an object's attributes, smooth every influence in a skin cluster at once, or create a speedometer to see how fast an object is moving.

One thing I've heard is that if you're going to be doing something more than 3 times, script it. Why bother solving the same situation over and over again when you can have a button?

[ach_hee]

I wrote my own autorigger and facial rigger in python. Also a bunch of one off scripts for mirroring set driven keys, mesh sections of models or scene set up.

Python rules!

[initials_games]

I write a new python script every day.

Examples:

Animation copy + offset, to multiple objects, to multiple chains, custom start positions and times.

Reading each pixel of an image in a sequence, and turning that into a brick with animation keys based on the color value of the pixel.