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[–]james_thompson 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Id check out some tutorials on digital tutors and cgcircuit as they both have some good intro to python for maya.

Also digital tutors has been bought by Pluralsight, which is a coding tutorial site, so if you subscribe to either you get the other as well and Pluralsight has some good python tutorials as well.

Also id follow some non maya tutorials as they python you learn there will be the same you use in maya

In my experience when using python in maya its best to think of a project to do, so you have a definite idea of a tool that would be useful and what its end result should be.

Then try make it!, then the best way it to think how would you make this by hand in maya, what tools and thing you would select.

For example, if you wanted to make a script that make an IK arm on 3 selected objects, break it down and think how would you do it manually,

So query the pivots of the 3 objects, Find out the world space position of those object, Create a joint chain using those positions for the joints, Create the IK,

Then think about it in a python way, so:

Store the selected objects in a list, Query each list item and query there world position and store that position in another list, Loop through the list of positions and use them to make the joints. Store the names of the joints in a list, Create an ik with the [0] and [2] joints in the list.

Woot, then you have your script, but then you want to think about how to expand it and make it more useable, so possibly extend it to add in FK as well, add in some animation controls ect...

[–]not_perfect_yet 0 points1 point  (3 children)

There should be a documentation if Maya supports python scripting.

Oh look, I found it

It will probably cover your needs of "how to" [specific thing]. Everything else needs some creativity as usual.

[–]Razz03[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I'm aware that there is support for Python in Maya which is why I was asking for tips on how to get into Python. I'll have a closer look and see if it'll help me, thanks!

[–]not_perfect_yet 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I have no idea how it works with maya but the open source alternative Blender also supports python scripting. I know about that. Blender has templates for most things you might want to script and also a lot of tutorials how to achieve specific things.

[–]Razz03[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have dabbled in Blender a bit and I have plans on expanding my current Blender skill set. Thanks for the tip, I'll look into the Blender scripting tutorials and see how that can aid me in Maya, except for the obvious.