Using Mel to create/animate geometry tia sal2

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Greetings All,

I'm jumping in with MEL and would like to find out different ways to
create
geometry using Mel. I've purchased the Digital Tutors Mel and have
started experimenting. The first thing I would like to do is
create/animate a Clifford Torus being created. Can Mel do this? Are
there any other tutorials you can recommend that will show me how to do
this in MAYA 7.

Example of Clifford Torus
http://rsp.math.brandeis.edu/3D-
XplorMath/Surface/clifford_torus/clifford_torus.html


http://rsp.math.brandeis.edu/3D-
XplorMath/Surface/clifford_torus/clifford_torus_lg1.html

TIA

[aen]

Post by ***@temp.com
Greetings All,
I'm jumping in with MEL and would like to find out different ways to
create
geometry using Mel. I've purchased the Digital Tutors Mel and have
started experimenting. The first thing I would like to do is
create/animate a Clifford Torus being created. Can Mel do this? Are
there any other tutorials you can recommend that will show me how to do
this in MAYA 7.

Assuming your creation and animation amount to:
http://www.msri.org/about/sgp/jim/geom/r4/torus/rotations/main.html

The Mel script is not too difficult, if you can get the above html's java applet
coding then translation of that specific coding into maya is possible However
this does appear to use a quaternion (w,x,y,z) matrix format which requires some
understanding of geometry. The Clifford Torus appears to be a THEORTICAL 4D
Model in which projection to a 3D model can be done with a number of different
techniques.

If you are just starting Mel with no pervious programming or geometry experience
then it will take some time to create such a model. Knowledge of Mel Script is
divided into Maya specific coding (interface) and generic 3D programming
(OpenGL), to make your Clifford Torus would require both and this takes time and
practice. Perhaps you should start with a smaller goals for you first creation?

Complete Maya Programming, Vol. II is a good reference book, Gnomon has tutorial
about mel and expressions and Alias's Mel_API is also a good starting video,
however half of this is API initialization protocols and techniques.

hth's aen