Week One - Introduction to mel Scripting
Week One will focus on the basics. Todd will go over commonly used mel commands, along with declaring and using variables, controlling the flow of a script, procedures, and organization. Students will write a few simple scripts during week one. This week will be an introduction to mel, organizing scripts, commenting scripts, and pitfalls to watch out for and things to avoid.

Week Two / Three- Commands and Variables
Week Two / Three will delve more heavily into mel commands and how to use them. Key commands covered will be ls, xform, get/set/addAttr. In addtion to commands, students will gain an understanding of how to use variables, along with naming standards, and techniques for controlling how data flows through a script, where it goes, and what accesses it.

Week Four - GUI's
Week Four will cover various aspects of the GUI widgets and controls, along with layouts. This week will go through building simple to moderately complex GUI systems, and even automating some GUI setups.

Week Five - Scriptjobs
Week Five dives into the frightening world of scriptjobs. Scriptjobs running other scripts upon certain events and discusses this powerful way to interact with a scene and creature rig. Their usefulness can range from automatically selecting something else if x item is selected to changing the context tool to a new one based off what is selected.

Week Six / Seven - Access of Stored Information, Limited System Interaction, and a big GUI
Week Six will begin with concepts on storing user info into outside files and how to access it, along with limited system interaction and controlling outside programs (mainly image processing systems). Students will be creating a GUI for animation controls which will access outside data files and allow for various user interactions. This final assignment will use knowledge learnt in the course of the class to speed up user interaction by automating certain functions.

Level of Ability
Working knowledge of Maya, and the ability to type and think constructively.

Examples of Work
Some simple scripts to allow the Instructor to assess overall levels of compentency and to illustrate how the students lay out a script.

Software/hardware Requirements
Maya 6.0+, and a text editor, preferably something with syntax highlighting capablities.