I come from more visual background, but somehow ended up doing quite a bit of rigging in Maya.
Seems like a huge disadvantage not knowing scripting...I do use tons of .mel written by others but don't know how to write my own.
Where would be a good place to start?
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Hugh Macdonald
[ Editor ]
For the Python side of things, which I think is a good language to know for VFX in general (as it's used by Maya, Houdini and Nuke, amongst, I'm sure, others) I generally recommend:
Think Like A Python Programmer. It's not Maya-specific at all, but it's a good introduction to Python as a programming language.
I first learnt MEL (I've not used MEL in a long time, so I've got a bit rusty there!) from MEL Scripting for Maya Animators. It's written for people who aren't necessarily already programmers, so starts from a very basic level. I don't know how recently there was a new addition and, if there's not been anything in a while, how much MEL has changed since it was written, but you might want to look more into it... (The second edition that is shown on the site is certainly newer than the one that I learnt from)
Horvatth Szabolcs
[ Editor ]
Bryan Ewert had a wonderful collection of MEL bits and pieces at http://ewertb.soundlinker.com/maya.htm and a specific introduction to MEL at http://ewertb.soundlinker.com/mel/mel.095.htm
You won't really learn coding style and patterns from this, but its great for down-to-earth, learn-by-doing-it stuff. And taking a closer look at the scripts you use will help you a lot learning micro problem solving tricks.
But beware, a large percent of the scripts from HighEnd3D has awful coding style. Just the fact that a script works does not mean you should take it as being carved in stone. :)
Georg Kaltenbrunner
[ Editor ]
To add to Hugh's Python list, I would suggest.
Dive into Python, which is a free online book.
Python Doc's, straight from the Python Creators so always up to date.