• C++: Most software APIs and more complex standalone software are done using C++. And from a shading development point of view, mental ray shaders are C/C++ and RenderMan SL is also very similar to C.

• Python: Most VFX software supports Python now as a script language. And its object oriented with loads of existing libraries. MEL will slowly and surely lose its importance within Maya.

Many areas of vfx ( such as image processing, rendering, physics simulation, and increasingly simulation of characters) push the CPU really hard while the TD sits there watching pixels update. For this kind of stuff the speed of C / C++ is indispensable. There are plenty of libraries around, and you can use C to program the GPU too.

For other stuff, where the speed of writing code is more important than CPU cycles, then dynamically-typed scripting languages like python are good, and of course Python is finding its way into every vfx package there is, nuke, realflow, houdini, maya etc. In Maya, as the whole UI is coded in mel, I still find it easier to hack around in mel there.

That's the obvious ones out of the way.

I'd recommend learning on a Unix system - get exposure to the csh/bash shell and stuff like awk, sed, and regular expressions.

I would love to see Ruby integrated into some CG apps -- I guess that'll never happen, but I think learning Ruby makes you a better programmer anyway. I'm sure it has improved my MEL and C++.

I would generally agree about C style languages, with the caveat that most good programmers will be familiar with a wide variety of languages, environments and coding patterns. Good programming is about problem solving and analysis, principles that are largely language agnostic.

MEL maybe on its way out now, but 7-8 years ago this was not the case. Who cans say what role python will be playing in 7-8 years time? Programmers need to be able to adapt accordingly.