Maya 7 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual Quickstart Guide

17. MEL and Expressions

In Maya, many repetitive tasks can be made easier with Maya Embedded Language (MEL) or expressions. MEL is a scripting language that uses commands to cause Maya to do different things. In fact, most of the tools you use in Maya create their effects by executing MEL commands. You can view these commands in the Script Editor, which makes it easy to learn the MEL commands for specific tasks (Figure 17.1). You can also use the Script Editor to write and execute MEL scripts, which are simply multiple commands executed in sequence.

Figure 17.1. The Script Editor displays the MEL commands for the tasks you perform in Maya.