Is Python becoming a standard for animation application scripting interfaces? Autodesk, originally well-known for their AutoCAD drafting software have diversified into animation with a product called Maya, which has just been upgraded to version 8.5. One of the new features trumpeted in a report of the announcement is Python scripting, which turns out to be very popular with the film industry.
Anders Langlands, R&D lead at The Moving Picture Co. (MPC) and Maya 8.5 beta tester, commented: "Having Python support available in Autodesk Maya means we can leverage many of our existing tools directly within Maya, rather than having to write glue code to bind Maya to our pipeline. This allows us to develop new node and command plug-ins in a fraction of the time it would normally take using other solutions."
I already knew that Python was popular with companies like ILM and Pixar, but it seems as though its value in animation is now an open secret.
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8 comments:
Side Effects Software is also going to be supporting Python with their upcoming Houdini 9 release.
While "standard" is a big leap, I know that animators have made big use of Python for years. I started studying Python around the turn of the century at the suggestion of a friend at Industrial Light and Magic.
I think Python has been widely used for this for at least the past 7 or 8 years, maybe the entire previous decade.
Steve,
Well…was that it? Your time is up? Come in number six.
In case I’m ever selected as a blogger of note I intend to write and reserve a thousand wonderful poems between now and then. I shall post 10 poems per day for the duration of my noteworthiness, especially for my captive audience.
Did you enjoy your fifteen minutes of fame? I think you conducted yourself admirably, considering you are Lex Luthor – speaking of which – there must have been something amiss with the code that they supplied to place on your blog. I tried this and I was calculated as “Mystique” but there were several iffy places in the code that blogger highlighted and the picture failed to download to blogger. Without the picture I was nothing, so I deleted it.
Nice to read you, again. I'll bookmark you and have a mooch around your site at another time, if that’s OK with you.
Good luck with your Python stuff, whatever that is.
Regards,
Coral
Actually
- caligari truespace 4 had a python interface in 1999
- Houdini has python support
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=545&Itemid=66
If you want an OOP scripting language, there is IMHO only python or ruby. Python is more "performant" and more mature
Softimage XSI has it and even Avid's Marquee text editor can be scripted with Python. Both for a long time - well long in this business I guess.
I think the right word is mature. Python is a very mature language. As a mather of fact few people know that. Python is growing very silent. Google already know about this maturity and is investing a lot on it. And there are many other organizations that are taking commercial advantage of python productivity.
I thing ruby is cool, but I'd rather the clear sintax and performance of python.
Regards
Giuseppe
yeah python indeed is nice and extensible language and i see many performance based applications turning to languages like python , ruby for providing internal DSL support
And somehow you forgot to mention that Blender has for as long as I can remember been scripted with Python.
Blender is of course the best free Open Source 3D modelling program.
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