The MEL Companion: Maya Scripting for 3D Artists (Charles River Media Graphics)
F
Faces of polygons, 92-97
Feedback to user , 332-334
File dialog command, 424-425
File dialog, 424
File identifier, 413
Filenames
forward slash (/) in, 244
tokenizing, 245
Files
appending, 413
ASCII, 412-423
binary, 412-413, 418
closing, 413
creating text files, 413-414
cycBuildScriptJob.mel, 207
cycGetCyclingCurveData.mel, 207-212
cyclingTool.mel, 203-204
cycSetTimes.mel, 204
cycTimeCheck.mel, 204-205
cycUpdateCurve.mel, 212-215
editCycleKey.mel, 215-216
end of, 418-419
Grass.mel, 113
log, 413
.ma, 449
Maya ASCII format, 449-450
maya.env, 67
.mel, 66, 363
opening, 413
proprietary formats, 412, 418
reading, 413, 414-417
Renderman Standard format, 418
scySelectCheck.mel, 205-207
skin data, 434-448
types of, 412
userSetup.mel, 353, 396
writing to, 413-414, 419-434
Flags, 35-36, 95
Flapping ball project
adding sine wave to rotation Z channel, 221-222
altering axis of motion, 224
definition and design, 220
driven key animation, 224-226
dynamic attributes, 223-224, 226, 228
Expression Editor, 221-222
implementation, 220-230
increasing flap of wings, 224
initializing element, 228-229
modifying flap time, 222
overview, 220
random ball direction, 226-228
random speed, 228
target position, 229-230
Float field controls, 290, 327-330
Float Slider control, 289
Float Slider Group control, 289
Float variable, 43, 47-48, 50-51
Floating-point numbers , 9, 43, 139, 440
Flow control
break command, 54, 63-64
continue statement, 63-64
Flowcharts
cubic reflection maps project, 234
for Cycling tool, 173
described, 72-73
for geosphere project, 153
for grass generator project, 108, 113
for icosahedron project, 87
for rendertime smoothing, 252, 253, 254
for scene summary, 420
for skin data tool, 435, 436
Focus, panel with, 368-369
For loop, 58-60, 126
For-in loop, 59-60, 185-186, 255-256
Form layout
attaching buttons to, 331-332
using, 287, 305, 374, 378
Forward slash (/)
in comments, 77-78
in file name , 244
Fractional numbers. See rational numbers
Frame layout, 280-282
Frames per second (fps) and time, 222
Function and function calls, 74-75
Functions, mathematical, 10