The Autodesk Developer Network is offering a free 2-day Maya API training at Siggraph in Vancouver on August 12th and 13th, 2011. This is a rare opportunity to work in a small class room environment with a very knowledgeable instructor on the last release of Autodesk Maya. The unique opportunity allows you to dive into the inner workings of the software, and come out with a strong fundamental knowledge of their architecture to see and understand how you can utilize and benefit from the API of this powerful software’s.

Training Description:
Maya has been used by the world’s best animation studios and companies ever since it came into existence ten years ago. As one of the most powerful 3d animation applications, it provides quite flexible architecture so that users are free to mold and change Maya to fit their particular production environment and workflow, through Maya’s Application Programming Interface (API).  Maya API increase Maya’s power, customizing and extending Maya in many ways that you never thought possible. This 2 day training will be an intensive journey to explore Maya API through a top-down approach. We will first look at Maya’s fundamental concepts and internal design architecture, then goes step-by-step into details on Maya API key components individually. There will also be hands-on labs for people to play around with sample plug-ins and get their feet wet in Maya plug-in development field.

Level of expectation:
This course is a step-by-step training transitioning from novice level to intermediate level. The target audience preferably would be people who knows programming in Python, but are new to Maya plug-in development. People with knowledge of C++ programming language who want to develop python Maya plug-ins/scripts can also benefit from this training. Participants will be expected to arrive with their own development laptop with the Maya 2012 installed and licensed.

Agenda:
Day one: In Day one, we will be focusing on the Maya’s own particular design philosophy to give audiences a better understanding of what’s going on under the hood. We will cover programming with python in Maya and basics of getting you started to build a plug-in from scratch, then we will dwell into Maya’s most fundamental concepts, Dependency Graph and Nodes.
• Maya API Introduction
• Programming with Python in Maya
• Dependency Graph and Nodes
• Dependency Graph and Nodes (part 2)

Day two: Day two will be a reinforcement and extension of what we have learned in Day one. We will talk about some of the caveats and gotcha for dependency graph programming in Maya, and how to create Maya custom command. We will also be looking at more advanced topics such as Maya callback systems, and miscellaneous tools to help improving your workflow.
• A Closer Look at Dependency Graph
• Custom Commands
• Maya Callback System
• Miscellaneous Tools

Register for the Maya API training here