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Introduction

Lesson 2: Saving scripts to the Shelf

Recording the script history

 

Learning Resources > Tutorials > Getting Started with Maya > Scripting in Maya > Lesson 2: Saving scripts to the Shelf > 

Setting up the scene

Here, you create some primitive objects to display lighting and shading .

1. Select File > New Scene to create a new scene.
2. Select Window > General Editors > Script Editor to open the Script Editor.
3. Create a ground plane by typing the following:

   polyPlane -height 40 -width 40;

   A plane appears at the origin.

   The height and width flags specify the dimensions of the plane.

4. Create a NURBS torus by typing the following

   torus -axis 0 1 0 -heightRatio 0.5;

   A torus appears at the origin.

   The axis of the torus specifies the orientation of the major axis of the torus. The height ratio flag specifies the ratio of the major radius of the torus to the height of the torus.

5. Reposition the torus so it is not intersecting the plane by typing the following with the torus selected.

   move 0 0.5 0;

   The move command takes the argument (x, y, z), specifying how much and in what direction to move the selected or named object. This above command moves the torus 0.5 units up on the Y-axis.

6. Bring focus to the selected torus in the scene view by pressing f.
7. Render the scene by clicking the render button on the Status Line.

   The Render View opens with a rendered image of the scene.

   

8. Save the rendered image by clicking the Keep image button . This lets you compare your rendered image with future rendered images.

   A scroll bar at the bottom of the Render View lets you scroll through your saved rendered images.

In the next steps, you type commands to create three-point lighting in the scene and record them as script history for later use.