The Maya Embedded Language, or MEL, is the very foundation of the Maya application: it's what makes it so powerful. And, if you know MEL, you can make Maya work more efficiently for your own projects. Whether customizing the workspace, modifying the tools that already exist, or creating new tools, an artist versed in MEL is ready to exploit the true power of Maya. The problem is that MEL can be very intimidating to artists and other non-programmers. To an artist, MEL represents a whole other world filled with words like variable, conditional statements, and vector cross-product. Like any other programming language, MEL has its own vocabulary and rules of grammar. To master it, you simply need to learn the rules: you don't have to become a programmer. The MEL Companion helps artists do this. In the first part of the book, you'll learn about the syntax, vocabulary, and structure of MEL - its grammar. You'll learn some basic math concepts, such as types of numbers and simple math equations, and at the end of part one you'll explore concepts for building and constructing programs. The second part covers the construction of scripts that detail some of the ways you can use MEL. You'll learn about expressions, primitive objects, lighting and rendering, tool creation, interface customization, and reading and writing files in and out of Maya. The MEL Companion was written by an artist for artists. To get the most out of this book, you should have a fundamental knowledge of working in 3D and the Maya program. In addition, although you might not have an extensive knowledge and understanding of mathematics, you should have some willingness to learn the basics of working with numbers. Other than that, everything else is explained in language that is hopefully as clear as it is entertaining

If your just starting out with Maya, this book is essential reading. Chapter 2 (which describes how Maya actually works) is worth the price of the whole book. The only reason I think Maya is the best choice for an animation package is its scriptability and extensibility via MEL. If you paid hard earned money to buy Maya, you need MEL to get your moneys worth. This book has already paid for itself multiple times, and Im only half way through it.