After avoiding MEL scripting for far too long, I started working through "Introduction to MEL" by Digital Tutors, in the hopes that I could finally make sense of the more complicated material presented in In Silico.
Full information on the lessons can be found here, as they covered a wide variety of topics. This included a look at MEL syntax, creating primitive objects, editing attributes, using WHILE/FOR/IF commands and then combining all of the taught content into a single project, which resulted in the ability to create a textured flower with randomised attributes, simply by clicking a single button. The image below shows some of these random flowers;
After completing these lessons, I feel much more confident in using simple MEL expressions, and I intend on continuing this development, which will hopefully allow me to create a more complicated script which will import large amounts of numerical data and automate the creation of objects and animation.
For those who may be interested (and I realise it may not be many!), here is the complete script used to create the flowers...
