 So, if you're watching this video, you probably are a Maya user who wants to move to Blender, but you want to see what the equivalent of Melscript is like. That's cool. That's exactly the position that I was in a month ago. And I used Maya all throughout college, but when you graduate and you're not a student anymore, you have to decide between shelling out $200 a month to Autodesk or find another 3D software. So I decided to move to Blender, and I gotta say, this was one of the best decisions I ever made. Yes, there are things in Blender that frustrate me, but they're constantly being improved, and I just think that the Blender community is more friendly, more responsive, and easier to work with. The community is a huge reason I think Blender overall is a better program. They really pool their resources together to try and help each other out, and they've really helped me with information, tutorials, and feedback, and one of the developers himself actually gave me some advice to find the information that I am about to share with you now. So, if you're a Maya user and you're thinking about switching to Blender, I highly recommend you do it, and if you decide to make that decision, I've created an entire Blender 2.8 speed tutorial series to help you transition as fast and painlessly as possible. So come on, join our party. Anyway, that being said, I think it's really important not to be afraid to be objective about the things you love, because the only way things get better is if we are honest about the places that could be improved. Alright, let's do this. So as a Maya user, I know what you want to hear. You want me to tell you that, yes, the info window in Blender is just as good as Melscript. Unfortunately, that would be a lie. I can understand why Blender users might look at these two and think they're the same, but if I had to be completely straight with you, anyone from Maya that tries to use Blender's info window is going to be severely disappointed. What I'm about to show you is the closest to Melscript that you are going to get in Blender. Now, I could tell you why Melscript is better, but I think the best way to convey this is to simply show the two side by side, straight up, and just explain the differences. So here we go. Let's start with Maya. If you want to create an add-on in Maya, go to Windows, hold Ctrl Shift, left click to create a new add-on button, click this icon to open the info window, clear the code with this button, and record your actions. We're just going to select this object, move it to the left, name the helmet SuperDuper, and then rotate it 25 degrees down and delete these points right here. Now, to program my add-on, I simply copy the code, right click my icon, edit, and paste the new code over the old. We're done. If I was to close Maya right now and open the program and press this button, it would copy my workflow perfectly. At any point, if I wanted to change these instructions, I simply copy the code into the button instead, and you can see it will now perform the new sequence instead. That is it. Every single one of you right now, now knows exactly how to create any add-on you can possibly imagine in Maya. I'm now going to try and accomplish the same sequence I just demonstrated, but using Blender's info window instead of mail script. To create your own add-on in Blender, drag down a new view and set it to info window. And if we try to select the object and move it to the left, it is here that we encounter the first limitation of Blender's info window. The info window does not document which object you have selected. You can see in Maya, if I so much as click an object, it documents the code for that. It even documents which points I have selected on that object, but Blender does no such thing. So right off the bat, Blender's info window cannot be used to record sequences that involve selecting multiple things. It also doesn't record selection of vertices. So any hopes you have of using the info window to record point sequences is not going to happen. I've done a lot of testing and to my knowledge, the info window does not record selected objects, faces, edges, vertices, undo, redo, or hiding and unhiding collections. So at this point, Maya users are probably asking, so what can it do? Well, it can do a few things, things that involve staying in a single mode and doing a few steps is fine. So if we stay in object mode and move the cube left up and then name it Tom, copy the code, drag a new window, open the text editor, activate Python by checking these three boxes, type in import BYP, enter and then paste our code and then click one script. Then you can see that it actually does the thing. But as soon as you try to sequence more than one object, things mess up. For example, if we have two cubes instead and I try to record moving this left up and then naming this cube Jill, you'll see that it has applied all of the steps to only the object that was selected. Also anything that goes back and forth between object mode and edit mode doesn't work either. If you move this cube left, move it up and then go to edit mode and then select these points and then move them to the right, copy the code, paste it, run it. It doesn't work. Another big drawback is you don't have access to any of the normal text commands. For example, in the Maya info window, I can drag select or press control a to highlight everything and then delete to clear the screen. But in Blender, you can't drag select in the info window. You can only select by clicking on it one chunk at a time. And if you want to delete everything, you'll have to select the line, delete, select another line, delete, select the line, delete. Okay, so what about the code that you actually managed to record? How do you create an add-on once you have that? Well, in Blender, you have to copy the code, go to the text editor, then go to templates. Then you have to know enough about Blender and Python to figure out what template fits your chunk of code the most. Once you have figured that out, you've selected template and then somewhere in the middle here is where you get to paste your code. And it's a matter of knowing Python well enough to understand where you need to put the code in proper programming. But assuming that you do know your Python and you know that this is the proper code you're supposed to have to delete an object, how would you create an add-on that simply deletes an object? To make this an add-on, you have to run it, save it somewhere on your computer, go to edit, preferences, add-ons, install, find the file, check this box, set it to a hotkey by going to the key map, 3D view, find a key that isn't being used like shift Q, go here and type in WM call menu, then type in the name of your file and then save preferences. And now, if we press shift Q, finally, you have access to your add-on. If you ever want to edit it, you'll have to go back into the Python script, save it again and then reinstall it all over. Now, I tried my best to learn how to simplify this. I went to Stack Exchange and for those of you who don't know, Stack Exchange is, in my opinion, the best place to go to get Blender help. I've had a lot of really good experiences there and there are very few problems that they have not been able to help me with. I got the most basic code that I could find from my info window. I just selected my object and rotated it up like 20 degrees. And then I took this code to them and asked, how do I turn this into an add-on? And a very generous guy told me that this would require a tutorial and that the API is not finalized yet. There's very little documentation and that many of the features are not made yet. And after talking a little bit more, he also told me that even if we were able to create an add-on, the API is constantly changing and that more than likely, the add-on wouldn't work after an update. For example, it's not uncommon for add-ons made for Blender 2.79 to stop working for Blender 2.8. And you know what? This is kind of a bummer, but I really appreciate how honest this guy was. He straight up told me the system isn't really set up to do what you're trying to do very easily. And at least now I know there isn't some magic tutorial I just couldn't find. It's something they're still developing and we'll have to look forward to seeing how it improves in the future. But yeah, this is the closest thing you're going to find to Melscript in Blender. If anyone knows of a good tutorial that shows a better way to create add-ons from the info window, please share it in the comments below. I would love to watch it, see how it works, and make a new video sharing what I learned from it. Blender's definitely got some good tricks you can do with its info window, but as it stands right now, I think that Melscript just blows the info window and Python out of the water. What makes Melscript so amazing is how fast you can learn it. You don't need to understand any of the code you use. You just need to know how to copy and paste it. Creating add-ons in Blender really does come down to understanding Python and program. So until Blender developers find a way to let users create their own add-ons as easily as Melscript from Maya, this is going to be one of the final gatekeepers between Blender and Maya users who are considering moving the Blender. Again, if Blender could bring its add-ons on par with Melscript, I can say without a doubt that Maya users would have a very hard time finding any reason not to move to Blender. As someone who has moved, I really hope to see that day coming soon. The next tutorials I have planned will be teaching you guys everything that I have learned about the info window and creating add-ons using Python. But anyway, hope that helps. Thank you so much for watching. If you enjoyed this video, please don't forget to like and subscribe. I hope you have a fantastic day and I'll see you around.