Programming Isn't Just for Programmers Anymore

There was a time when programmers wrote code and creatives produced assets and the line between the two disciplines was clear. Well, not really not in the world of interactive application development, anyway. In this arena, programmers have always had something to say about the design of the applications they code, and designers have always leveraged their technical knowledge to ensure that their designs are supported by appropriate functionality. As the interactive industry matures, more and more products require high-end multimedia development. Obvious examples include video games, DVDs, media Web sites, and even appliances, like Tivos. Increasingly, the skill set required to develop these products includes both technical and creative expertise. If the line was blurry in the past, it is practically indiscernible today.

Programming in Design Applications

The list of tools that designers regularly use to create interactive applications includes (among others):

• PhotoShop

• Illustrator

• DeBabelizer

• Maya

• 3DSMax

• Flash

At one point or another, all of these common design tools began to incorporate elements of scripting and programming to help designers work more efficiently. PhotoShop, Illustrator, and DeBabelizer all have rich "macro" languages. Some design tools like Maya have full-featured programming languages. The following example code is part of a Maya program used to rename objects:

$MyReplaceName = 'textField -q -tx $replaceName ';string $nodeToRename[] = 'ls -sl';string $newNodeName = $MyReplaceName + "_trans";<a name="16"></a><a name="IDX-xi"></a>string $shapeNode;string $newShapeNodeName;rename $nodeToRename[0] $newNodeName;$shapeNode = $newNodeName + "Shape";$newShapeNodeName = $MyReplaceName + "_mesh";rename $shapeNode $newShapeNodeName;

This Maya code may not...