Want to learn Mel or Python for creating hotkeys to speed up my workflow in Maya

heskes_animation

Are there some good tutorials you know of for beginners of Maya and 3D software scripting (3ds Max for 3 years and Modo for 4). I just want to be able to create hotkeys for simple things like toggling between Marquee and Drag functions in the select tool or switching between Pinch/Slide/Segments in the connect tool.

oglu

I would start with turning on "echo all commands" in the script editor. This will show most commands you need for scripting. 

onionhead_o

when you get more comfortable with mel or python. start learning from reading other peoples code. thats how i started. Definitely study the mel/python command documentation.

onionhead_o

this site is a great resource for mel. http://ewertb.mayasound.com/mel/mel.php

poopipe

Mel is a dead end, nobody serious uses it unless they absolutely have to. 
Start learning python and for the love of all that is good use pymel wherever possible. 

You can find simple examples for most common activities by simply googling - the hard bit is navigating maya's guts