[Bf-committers] UI Rotation enhancement.

[Matt Ebb]

> > Another time when it's useful is if you have a BIG
> > scene - you can 
> > select an object far off in the distance and orbit
> > around that, to get 
> > a complete view from the other side, where as if you
> > try that in 
> > Blender, the stuff on the other side of the scene
> > will just rotate out 
> > of view.
> 
> I've been scratching my head for a while here, but I
> really can't understand the situation you were
> describing. :|

Make a big scene, with lots of objects spread out all over the place. Zoom in to one 
object so that the other objects are far away. When you orbit, those far away objects 
will rotate around 'behind the view'.

> > Well, to play the devil's advocate, what's so good
> > about having a 
> > centred pivot point? It's kind of arbitrary since
> > what you're looking 
> > at or working on may not always be in the centre of
> > the screen.
> 
> Well, my reasoning goes a little like this:
> 
> When I'm working on something, I want it to fill the
> screen to maximize screen estate. That more or less
> forces me to center that "something" (an object, part
> of an object, a scene, ...) on the screen. Then,
> orbiting always keep what I'm working on in the
> screen.
> It sounds like a simple UI principle to me that you'd
> want to use your work space as much as possible.
> 
> Or is that why they make 21" screens, so I can work on
> a tiny corner and still be able to see properly? ;)

Well it depends on exactly what you're doing. Sure, if I'm tweaking fine details in a 
mesh, I'll zoom in nice and close. But if I'm doing other things, like positioning lights, 
objects, etc, I want to have a good view of the scene, so I can see how the objects I'm 
working with relate to the other objects, how the thing looks as a whole.

Particularly when I'm trying to set up a composition, I'll want to find a nice view that is 
similar to what the final camera angle will be, and set things up from that view - you 
know in 3D we have more flexibility than just 'virtual photography', we can easily 
manipulate our sets as we wish to create the compositions that we want :) Having the 
ability to orbit around a selected object means that I can easily check things from 
another angle, then go back to the original view.

> Now, don't understand this like I'm against orbit
> around selection, I'm not. I just don't see why I'd
> use it (which doesn't exclude it's usefulness to
> others).

That's fair enough - but we have a saying at home "don't knock it till you've tried it" ;)

Cheers,

Matt