[Bf-docboard] Blending modes mess

[Stanislav Blinov]

Hello,

I've recently registered an account on Blender Wiki (as Stan Pancakes) to
participate in improving Blender's documentation, but due to my inattentive
reading of http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Meta:Guides/Writer_Guide I
already seem to have made a bit of a mess, for which I apologize.

Preamble:

Basically I wanted to consolidate all the information about color mixing
(blending) on the Wiki.I gathered the information in this thread on
BlenderArtists forum:
http://www.blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?293905-Blend-and-interpolation-modes-for-the-manual
.

Currently, the wiki has these pages referring to blending (or mixing)
colors:
Mix node in Compositor:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Composite_Nodes/Types/Color#Mix_Node
Color Mix in Blender Render node materials:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Materials/Nodes/Types/Color
Blender Render ramp shaders:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Materials/Properties/Ramps
Color Mix in Texture nodes:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Textures/Types/Nodes/Color
Until my intervention, Blend type on the Blender Render Texture Influence
page:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Textures/Influence/Material
referenced
a non-existing "Compositor Mix Node" page.
and this empty page:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Render/Cycles/Nodes/Color
which
technically would contain the same info (since Cycles has a MixRGB node as
well).

What I initially wanted to achieve was to have the info on one page, while
other pages would simply have links to it.

Problem:

...But instead of following the writer's guide instructions, posting to
this list and making edits in my own user space, I went to #blenderwiki IRC
where I contacted Greylica, and after a short discussion the effort
transformed into creating this page:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Textures/Influence/Material/Blending_Modes
and
flow of edits to this page:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Textures/Influence/Material
.
As I see it now, this was not a great course of action, and it currently
only brings more duplicated info and confusion into Wiki.

After reviewing all the mess that occurred, I now see that:
1) There is much more to consolidate than just color mixing. Compositor,
Blender Render and Cycles nodes, texture nodes, ramp shaders, textures all
provide similar (or even identical) means to manipulate colors: mixing,
curves, ramps, etc. Of course, slight differences are at hand (e.g.
Compositor's Mix node having additional 'Use Alpha' setting, etc.)
2) Trying to create one central page for such info with links leading to it
may not be the best course of action, since this could confuse the users
and interfere with search engines' indexing.
3) Even if creating such page may be beneficial, it should be made for all
possible nodes/menus/lists, not *just* the color mixing, so it's not really
a "edit-one-page" task.

Questions:

Do you think that it still may be worth it to restructure the manual a bit
and consolidate all recurring and duplicated info on one (or a few) pages,
and place links to it on currently existing pages? I could more effort into
providing better descriptions for e.g. blending modes and the role of
blending factors, and work towards uniting descriptions for various other
color manipulation utilities (RGB curves, etc.); of course, this time in my
user space, so as to not mess up the manual. Maybe create a separate
section not unlike that new section about Freestyle, e.g. call it "Color
Manipulation", and gather all the info about mixing, enhancing, and
otherwise manipulating colors in Blender in that section?
Or should I just drop this and forget I ever intended to do this?

Again, I apologize for any confusion introduced into manual and
inconvenience it may cause.

-- 

С уважением,
Станислав Блинов

Kind regards,
Stanislav Blinov
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