[Bf-funboard] Scene inspector/explorer mockup

Thorsten Wilms bf-funboard@blender.org
Tue, 9 Dec 2003 12:15:09 +0100


On Tue, Dec 09, 2003 at 01:50:51AM +0100, William Reynish wrote:
> 
> I have made a mockup showing how a scene inspector
> could look. I think we should keep parent/child
> relationships away from layers. We shouldn't try to
> mix them together because we will end up making a more
> complex system that is not as flexible. We need to be
> able to have an objects child on a different layer
> from the object itself as you can now. 

Of course!


> I suggest er
> add a new window tyoe instead on the old Oops Window
> called "Scene manager", "Scene inspector" or "Scene
> explorer" or something similar. In this window, there
> could be three modes (either visualised through
> togglebuttons or through a dropdown menu): Layers,
> Hirearchy and Schematic.

No dropdown, please! I think there should be real tabs 
_above_ the tree. The 3 modes are like headlines, so 
they should come first.


> Basicly it could work like the XSI layers system which
> is very simple to use but also extremely powerful.
> Here is a screen showing the XSI layers system:
> http://www.shadeless.dk/ui/layers_xsi.jpg

Do they offer any shortcuts?

 
Now something about parenting:
Far as I know parenting is to be partialy replaced with 
constraints.
I would like to see a new kind of "parenting" used 
for inheritance in a hierarchy.
And for the special uses, like with particle systems, 
I think parenting should go! Yesterdy, I experimented  
with particle systems the first time. It was disturbing 
to note that parenting an object to the emiter for having 
particles appear like that object felt almost natural for 
me. Blender has already corupted my mind :->.
But it wasn't clear to me, in which direction parenting 
would have to be applied for changing particle path 
with a lattice. There's no (obvious) logic in it, 
because you realy can't talk about a parent-child 
relationship here.
I think that things like particle effects should have 
something like "slots" for objects to be used in some 
way.
What speaks for parenting for special cases is fast 
and uniform assignment. There could be another 
command for this kind of generalized assignment, that 
shows you the roles the selected objects will play in 
the relation before you hit enter (with the 
additional possibility to change roles before that).

BTW, it's strange that effects like particle systems 
are tied to an object. It would make more sense to have 
a separate object for particle systems. You could easily 
replace the emiter, or tie the system to several emiters.

Now after all this criticism, I have to say particle 
systems are great! Very flexible and loads of fun!


---
Thorsten