(ton) Re: [Bf-funboard] Method 3 of reworking of ctrl-t, ctrl-p, ctrl-c, etc....

Luke Wenke bf-funboard@blender.org
Sat, 27 Sep 2003 23:30:32 +1000


Hi Luke,
--------------------------------
> 1. Getting communicated as clear as possible what 'selected' and
> 'active' means for Blender. This is "context", as also described in the
> UI doc
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Actually there are 3 categories of things that the commands work on...
1. selected non-active items
2. selected active item
3. non-selected active item

g, r, s, etc, treat all selected items (1 and 2) the same...
ctrl-t, ctrl-p, ctrl-c, etc, treat the active item (2 or 3) the same whether
it is selected or not. and group the other selected items together.

> 1. Getting communicated as clear as possible what 'selected' and
> 'active' means for Blender. This is "context", as also described in the
> UI doc
-----------------------------------
What if the active item was more distinct from the other selected items? It
could be red and the others are blue. It is metaphorical I think (something
you might want)... the single red object represents something that is
aggressive - that is the centre of attention. The blue objects are the
passive crowd. When you use ctrl-T, the blue it around and watching the red
thing move (the red thing is the centre of attention). If you use ctrl-P,
the red thing is the leader (the parent) the others are the shy followers.
For ctrl-C, the red thing is the source of something, the blue things are
the passive receivers of it. (Many blue things can copy its attributes, so
it again is the focus of their attention)

So what do you think of red for the active object and blue for the other
selected items? I think it would be easier for a person to learn about than
bright pink and darker pink. Partly because of the big contrast in colours,
so they'd soon pick up that the last think you select becomes the red thing,
and that there is always only one active thing. Also, when things aren't
selected, they could have a white or grey centre, and the actie thing could
have a red centre. (The non-active non-selected things could have a
colourless centre so that the active non-selected thing stands out more) If
the active item is unselected and there are some selected items, currently
in blender the user probably wouldn't notice that... but if there was red
and blue they would... they'd notice that the big red object is gone... they
might think - why are all the objects blue? Why isn't there a red thing?
Then they might see that rather than being gray, one of the unselected
object centres is red... "there it is"...  so when they use ctrl-T, etc, it
would be easier for them to know where the active object is - if it isn't
selected.

I remember that in posemode, bones are light blue and cyan.... maybe they
could be made a bit more greenish or purplish in order to distinguish them
from the blue idea I had, but it is still similar to the old colours so that
it doesn't come as such a shock to old users..Or the non-active selections
could be blueish-green or blueish-purple rather than blue, so that the
pose-mode colours can stay the same. (If it is pure green, those with colour
blindness might be able to distinguish it from the red)

BTW, (to change the topic) here is a suggestion that is similar to
beatabix's....

The pop-up menu could say:

Track <active-object-name>?
OK

So there is a fairly good English sentence and you can reply to it. I don't
think it is necessary to draw other stuff on the screen - having the objects
in red and blue should be clear enough. (where red is the focus/source -
which is quite intuitive)

At the moment the menu is:
OK?
Make Track

That isn't really English... people might think "what's a track?" But when
you say "Track xxxx" it is fairly clear that track/tracking is a verb. BTW,
you will let you "Make Track" even if nothing is selected... the user might
say "so where is this track I made?" Maybe the pop-up menu shouldn't even
appear if not enough things are selected - or there could be a helpful error
message.

.- Luke.