[Bf-funboard] Object color proposal

Luke Wenke bf-funboard@blender.org
Wed, 1 Oct 2003 03:06:07 +1000


Hi Groo,
I've commented on your ideas. BTW, this is what I think the lights should be
like:
At the moment, they are dots with little circles around them. (with other
things as well if they are directional or spotlights, etc)... If they're
selected the dot and little circle is purple, otherwise it is yellow.
Whether it is active or not isn't shown in its colour at all. (Except for
the extra bits like lines, etc, that lamp lights don't have)
My idea for lights:
Selected active: yellow dot and yellow circle
Selected non-active: purple dot and purple circle
Non-selected active: purple dot and black circle
Non-selected non-active: dark grey dot and black circle
Manipulated: white circle (maybe yellow dot for active, purple dot for
inactive? or white dots?)

> Non-editmode (wireframe)
> State Color
>
> Non-selected Black
> Selected Purple
> Active Yellow
> Currently manipulated White
>   (GKEY, SKEY, RKEY)
This sounds pretty good.... it reminds me of the IPO edit mode...

> Non-editmode (shaded)
> State Color
>
> Non-selected Shaded Object Color (SOC)
> Selected SOC with Purple wireframe
> Active SOC with Yellow wireframe
> Currently manipulated SOC with White wireframe
Sounds good! What do you mean by SOC? Do you mean the object is brightened
using the appropriate light? (e.g. that it is brightened with yellow,
magenta or white light?)

> Non-editmode (centerpoint)
> State Color
>
> Non-selected Purple
> Selected Yellow
> Active White
> Currently manipulated Tri-color
>
> The proposal here is to show the cursor as a small XYZ axis oriented
> with the object.  X, Y, and Z (the letters) are not shown on the axis
> (although it might be a good candidate as an option - "Show XYZ" or
> something).  The Tri-color for the centerpoint is the Red for X, Green
> for Y, Blue for Z color axis we've seen in other applications (note, I
> may have associated the wrong color with the wrong axis, but you get the
> idea).

I don't really like the tri-colour idea... I mean I'm not sure how useful it
would be.
I think your centerpoint colours should be changed... I think they should
match - so the non-selected objects could have a dark grey centre (similar
to black), the selected objects could have a magenta (purple) centre, the
active objects could have a yellow centre (even if they are unselected...
note that it is possible for active objects to be unselected) Manipulated
objects could have a white centre. If people want to see what position it is
going to they can look in the header bar. The problem with tri-colour things
is this - what if you get to the end of the scale - e.g. to the end of
green - or to black - does it just go back to the start again? And our eyes
can't distinguish between many shades of colours, especially blues and dark
colours... but on the other hand, the numbers in the header bar would be
very useful.
Well actually you can't manipulate the centre point over a long length of
time - unless you are moving the entire object... the way you manipulate the
centre is just through instant things like "Centre Cursor" and "New Centre".

> Editmode (Edges)
> State Color
>
> Non-selected Black
> Selected Yellow
> Currently manipulated White
>
> Editmode (Vertices)
> State Color
>
> Non-selected Purple
> Selected Yellow
> Currently manipulated White
>
> The reason Selected edges and vertices are Yellow, as opposed to Purple
> in this mode, is because there's (correct me if I'm wrong) no real sense
> of a separate Active state in Editmode.

Yeah, there's no active mode...

> Editmode (Faces)
> State Color (transparent)
>
> Non-selected Blue
> Selected Purple
> Currently manipulated Yellow
>
> The only real change here is the addition of the "Currently manipulated"
> state color.  It might also be a good idea to show centers for RKEY
> manipulations, but that is really a different topic.

At least you've got yellow higher than purple, though selections are usually
yellow. The yellow of "currently manipulated" should go together quite well
with blue and purple... assuming it is still semi-transparent, yellow on
blue would make green, and yellow on magenta/purple would make red. (so
you'd kind of be able to tell what's happening on the layers below)

> Editmode (centerpoint)
> State Color
>
> Non-selected Purple
> Selected Yellow
> Currently manipulated Tri-color

There shouldn't be a "currently manipulated" colour since the centre can
just be moved using "centre cursor" rather than being gradually moved like a
vertex. (Or you can move the vertices manually, leaving the cursor where it
is) In edit mode you shouldn't be able to select the centerpoint at all (in
fact you can't select it ever... but with shift-s you can move the cursor to
the centerpoint, etc.) So there should only be one colour for the cursor in
editmode. It could be purple or something... and it could be an X so that it
isn't confused with the vertex dots. Or maybe it should be gray which
implies that it can't be selected and moved. (it is "grayed out")

> Correct me if I'm wrong, but currently the centerpoint is not selectable
> in editmode and, unless all vertices are selected, is rarely ever really
> used.
If you have the "rotation/scaling around individual centers" (it uses the
American spelling!)
then you can rotate or scale a couple (not necessarily all) vertices or the
whole object
around the object's centre.

> It would be nice to be able to select and manipulate the
> centerpoint while in editmode.  I understand the danger of accidentally
> manipulating the centerpoint when you do not intend to, but with the
> newly proposed look for the centerpoint, that kind of accident would be
> less likely to happen.
If you could do "centre cursor" (and "centre new") in edit mode, you've be
able to reposition the cursor without messing up the vertices. "Centre
Cursor"
involves left-clicking somewhere to place the cursor, then clicking "Centre
Cursor"...
(that wouldn't affect the vertices).
- Luke.