[Bf-committers] new idea: production information

[Jeroen Bakker]

Hi all,

I've an idea I want to discuss.

The idea is about getting information out of blender that can be useful 
for artists working on productions. The information is derived from data 
present in the blend-files. Different types of information can be 
derived, like:
getting an overview of the dependencies between blend-files. Why can 
this be useful?

For example
You make a commercial animation for a customer. When the final render 
has been started the customer still wants to change something. The 
change is in a library and it is not clear what files needs to be 
rendered again. What do you do?
a) render the complete commercial over again.
b) open all blend files and determine if the changed object is used there.

Some information can be useful for quality analysis.
For example
You have rent some time on a renderfarm. just before uploading the 
production, you want to check if all settings are correct for the 
renderfarm. (All scenes are made active, All render resolutions are 
correct, the render size is at 100%, the output type is EXR, the number 
of x- and y-parts are correct. What do you do?
a) do nothing, rent some more time when the settings were not correct.
b) open all files and check everything, and keep your fingers crossed.

The derived information should be presented in a useful way.

To show that it is possible, I've implemented a proof of concept showing 
quality analysis and dependencies. This PoC is put in some video's and 
examples online

video's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nBOeqIoPhM - example of the quality 
analysis tool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbWuPJN62kI - example of the quality 
analysis tool showing real time updates
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kVmY3wbOCE - example of the dependency 
browser (old version, showing less detailed information in the project 
overview)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PXGh5f-Q9M - example of the dependency 
browser (new but slower version, demonstrating navigation between the files)

links
http://www.atmind.nl/blender/functionality.png - example of a search screen.
http://www.atmind.nl/blender/index.svg - (1.2 MByte) only tested on 
firefox 3, IE doesn't work. and when your OS thinks it hangs, just wait. 
the black boxes can be used to move and to zoom.

In my video's I've used the following information:
 * blender file-name
 * blender version
 * scene-name
 * scene-output resolution and render size (xsch, ysch, size)
 * scene-imagetype
 * scene-start frame, end frame
 * scene framestep, rt
 * scene-threads, x-parts, y-parts
 * library references (LI)
 * library id-blocks (ID)


Above are just some examples but surely there are more (and perhaps 
better). I'm interested in what kind of derived information can be 
useful for artists. Why is this information useful? And how should this 
information be presented?

Greetings,
Jeroen