[Bf-committers] Shapes / Shape Keys - confusing terminology

Damir Prebeg damir_prebeg at yahoo.com
Sun Nov 1 14:42:53 CET 2009


I think that Mike has just stated that Maya's Shape Keys equivalent is called Blend Shapes. He has not proposed Blend Shapes as new name for Shape Keys.
I agree with Matt and Mike and I also think that word key should be reserved for stuff related to keyframes. I've had a lot of troubles to understand Shape Keys just because of that weird terminology. I think that I'm not the only one. That should be changed in 2.5.

--- On Sun, 11/1/09, Mango Jambo <moraesjunior at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Mango Jambo <moraesjunior at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Bf-committers] Shapes / Shape Keys - confusing terminology
To: "bf-blender developers" <bf-committers at blender.org>
Date: Sunday, November 1, 2009, 2:09 PM

+1 for Blend shapes.

Moraes Junior - aka mangojambo
3D Artist Animator


2009/11/1 Nathan Vegdahl <cessen at cessen.com>

> +1
> I'm good for calling them "blend shapes".
>
> --Nathan V
>
> On Sun, Nov 1, 2009 at 1:43 AM, Matt Ebb <matt at mke3.net> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I've noticed some weird terminology creeping into Blender 2.5, which
> > we'd better clear up. Thought I'd clarify things here so people can
> > talk about this with understanding.
> >
> > In pre-blender-2.40, we had the weirdo name 'relative vertex keys',
> > which in the 'new' animation system in 2.40 during Orange, we changed
> > to shapes/shape keys. Part of this was improved in 2.4 but there's
> > still some weirdness, in the code naming and in the UI.
> >
> > Right now in 2.5 we are calling 'instances of mesh vertex locations'
> > as 'Shape Keys'. This is misleading and confusing terminology, since
> > the word key usually refers to a keyframe, i.e. something that you set
> > while animating, and makes it makes the process more difficult to
> > understand. A mesh 'shape key', known in other apps as a Blend Shape
> > or Morph Target really has little to do with the actual keyframing in
> > time. So I propose this clarified naming convention:
> >
> > * Key (or keyframe)
> > --> A stored state of some data at a single point in time, represented
> > by the little gold diamond that shows up in the dope sheet.
> > For example: "Add a location key at frame 10" or "Key the influence of
> > the constraint".
> >
> > * Shape (mesh shape, curve shape, etc)
> > --> A set of vertex locations, as part of a mesh. Known in other apps
> > as a Blend Shape or Morph Target.
> > For example "Make a new mesh shape for the character's smile" or
> > "Delete that shape from the mesh shapes panel"
> >
> > * Shape Key
> > --> A stored state of the influence of a shape, at a single point in
> > time. The Shape key is the actual keyframe, when you've keyframed a
> > mesh shape.
> > For example: "Delete the shape key in the dopesheet at frame 15" or
> > "Bring up the smile strength a bit more and key it"
> >
> > I'm happy to go and fix this in the UI but unfortunately the code
> > still refers to keys I believe, which might be a bit of a pain to
> > change... :/
> >
> > cheers,
> >
> > Matt
> > _______________________________________________
> > Bf-committers mailing list
> > Bf-committers at blender.org
> > http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
> >
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