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

[William Reynish]

Hi Ton,

The term 'key' in this instance does not refer to a point in time, but  
a variation of a shape. You can insert keyframes for the Shape Keys,  
yes, but you can insert keyframes for anything.

The name Shape Key may be there for historical reasons, but that is  
little comfort to someone new to Blender or 3D in general.

Names like Blend Shape or Morph Target accurately represent how the  
feature is perceived and used today, rather than how the feature used  
to work in 1995 :)

Cheers,

-William


On 2 Nov, 2009, at 3:49 PM, Ton Roosendaal wrote:

> Hi,
>
> -1 voting for names. Please!
>
> Here's at least a short history:
> In CG animation tools, a "key" is mostly used as a term to denote a
> designated data sample on a specific time frame (the 'key frame').  
> This
> sample can be anything, like locations, rotations, matrices,  
> materials,
> and even an entire mesh. So you can speak of a location-key, a
> rotation-key or a shape-key. It's just a frozen sample of data on a
> given time.
>
> The early 3D animation systems just interpolated between such data
> sets, with some kind of smoothing or easing formula.
>
> Here's the full history if you want to read on it:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_frame
>
> Later on, many of these keys got replaced with "channels" and  
> animation
> curves. And Shape keyframing became more efficient using them as
> relative positions.
>
> Currently the term 'key' in the UI is only used for inserting...  
> (which
> works still for meshes to make Shapes btw). In 2.49b you can still see
> the original "keys" in full glory within in the IpoWindow, with
> animation curves displaying as editable "keys".
>
> -Ton-
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation   ton at blender.org     
> www.blender.org
> Blender Institute   Entrepotdok 57A  1018AD Amsterdam   The  
> Netherlands
>
> On 2 Nov, 2009, at 13:41, Erwin Coumans wrote:
>
>> +1 morph target
>>
>> (with the hope we settle to this descriptive term)
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On Nov 2, 2009, at 1:52, Campbell Barton <ideasman42 at gmail.com>  
>> wrote:
>>
>>> "Blend Shape" and "Morph Target" are better then "Shape Key"... some
>>> points...
>>>
>>> * "Blend" is a general term, color blending & blend modes for eg and
>>> possible confusion with blend files/blender!
>>> * Shape is also a very general term.
>>> * Morph is something *normal* people understand and gives a fairly
>>> clear idea that its used to morph between different shapes.
>>>
>>> +1 for "Morph Target", or a similar name which includes "Morph"
>>>
>>> On Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 10:16 AM, Knapp <magick.crow at gmail.com>  
>>> wrote:
>>>> On Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 7:28 AM, Mike Belanger
>>>> <mikejamesbelanger at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> Oops I'm sorry I even uttered 'Blend Shapes' at all.  I think  
>>>>> 'Shape
>>>>> Keys' works just fine.  Or 'Morph Target', or 'Mold State',
>>>>> whatever.
>>>>> So long as none of those names has 'Key' in it!
>>>>>
>>>>> Mike Belanger ( Mikahl )
>>>>> www.watchmike.ca
>>>>>
>>>>> On 2009-11-01, at 10:15 PM, Damir Prebeg wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> +1 for Morph Target - I think that "Morph Target" is more general
>>>>>> 3D
>>>>>> term than "Blend Shape".
>>>>
>>>> As a native English speaker and a user of only Blender, I have to  
>>>> say
>>>> that Shape or Shape Key mean nothing to me. A shape is something  
>>>> you
>>>> make with verts, like a triangle. A key is something you stick in a
>>>> door to unlock it. Key frame, I can live with but what the heck  
>>>> does
>>>> key shape mean?? Morph Target makes a lot of sense and before  
>>>> that I
>>>> was thinking of transformation target but almost everyone has seen
>>>> computer graphics morphing and understands what it is.
>>>>
>>>> As far as KISS=Shapes, that is like programming with simple  
>>>> variable
>>>> names like a, b, c, d. Simple but they have no meaning and soon  
>>>> make
>>>> things much more confusing.
>>>>
>>>> We should use names that the man off the street will understand or
>>>> else industry standards and as a last resort make up new and
>>>> descriptive names that most normal people with understand with have
>>>> to
>>>> explain them.
>>>>
>>>> +1 Morph Targets. Perhaps Targets for short.
>>>> --
>>>> Douglas E Knapp
>>>>
>>>> Why do we live?
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> - Campbell
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