[Bf-cycles] A Single "Cycles" Shader

[Christophe Leyder]

Hey Brecht,

Im really loving how Cycles is coming along, but I have a slight concern
about the direction the shading workflow is taking.

Currently, in the materials tab, the shaders presented with Cycles feel
very "technical" and un-artist friendly, let me explain why:

"Glossy BSDF", "Transparent BSDF", "Transcusent BSDF", "Diffuse BSDF" to me
as an artist should be parts of a shader, not individual shaders.
To elaborate, from using a whole lot of other engines these past few years,
the one thing they have in common is they have unification. Unfication in
Blender in general is seriously lacking, and I would hate to see Cycles go
even further down that road. My suggestion is:

Have a "basic" shader with the current "shaders" combined, (I really dont
know the maths and stuff behind this though). Rather have the current
scattered system as inputs in the nodes system, because by all means, they
WILL be usefull there, if someone wants to use them individually, they can
plug them straight into the material output. To add, in my experience, a
Mix shader shouldnt be a "shader" at all, rather a function in the node
tree. eg. Changing the colour of a texture, or placing a decal on a shader;
and of course what it does now, mixing shaders.

Or to be even safer, just add the "basic" shader to the materials list
thats already there, and leave the shaders that are there as is.

Just my 2 cents from an artists standpoint! :)

Thanks


-- 
*Christophe Leyder*
*3D Artist\Animator*
**
www.luma.co.za
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