[Bf-funboard] some observations about action groups.

[Bassam Kurdali]

Hi folks, working in a production environment here (linked characters
+proxies, with rigs being revised during the project at the same time as
animation, and noticed some small things that don't seem ideal)
1-I added bone groups to the rig late in the game- the animator already
had action groups defined in his action. as a result he couldn't see the
bone groups in the action- even after (experimentally) deleting the
action groups he had created.

2-action groups created by the user are not able to be colored.

3-the most valuable thing to color (the group itself, not the channels
underneath) always remains green.

4-despite (or because of) the coloring, keys on the group level look too
similar to keys on the bone/channel level, making the action a bit
confusing visually.

5-when selecting use group colors, the channel colors are assigned the
active color of the bone. this is horrible here! the active color for
all our groups is white; this is so you can always tell what is the
active bone. as a result, all channels get white on white text.... 

6-there is no possibility to user-define the colors in the action
editor.

7-(related to 5) there is no attempt to select a contrasting text color
to the bg color.

8-(related to 1) the animator should be able to pick between (show bone
groups/ and show local action groups)

9-groups are shown even if all their channels are hidden, increasing
rather than decreasing the visual clutter in the action editor.

10- there is no way to not show groups once they are there- would be
nice to have a toggle for that.

In general groups seem to be a nice feature, but they feel incomplete
right now- they might fit one or two specific workflows, but are not
quite flexible enough yet for everybody-and they could be with just a
little bit extra, I think.
cheers
Bassam