[Bf-funboard] Some Thoughts on Channel Editing in Blender

Moris Molino info at morismolino.com
Thu Jan 29 20:47:26 CET 2009



I'm a bit new to Blender, and have become a big fan. Here are some thoughts or requests I have to improve the IPO window and help make channel editing/animating a bit smoother and maybe a bit more robust.

-Add the ability to hop between keys in the IPO window.
-Get rid of curve/point states and have just 1. It's an extra unnecessary step. You should be able to handle curves and keys in one place, maybe there's a benefit... I just can't see it yet. If it were a one state affair, there could be a option to display tangents or not. Also as is, the colour scheme is very confusing. In Curve state the keys appear black when not selected and white when selected. In Point state they are white when not selected and orange when they are. Very confusing.
-Add the ability to copy and paste keys. I can hear it now... "Just duplicate!" this is not good enough.
-Add the ability to copy and paste values from a curve based on where the time bar is.
-How bout a transform/scale handle in the IPO window? Select a bunch of keys and use a handle to move them. Most importantly... the ability to scale based on a user defined access point. Currently it seems to only scale a group of selected keys based on their centre. Seems ok as the default but rarely have I ever wanted this.
-For viewing animation, alt+a as a hot key is a little cumbersome. It's just way too out there for smooth fast access. What about alt+Spacebar? Maybe it's just me but alt+spacebar feels like less traveling to hit, rather than alt+a. Plus if it could be a toggle on/off in stead of having to use esc. There's one less button to have to hit. Another thing about esc button... I'm not a big fan of being forced back to where I started every time I hit esc. If there were a setting for stop animation where you are, or stop where you started, that might help. This should be universal throughout Blender. I just happen to notice that in the Sequence Editor I can use the space bar for playback... but not anywhere else.
-There are some other hot key issues that I feel get in the way of fast, smooth and efficient animation. Skip to next key frame needs to be integrated in a much smoother way. Control+page up/page down, again is just way too cumbersome. I think it's great that arrow left and arrow right are frame forward/back, why not have alt+left arrow/right arrow be skip to next key frame? It would seem logical. Likewise you can easily integrate skip to end/start frame hot key to be alt+up arrow/down arrow. 

There it is all in one nice neet package, and hopefully universal through out Blender. 
Trust me I know, that at certain times it's a users familiarity with a package that is the bigger issue. I also know from personal experience working with another (unnamed) software over many years, that sometimes... it's the software. Anyway... there's some food for thought. Would be interested in seeing what others think. 
Thanks
M.
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