[Bf-funboard] general comments and funcionality improvement suggestions

[Bol Bib]

Hello

I hope I'm doing this right,so if I'm not supposed to be using this route to give blender feedback please say so :)



Also I have written quite a bit of text,I hope it won't be too offputting to read,but I have tried to be as precise as possible for best reading comprehension. So please read them all,if you have time.They are not in a particular order of importance,but could be quite substantial in terms off functionality upgrade.



I bundled these all in one email as not to clutter the mails and the archives too much. 

I do think most ideas or remarks included are necessary functions,and some might even be quite easy to implement even for rookie coders (but I might be mistaken). As I am no coder myself,sadly,I cannot make these changes myself. I am an animator,and I made these comments mostly from an animators' perspective.

Overview
1.Camera view problem
2.Tool Shelves customizability
3.Global UI
4.Expand Toggle Fullscreen
5. Follow Context in other editors
6.Selection Filter
7. Outliner ICON selection and cascades
8. more shortcut possibilities
9. Active Selection Toggle
10. Link Keyframes to a bonegroup

I like cool big new features (bmesh,special effects) as much as the next person,but I would like some key functionality to be polished a bit more,before anything else,because these you might need all the time,in some cases.


1. looking out of the camera ,from which I animate, if I try to rotate the view, going OUT of said camera mode,I always get a violent snap back to the camera,regardless of where I was zooming with the camera. While I know this is logical behaviour,it is not functional behaviour. While animating one zooms ,rotates, and moves on the fly while adjusting bones and objects. The snapback I experience makes me have to re-frame and re-zoom back to where I was everytime. 

There IS the lock camera to view mode, which has good functionality but it actually moves the camera ,and at this point in the animation,I actually DONT want the camera to move. 

To recap,when I am in camera view mode,i just want the viewport to behave like a viewport and not snap back everyime.




2. The tools and property shelf are cluttered with items/entries.  Would it not be possible to hover above an entry and push "H" to  hide the entry? and als+h to unhide all, and perhaps shift H to choose from a menulist like the bone layer menu which you want to activate or deactivate. Or any other way you can think of really. Just let the user choose,but maybe ad a reset button in case the user gets lost or confused. Or else some markere telling you you have in fact hidden some stuff.

There are lots of menu items I never use and are in my way.

This behaviour would also be great in the  Properties Editor.





3. Slightly related to previous remark:  when I move from screen to screen (animation screen,to script screen,or default screen...) I always have to redo any changes I made in tools,properties or property editor shelf. Or whether the Shelves are active or not. 

Now ofcourse some people might prefer the way it is now,but perhaps a UI preference could be added? or some "propagate this setting to all other screens" button






4. I love the toggle fullscreen but I can't use it as often as I would like. Most of the times in actual usage of blender you use the 3D view and something that tracks whatever you are doing at that point (be it dopesheet,timeline, f curves...). 

Maybe you could mark which windows you would like to truly hide,and when you go to fullscreen mode, the remaining,nonchecked editor windows remain and fill the window space? This way You can toggle between what you need often and what you need only  sometimes more quickly.

I know you have the option for new screens,but with that I am already at risk of having to many screens with only slight differences to toggle through.






5. The "Follow Context or keep datablock displayed" function should be replicated in all the other editors,in my opinion.


For example,I was making drivers and adding them in the FCurve editor (driver section) and everytime I wanted to test the bone to see if the driver worked I lost the view of the settings in the driver editor. If I could make the window temporarily a sticky one like you can do in the properties editor,then I wouldn't have to select and reselect every single time. 

This is valid as well for the fcurves/dopesheet ,but mostly only if "only include channels relating to selected objects and data" mode is active. 


I don't think any of the other editors switches like the three I mentioned when selecting something else,So possibly this would only be necessary on these 3.






6. I wonder if it would be possible to get selection filters. If you know you are only working on bones, make any other object or light or camera selection impossible.Very useful  in very dense projects.

It's like the "VIEW filter" option in the fcurve editor which shows only the types you have selected. But now for the 3D view. Could be a toolbar or a contect menu,whichever suits the best.






7. In the Outliner editer when you have an item that you can cascade (with numpad + or min) 
there are Icons next to uncascaded items. It would be usefull to have a small description or title when hovering above these icons (driver,edit or animation icons,etc...)

It would help with viewing quickly what an icon stands for,what it's name is.
And maybe by clicking it (or shift+click),it opens the cascade and you go immediatly to the entry you clicked on.

You can already click on the edit Icon,to enter edit mode immediatly,or pose mode for bones,but hovering titles and cascade and switch to selection immediatly would make it even more useful AND readable then it is now.





8. I would like to be able to put even more shortcuts on certain buttons which refuse shortcuts right now.

-auto keyframing mode on/off
-"only include channels relating to selected objects and data"button
-NLA Editor (and other editors perhaps) -> also: editors should be able to get shortcuts changed by rightclicking on their entry in the main button menu,like most buttons or menu entries.
-etc...


=>almost any function should be possible to make into a shortcut,if the user so chooses.




9. When having selected MULTIPLE bones or objects, perhaps the possibility to have a dropdown in the properties editor?

For example: I select several bones-> if I hover (or Shift+Click) above the bone button in the properties editor 
->I get a dropdown to all the items I have selected. 

Selecting a different one makes a different selected object active,and thus show its settings. This would defeat the need to always return to the 3D view to remake a selecion.


if you have different armatures selected->armature dropdown
Different objects->object dropdown.

And maybe for added functionality a quick toggle between all the entries you have selected.


I don't know if this would be difficult to implement,but this would be a step up in handling multiple objects with the same selection. It's not a true "modify multiple objects at once" but it might be a handy workaround.








10. This might be a bit difficult to comprehend but I would like to LINK BONES and their respective keyframes
Let me explain:


The arms and legs in a rig have several bones . Right now you have to keyframe each and every one bone ,and if you move the keyframe of only one of these bones,the others remain behind. 

Now this is perfect behaviour ofcourse,but sometimes you just want to treat the arm as one entity,the leg as one entity ,a TAIL as one entity (etc...),without always having to remake you selection. 

Also when remaking selections there is always the possibility that you forget to select some minor bone. Sometimes this can take a while to notice and by then the damage is done,you might have to search and search for some measly keyframe that is disrupting your animation flow.

If you could link certain bones this would mean the following

-If I move a keyframe from this bone,the other bones' keyframes should follow. 
-If you delete a keyframe ,the other linked bones' keyframes get deleted as well.
If you create a keyframe on the bone....

another way of putting it is that there is some sort of parent-child relationship going on between these keyframes

 but more precisely every keyframe is a child holding hands with the other keyframechilds to whatever bone group (=mentors,teachers?) they belong.


this is mostly useful in posing stage of an animation,and possible also in the breakdown stage. 

OFCOURSE when you refine your animation more and more you should be able to BREAK the connections between the bones to move these child keyframes where ever they want to be. 


An example of this implementation is in  3DS max,in the Biped armatur structure. This system is mosly broken and not too handy,but having only one keyframe for all bones in an armgroup, or in a leggroup or in a tailgroup, till you want to break that relationship is a handy feature you must not underestimate.

If you were to implement it in blender I would think it would be to give some sort of ID to a bone group which automatically links these bones and their keyframes together,but has no other connection or influence over the already existing relationships. These bonegroups should be viewable in the outliner to see which bones are linked on a keyframe level.



I think a system like this would be a godsend to animators in blender.



If you need any more information on any of my points ,please just ask.
If I have missed the point of this mailing list then also,please say so.

I really think these functions could be benificial to most ,if not all users.
But ofcourse I realize they still might be only wanted by me,if you do not regard these issues as a problem.


Thank you for reading 


Kind regards




Steven