[Bf-funboard] Auto-key indicator

Nicholas Rishel rishel.nick at gmail.com
Wed Oct 17 22:59:27 CEST 2012


The largest issue with this is that it is an entirely new concept to add to
the UI. There are a couple merits I like to judge new UI elements on -
please bear with me as I'm trying to collect thoughts as I write.

1. Is this a one-off addition?
One off elements are the name of the object in the corner, the 3D cursor,
the axis in the corner, etc. These elements clutter the frame but convey
enough information at any given time that they are essential to have - and
are usually persistent or at least showing 99% of the time. This proposal
would not fit into this category, so moving along...

2. Is it an extendable addition?
In effect this is asking if we can use this new element in similar ways to
communicate other things to the user. I would expect your proposal to fall
more into this category, and before adding it there would need to be a
discussion on what other elements could be communicated in this fashion.
But, I tend to not believe that this specific proposal would not work well
for this because...

3. Is it in the way or obtrusive?
This is where the most flags come up when this proposal. Even little
elements can be very distracting, flicker is nearly unacceptable for
anything but passive communication. The reason we accept a flickering
"record" image with video recorders is because there is no more effective
way to communicate that we are now recording: from the perspective of a
camera we just have a 2D image where any collection of pixels might be the
focus. That is why it is out of the way, but flickering to grab attention.
In our 3D package we do not have this constraint, we have mounds of
information about the scene and explicitly stated user focus based on
selection. To introduce new elements into the frame close to the area the
user works with will be effective at communicating what is happening, but
at a cost of gathering too much attention to itself.

I keep meaning to do a formal write up on why I'm making the decisions I'm
making in UI Playground, but I haven't had a solid block of time to invest
into it. But in gist, the main points I tried to hit were:

1. Precedence: We already communicate to the user via object bounding
lines: selected, unselected, grouped, transforming, etc. In gist, this adds
no "new" elements to the UI.

2. Out of the way: Since no new UI elements are added, it is not in the way.

3. Not distracting: Since there is a precedence to communicate to the user
via the object outline, this should not be any more distracting that
existing elements of the UI.

These are just musings on my part, I am certainly not - yet - an expert on
the subject. Also, I have not received ANY feedback on my work, so letting
me know if my assumptions are correct would be greatly appreciated. :)

On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 3:22 PM, Pietro Grandi
<pietro.grandi.3d at gmail.com>wrote:

> Why not? I like it!
> Will it be showed only when a transformation is occurring? Like
> translation/rotation/scale?
>
> ciao!
> pietro
>
> On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 8:22 PM, Paweł Łyczkowski <
> pawellyczkowski at gmail.com
> > wrote:
>
> > +1 to this proposal. It's less intrusive than the border option, being
> > more noticeable at the same time (due to appearing and disappearing),
> > and looks nice.
> >
> > W dniu 17-10-2012 19:20, Matjaz Lamut pisze:
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > I read on the committers mailing list the red window outline and
> blinking
> > > to indicate enabled auto-key is a no go. I also noticed a graphicall
> > build
> > > called UI playground to test a possible solution, so this appears to be
> > > still a problem. Do you think a solution like the below proposals could
> > > work?
> > >
> > > https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1482587/Blender%20UI/Record-indicator.png
> > > https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1482587/Blender%20UI/Record-indicator1.png
> > >
> > > During translate, rotate, scale or other transform in the 3d window an
> > > additional icon/thingy is displayed at the mouse cursor to indicate
> > > auto-keyframe is enabled. It doesn't show when no transform is being
> > done.
> > > The indicator is thus out of the way most of the time, except when it
> > > should be visible. It is also a very small visual change to the UI,
> while
> > > always being right in front of the user, at the cursor.
> > >
> > > Matjaž
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