[Bf-funboard] 2-axis manipulator designs...

[David Jeske]

Hmm, the UI currently does pre-selection highlighting for nearly all input
fields.

I guess I could imagine there being some annoyance with the manipulator
doing this though. It's such a small target maybe it induces some kind of
unintended psychological wait as our brain unintentionally learns to wait
for the highlight confirm. Or maybe it just encourages bad design by
fooling us into thinking it fixes small ambiguous hit targets.

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I'm not sure we can come up with clean enough 2-axis scale -or- translate
to be worth it, let alone both! However, we can try. It's easy to say 'no'
to things that are not nice.

Here are some thoughts..

1) I don't think Vino's 2-axis translate visuals work. They are almost
exactly the same appearance as the current 1-axis scale squares.

2) I think we will have better luck using the "corner surface" as 2-axis
translate, and some kind of "handle" to 2-axis scale. This will allow them
to be activated at the same time. afaik, this is fairly common among
manipulators (though it's not necessarily good!) This leaves the question
of what surface shape (square or triangle) and where to put the 2-axis
scale handle. Maybe Neal can make another couple mockups?

4) There is something either awkward or nice about the way the clear center
circle occludes the alpha sides in Neal's mockup. It makes the
center-circle much more visible, but also occludes alot of the corner
surface drag area. It also might be a big challenging to draw (though I
think it can be done).

5) I can't help feel the visual complexity budget here might be better
spent on something which enables new functionality, like Modo's wacky-cool
custom-axis manipulator-manipulator ("custom pivot action center") .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_p7I6VeHAo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upuuk4BjPew