[Soc-2016-dev] First Status Update [Layer Manager]

[Julian Eisel]

Hi all!

* Proposal is on my Wiki page
https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Julianeisel/GSoC-2016/Layer_Manager_Proposal
* Yes, I've met Ton before ;)
* The project doesn't have a stakeholder yet, I will check on it.
* In the coming weeks I'm going to do regular dev work (bug fixing,
review, docs, etc), continue (wrap up?) work on the custom
manipulators project, and work on the layer manager design. I'm pretty
far with the technical design, the interface design is still fuzzy but
should be ready when the coding period begins.
* Ton already introduced me to Tianwei, I'll help him with the
interface part of the multi-view camera reconstruction project. If
other students need help, don't hesitate to contact me (Severin in
IRC, @Severin_b3d on Twitter).

The layer manager overlaps with some areas that are in active
development, that means I need to communicate well with the developers
of them:
    ** GPencil: I've been in touch with the GPencil team during this
week, they are working on some workflow improvements, including layer
system changes. I guess you'll hear more about this soon.
    ** Viewport: The new viewport should work nicely with the layer
manager, but the viewport design is still far too vague to see where
the exact overlaps are. I'm also a bit involved with the viewport
project, so I'll try to clear things up before the GSoC coding period
starts.
    ** Cycles: There are plans to redesign render passes into a more
generic system, this might overlap with layers. I will contact the
Cycles devs soon.

Time to get things rolling, fun times ahead! :)

Cheers,
- Julian -