Gradient Sampler
After watching a workshop video of Substance Designer, I was impressed by the way, they allow editing gradients. Especially the gradient sampler, that allows stroking over a reference image, was inspiring. Shortly after I finished watching the video, this add-on for Blender was born.
Download the add-on directly from GitHub: https://github.com/FrankFirsching/gradient_sampler
Blender minimal tested version: 2.83
Usage
The add-on creates a new context menu entry, when a color ramp node is selected in the shader editor. After activating it, the mouse turns into an eyedropper and you should stroke over an area, that shows the intended gradient from a reference image (e.g. in the image viewer of blender)
Advanced usage
The add-on also supports sampling gradients from other applications (e.g. PureRef). Since blender doesn’t capture the mouse completely in case no button is pressed, the add-on supports a two button press workflow. You press the right mouse button within blender, then draw over to the external application. Afterwards stroke over the reference gradient having both the right and left mouse button pressed. The add-on takes care to take the shorter sampled gradient.
Limitations
Blender only supports up to 32 entries within a gradient. In case the referenced gradient is longer, the add-on will resample the gradient down to this maximum number of entries. This can lead to inaccuracies.
3rd party software
The add-on uses the MSS screenshot library of Mickaël Schoentgen under a MIT license.