Some ideas and suggestions (and questions) about 2.5x UI

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
#1

Hello guys :slight_smile:

I don’t post often so anybody here does even remember me? :stuck_out_tongue:

I have some little ideas and suggestions about the UI of Blender 2.5x

  • I would like to see the file browser as a floating window, like the User Prefs. I think it would be a more usual way to load and save things (like every other soft does)

Also, I noticed that on OSX (yeah Mac user), it is impossible to change the size of the window (no handle on the bottom right…)

  • I would like to see the Transform Orientations menu (from the 3d view) be a little different. Right now it has a roll menu to change the orientation, I think it would be better to have the different options shown directly, like the the Transform Orientation panel from 2.49, because this is a 1 clic menu, which is better when you have to change the orientation a lot of time when posing characters or modeling things.

Also, is there a way to lock the orientation per object or per bone? like locking the left hand IK bone with the global orientation and locking the head bone with normal orientation.

  • I would like to see the 3d view lighting (User Prefs) like the 2.49 with the 3 little spheres to choose the orientation of the lights, because now, the new way is a little confusing.

Also, I think this would appears on the right menu of the 3d view. So you can change the lighting without opening the User Prefs.

  • I would like to be able to change the background color directly from this menu, on the 3d view too. Sometimes it is useful, at least for me. And maybe add an option to show the World color (gradient or image, if it is possible).

That’s it for the moment. I probably have more ideas and suggestions, I’ll probably remember later.

:RocknRoll::ba: (Imagine Mister T with The King’s hairstyle… wow >.<)

#2

Also, I noticed that on OSX (yeah Mac user), it is impossible to change the size of the window (no handle on the bottom right…)

Yes you can. Drag the bottom right corner, works fine.

#3

Ok… It was hidden XD

Thank you a lot :slight_smile:

#4

Since I am a guy that wants Blender to become as new user friendly as possible, i made quite a large list of what i’d like to be changed in Blender 2.5. More users using Blender - that’s what we want.

#1573
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=116303&page=79

I’m glad that the Devs changed the GUI, 2.49 had a terrible GUI…
But the software itself is my favorite i ever used.

#5

Do you use Blender for anything?

#6

More users to do nothing?
More noob users that wants everything to change to 3dMax-like?

#7

Endi: please go away and keep quiet untill you have something useful to say. This is a forum, it’s okay for people to post suggestions. It’s not okay to continually insult people who have ideas. Come back whenever you have any. Thanks.

kagi: You have a few good points. The lack of a ‘grip’ indicator in the bottom right makes it impossible to see that you can infact resize the window. The lack of such an element usually means that a window is fixed in size.

It’s true that Transform Orientations are confusing and weird. It’s too complicated yet limiting - the workflow around this needs a lot of love.

As you point out, the transform properties are a little out of place in the n-key panel, which is mostly used for view properties and editor settings. The Properties editor handles object properties. Issue is that there was no good place to put transform for Edit Mode. I’m still not happy with the current solution though.

I’m not sure it’s a good idea to add preference settings inside the main UI, like you say it’s not nice to duplicate stuff all over the place. Using the World bg color in openGL would certainly be useful though.

FreeMind: I’ve looked at your other list in that thread you linked to. Quite a nice and concise list of stuff that still sucks in Blender. Things that are just annoying and detracts from the experience of using it. Hopefully now that Durian is coming to an end, the Blender Foundation will have more time to concentrate on making Blender fantastic.

#8

I want floating pannels back
I want floating pannels back
I want floating pannels back
I want floating pannels back
I want floating pannels back
…

#9

i think that when you are in Edit mode a new tab could appear - “Vertex” tab. Or something like that. When we get the “Select multiple objects and edit them at a time thing”, we would be able to edit the location of multiple selected vertexes.

When you are in edit mode, a lot of tabs could hide, cause it doesn’t seem like you need them… just a thought.

Oh, and Endi.
Yes I am working with blender.
I made a lot of models for games (Those games were never finished though).
Right now, a week ago i started to make a video clip for a song, which is unlikely to be finished.
What do you mean by “3ds max like”?

#10

I have a wonderful Horst Janssen print hanging on my wall at home called ‘Endi wahr hohl… (missing umlaut warning)’. I think its meant to be a spoof on Andy Warhol. Warhol was prone to weird vaguely insulting mutterings that seldom made sense.

#11


It seems that they will think about it :slight_smile:

#12

@William & @Freemind: I personally think it’s useless replying to Endi’s posts, since he never replies back, so he probably enjoys spitting verdicts and then just fly elsewhere. The most surprising fact is that, being him such a talented artist and at the same time being so annoying on this forum (especially towards noobs), he doesn’t understand how arrogant he sounds. And in case if he does understand it, it would be surprising anyway that he still enjoys this attitude, since many of us are not hiding the annoyance.

#13

Yeah, floating panel back would be great, as I use them all the time in 2.49 :yes:

And I just thought that a button to lock the cursor location would be great too …Well, just an idea because Apple mouses sux :smiley: But maybe it could be useful, not only to avoid mouses errors :stuck_out_tongue:

#14

quote you, and I add that somewhere somebody wrote about first impressions of Blender 2.5 at siggraph, and many people there concern about the N-panel and the lack of floating panels. Maybe Ton will change his mind and will reconsider imlpementing them back…

#15

Can’t the floating panels be like the F6 (last operation) menu ? that would be neat.

I love the new GUI, I love the new sliders! and the checkboxes. I like the padding.

#16

Endi scored a point, as always.

#17

Noo please, keep everything in the UI. Don’t use a bunch of hiddne floating panels that no one knows how to find. Thank you…