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Author Topic: Trackball in the Scene Editor  (Read 71773 times)

Steve

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Trackball in the Scene Editor
« on: November 16, 2015, 05:51:29 pm »

Overall using the trackball for editing bones in the Scene editor works quite well. There are a few minor bugs, however, that I noticed after I'd posted the update.  I'm in the process of fixing these.

Please reply to this topic with other issues that you may find.

Direct bone manipulation: If you click-drag on a bone to rotate it instead of using the trackball, it makes an initial jump to a different location. I know what's causing this and should have it fixed soon.

Wierd crash: Clicking on a Figure in Rotate Bone mode from the Camera view can crash. I'm still chasing this one down.

Tiny Trackballs: In the Camera and Perspective views the trackball size isn't correct. This should be easy to fix.
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johnar

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Re: Trackball in the Scene Editor
« Reply #1 on: November 21, 2015, 04:09:04 am »

I've noticed you can't select a bone in scene editor unless the fast select is on.......(1198),
 and something else, the selected bone doesn't stay 'orange' when you move the cursor away from it. In earlier versions, the selected bone(s) stayed 'visibly' selected until it was 'un-selected'.
« Last Edit: November 21, 2015, 04:10:50 am by johnar »
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Steve

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Re: Trackball in the Scene Editor
« Reply #2 on: November 21, 2015, 04:26:37 pm »

johnar[: yes, I see how that could be a problem :)  I have a fix for the bugs shown above about ready. I'll fix this before I post it.

Thanks for the bug report!
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Steve

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Re: Trackball in the Scene Editor
« Reply #3 on: November 22, 2015, 05:03:32 pm »

These bugs should all be fixed in build 1199 :)  Give it a try and let me know what you think!
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johnar

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Re: Trackball in the Scene Editor
« Reply #4 on: November 23, 2015, 12:53:28 am »

Hi steve.

Direct bone manipulation isn't jumping like it was.

Trackball size seems fine to me, and i've clicked  many times on my figure in camera view without a crash.

 Can now select bones with fast-select off, and notice now that bone stays visibly selected.
        Thanks Steve.

Found another bug: Cannot select multiple bones in scene mode. (left click 1 bone, right click to select additional bones, not working)
 Works in figure and sequence modes tho.
 Awesome stuff steve. really really cool.                                                             
« Last Edit: November 23, 2015, 12:58:35 am by johnar »
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Steve

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Re: Trackball in the Scene Editor
« Reply #5 on: November 23, 2015, 03:05:46 pm »

When editing joint angles you (currently) can't select multiple bones in either of the Figure, Sequence or Scene editors.  But I think this should be changed.  I want all three to behave the same, and here's what I propose:

Clicking on a selected bone:

All mouse buttons: leaves all bones selected and dragging rotates the bone that was clicked.

Clicking on an unselected bone:

LMB and MMB: deselects everything and selects that one bone.
RMB: Leaves everything selected and selects the bone.
Dragging in Fast Select mode at the same time does an edit.

Clicking not on a bone:

Deselects everything.

When clicking directly on a bone (i.e. not the trackball):

LMB rotates the bone in screen Z axis,
MMB rotates the bone in screen Y axis,
RMB rotates the bone in screen X axis.

I should have this ready soon. Let me know what you think
« Last Edit: November 23, 2015, 05:06:47 pm by Steve »
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thecolclough

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Re: Trackball in the Scene Editor
« Reply #6 on: November 23, 2015, 06:07:29 pm »

I want all three to behave the same, and here's what I propose:
sounds good on paper - will be interesting to see it in action
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johnar

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Re: Trackball in the Scene Editor
« Reply #7 on: November 23, 2015, 11:47:52 pm »

 
 Am hesitant, and slightly struggling, to post feed back straight away, until i've got this out in the open, and clarified.
 Something has recently occured to me, which i posted last night, but withdrew later because i didn't want to, possibly, open a can of worms.....
I think other peoples input is important here.
 The thing is, with the implementation of fast-select, is there really any reason to be able to select multiple bones??
 Although i have always liked to select multiple bones, it was mainly so as not to need to go back and forth between select - rotate - select - rotate - etc...
 Now, with fast select, i'm trying to think of a scenario where i would need to select multiple bones...... anybody?

 Sorry steve, but perhaps there actually is no reason to continue with multiple bone selection.......and if this does turn out to be the case, then perhaps it would/could save you a lot of work, and also help, a little, to keep anim8or 'light'. (one of the outstanding things about anim8or has always been the size of it. All this power in only a few megabytes.) (Maybe every little bit counts..)
 . will watch this space for anyone to post scenario(s) of when to select multiple bones...... hope i haven't upset anything....
« Last Edit: November 23, 2015, 11:52:57 pm by johnar »
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Steve

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Re: Trackball in the Scene Editor
« Reply #8 on: November 24, 2015, 12:37:38 am »

Quote from: johnar
with the implementation of fast-select, is there really any reason to be able to select multiple bones??
Either supporting multiple bones or not is fairly straightforward.  Neither one is really harder that the other.  The main purpose of these development builds is to figure out what is the best.  Once that's done I can make all the little adjustments and bug fixes to make Anim8or consistent, which is the bulk of the work.

So ... I'll post an update with multiple bone selection (after a little more testing) and everyone can experiment with 1199 (without) and 1200 (with) and tell me what they like and what they don't.  How's that sound? 
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johnar

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Re: Trackball in the Scene Editor
« Reply #9 on: November 24, 2015, 06:24:11 am »

That sounds absolutely fantabulous

 What originally inspired the thought was this:

 I was going to suggest that perhaps the trackball needs to be able to be turned on and off, for situations as in the pic above.
 That somehow got me thinking, hey is this even necessary any more......
 So, anyway, thanks for the perfect answer Steve, and the truly inspiring progress with Anim8or.
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thecolclough

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Re: Trackball in the Scene Editor
« Reply #10 on: November 24, 2015, 12:53:31 pm »

Either supporting multiple bones or not is fairly straightforward.
straightforward enough that it could be a user-toggelable option?
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Steve

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Re: Trackball in the Scene Editor
« Reply #11 on: November 24, 2015, 03:31:27 pm »

OK I've posted build 1200 which allows multiple bone selection, and fixes the problem of not being able to select any bones in the Scene editor when fast-select is off and a few other things.

For fun try Ctrl-Left/Right/Up/Down arrows

thecolclough: yes, an option is always possible if it's needed.  But all things equal, simpler is better. So give the two builds a try and let me know what you think.

Note: Either way dynamic highlighting will be supported for both fast-select and not. It was broken in a couple cases in build 1199.
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johnar

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Re: Trackball in the Scene Editor
« Reply #12 on: November 25, 2015, 12:51:47 am »

 Thanks Steve. Have downloaded build 1200 and managed to get a quick playaround before i need to go out. Will post more as i can.... but for now....

Your proposals in earlier post. (this thread)
Clicking on a selected bone: yes
Clicking on an unselected bone: yes
Clicking not on a bone: yes
 All make perfect sense, and somehow familiar.

 But, i am a little confused in regards to 'clicking directly on a bone.(i.e. not the trackball)':
 ie:LMB rotates the bone in screen Z axis,
    MMB rotates the bone in screen Y axis,
    RMB rotates the bone in screen X axis.
 
 Originally, and in the manual, , its, (to rotate bone):
LMB = X axis
MMB = Z axis
RMB = Y axis

 I see you have written 'in screen'.
 When dealing with figures, (bones), i don't see that the screen view should affect/change which mouse button to rotate which axis.? (edited. tried to make it clearer)
 (unless i'm missing something)
 So, shouldn't it remain the same as originally in the manual? (as above).

 One more thing: I would like to suggest that if multiple bone selection remains an option, then we do really need to be able to turn trackball on and off. As shown in my earlier post of a hand, with fingers selected, the overlapping trackballs can become impossibly confusing.

 Oh, and Ctrl-Left/Right/Up/Down arrows  don't seem to do anything here except change views?

 So, 3 things actually....
« Last Edit: November 25, 2015, 04:10:22 am by johnar »
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cooldude234

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Re: Trackball in the Scene Editor
« Reply #13 on: November 25, 2015, 02:42:14 am »

What originally inspired the thought was this:

 I was going to suggest that perhaps the trackball needs to be able to be turned on and off, for situations as in the pic above.
 

I think what should be done here instead is have all the bones selected to have one big track ball which rotates all the bones selected around the most base bone's (from what is selected) origin.
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johnar

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Re: Trackball in the Scene Editor
« Reply #14 on: November 25, 2015, 04:13:57 am »

 Wouldn't work in cases where fingers are positioned differently and seperately.
 Would work for simple open/close hand, grabbing something...
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