New button styles (With mockup images)

matt_e · Post by **matt_e** » Tue Sep 02, 2003 4:13 am

ilac wrote:Thought I'd also quote Karim opinion which I agree with very stongly. I don't think the recessed text fields should have a gradient.

The problem still present is that (imo) there are still several different visual cues per different button and which adds noise! Lightness vs darkness is already a very obvious visual cue, so I wouldn't have a different gradient for the sliders or depressed buttons. After all the button is suppossed to be 'going in' but its not flipping over! So I would suggest working with only one gradient, and then varying the darkeness for pressed/unpressed. (plus the text is white too!)

Ok, ok, you're a very good debater

When I find some free time, I'll do some more iterations/variations/experiments with these and post 'em.

How about having a horizontal gradient on the arrow buttons? Would give feed-back for the 'sliding' issue. (Me currently having horrible flashes of gradients in my mind! ) Still It might work visually because it reflects the function of the buttons. A sort of jog shuttle?

Maayyy work, but I fear it would look very disruptive/cluttered. I guess it's worth a try just to see though. If it were a (subtle) horizontal gradient like [dark -> light <- dark], it may give it a slight impression of a jog shuttle, yeah.

*** BTW had you seen my post to the funboard regarding sliders vs the arrow buttons? I suggest that whenever possible we replace the arrow buttons with siders. This is because the sliders give a visual feedback of the available range, the arrow buttons do not. I noticed this because of the new hardness settings in 2.28. I was suddenly at a loos of how much my setting was, as a number meant nothing when I couldn't see it in context! So whenever possible, I vote for sliders!

Yeah that's right. That material buttons case is really a symptom of the disorganised and cluttered buttons layout in that window. When Ton first implemented it in CVS, we tried to think of ways to use a better approach within the current system, but there just wasn't enough space. This will have to wait until the layout and organisation can be re-thought.

It's the 'wherever possible' that is the tricky part though - sliders shouldn't be used just to show the range of values, but when the range of values would be meaningful to show - when you are thinking in terms of a percentage value or ratio. For example the Xparts and Yparts fields have a range from 1-64, but showing the range from 1-64 really isn't that meaningful because what you are interested in is the number of parts itself. On some other things too if there is a large range of possible values, but you usually only want to deal with the numbers themselves, or increment/decrease by small values. In these sorts of cases, a slider would be cumbersome since it woudn't be fine-grained enough.

In any case though, there are many situations in Blender where sliders would be preferable over num fields.

On a side note. I've just spent a couple of weeks working on an Avid, and I re-confirm that high gradients are a real nuisance!!

Heh, nah I'd say more like the Avid interfaces are chunky gaudy and butt-ugly - don't blame the gradients! ;D Now DVD Studio Pro on the other hand... *drools* hehe

hanzo · Post by **hanzo** » Tue Sep 02, 2003 8:35 am

Heh, nah I'd say more like the Avid interfaces are chunky gaudy and butt-ugly - don't blame the gradients! ;D Now DVD Studio Pro on the other hand... *drools* hehe

you so right, I like the gradients you got setup there..

PS: I was just getting ready to mail you and as for updates

Landis · Post by **Landis** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 1:20 am

Broken,

Great work!! Man, everytime that I viit this post you have accomplished something new. Great job buddy. Anyaways, I have been usingthe latest Tuhopuu II. It is really nice and incase you havent heard (however I have a feeling that you had something to do with it

) the interface is now customizable and one of the modes (gradient) resembles yours quite a bit:

Damn shes beautiful. Blender honestly has my vote for the smoothest streamline 3d application on the market. For some reason I see myself using it for quite some time in the future.

Anyways, again, I like your improvements and I hope to see your work reflect in future Blender builds.

Take care and keep up the good work.

Cheers,
Landis

Rhs_CG · Post by **Rhs_CG** » Sun Sep 07, 2003 1:08 am

Two questions:
1. Broken- what link is the latest build of yours?
2. Where can I download the latest Tuhopuu II? (I know, I'm a newbie)

Thanks guys!

hanzo · Post by **hanzo** » Sun Sep 07, 2003 8:35 pm

Rhs_CG
I think this is brokens latest build
http://reblended.com/www/broken/blender ... 030824.zip

latest Tuhopuu? I think.
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14924

ilac · Post by **ilac** » Sun Sep 07, 2003 8:42 pm

broken wrote:
ilac wrote:Thought I'd also quote Karim opinion which I agree with very stongly. I don't think the recessed text fields should have a gradient.

The problem still present is that (imo) there are still several different visual cues per different button and which adds noise! Lightness vs darkness is already a very obvious visual cue, so I wouldn't have a different gradient for the sliders or depressed buttons. After all the button is suppossed to be 'going in' but its not flipping over! So I would suggest working with only one gradient, and then varying the darkeness for pressed/unpressed. (plus the text is white too!)
Ok, ok, you're a very good debater When I find some free time, I'll do some more iterations/variations/experiments with these and post 'em.

broken wrote:
How about having a horizontal gradient on the arrow buttons? Would give feed-back for the 'sliding' issue. (Me currently having horrible flashes of gradients in my mind! ) Still It might work visually because it reflects the function of the buttons. A sort of jog shuttle?
Maayyy work, but I fear it would look very disruptive/cluttered. I guess it's worth a try just to see though. If it were a (subtle) horizontal gradient like [dark -> light <- dark], it may give it a slight impression of a jog shuttle, yeah.

I fear it would look very disruptive/cluttered too, which is why I was VERY hesitant to suggest it!

..but like everything else, its not fair to pass judgement on something without first trying!

Thanks!

Landis · Post by **Landis** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 12:49 am

Hey everyone...got a question for ya's. Since I have a screenshot image readily available a couple of posts up from this one, take a look at the good ol' vertices on the opposite side of the vase mesh that are screaming in my face while I am trying to select the others that are closest to me. How do I get the vertices to not show up if they are obstructed by the mesh in which they make up? I am aware of the "hide vertice/s" feature (having to manually slect vertices that are to not show up in the window) but this simply is not good enough for various reasons. Let me know if there is a way to do this...even if it is only possible in shaded and/or "potatoe" (texture) mode. Either way it would be extremely helpful.

Cheers,
Landis

Karim · Post by **Karim** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 4:42 pm

Yes, a Hidden Line/Vertex render mode is something I very often wish to have while building complex meshes. Would be VERY usefull.

aphex · Post by **aphex** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 7:04 pm

Landis wrote:...even if it is only possible in shaded and/or "potatoe" (texture) mode. Either way it would be extremely helpful.

Hi,

Check tuhopuu2 again, I added this last night!

Solid/Shaded views no longer draw the vertices on the opposite side.

Selecting 'Ignore Occluded' from the user-pref window means that you can also only select forward facing vertices! BTW, this needs plenty of testing! -- especially with unusual/non-mainstream video cards.

Hidden line removal is next on my list.

Cheers,

aphex

Eric · Post by **Eric** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 8:47 pm

aphex: Sounds awesome!! But now I can't compile tuhopuu2 using the automake system anymore.

Here's what I get:

Code: Select all

/home/eric/Blender/sauce/test2/source/blender/src/../../../../tuhopuu2/source/bl
ender/src/vpaint.c:433: undefined reference to `sample_backbuf_area'
source/.libs/libblender_source.al(vpaint.lo)(.text+0x20da): In function `weight_
paint':
/home/eric/Blender/sauce/test2/source/blender/src/../../../../tuhopuu2/source/bl
ender/src/vpaint.c:803: undefined reference to `sample_backbuf'
source/.libs/libblender_source.al(vpaint.lo)(.text+0x2968): In function `vertex_
paint':
/home/eric/Blender/sauce/test2/source/blender/src/../../../../tuhopuu2/source/bl
ender/src/vpaint.c:962: undefined reference to `sample_backbuf'
source/.libs/libblender_source.al(drawobject.lo)(.text+0x1f06): In function `cal
c_meshverts_ext':
/home/eric/Blender/sauce/test2/source/blender/src/../../../../tuhopuu2/source/bl
ender/src/drawobject.c:992: undefined reference to `calc_occluded_verts'
source/.libs/libblender_source.al(drawobject.lo)(.text+0x1ff0): In function `cal
c_meshverts_ext_f2':
/home/eric/Blender/sauce/test2/source/blender/src/../../../../tuhopuu2/source/bl
ender/src/drawobject.c:1029: undefined reference to `calc_occluded_verts'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[2]: *** [blender] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/eric/Blender/sauce/test2'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/eric/Blender/sauce/test2'
make: *** [all] Error 2

I can go check out the automake files...but can you (somebody else) give me a hint on what the changes are first? =)

Thanks!

aphex · Post by **aphex** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 9:30 pm

Eric wrote:I can go check out the automake files...but can you (somebody else) give me a hint on what the changes are first? =)

Thanks!

Hi Eric,

This should be fixed in CVS now. Thanks for the heads-up!

aphex

Eric · Post by **Eric** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 10:17 pm

Wow, you truly are awesome!

Works like a charm!

Landis · Post by **Landis** » Tue Sep 16, 2003 10:38 pm

damn

. Can anyone ...ummm...

...offer a ummm....windoze build please

. Sorry. I wouldnt know the first thing about compiling

Cheers,
Landis

P.S. Thanks aphex!!!!

theeth · Post by **theeth** » Wed Sep 17, 2003 12:22 am

You can get a windows tuhopuu build in this thread: http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14924

Martin

matt_e · Post by **matt_e** » Wed Sep 17, 2003 6:42 pm

Ok, back on topic a bit.

Finally got around to testing with those num/text fields. Firstly, the horizontal gradients:

Unfortunately I don't think it turned out very well. It's not really possible to make them more subtle, otherwise they get lost completely. Anyway, I think it's to ocluttered and ugly, but it was worth a try I guess.

Anyway, I turned off the gradients on the num/text fields and with a bit of tweaking, got this:

Which I'm liking more and more now.

So..... ?

PS. Updated Windows build here for testing: http://reblended.com/www/broken/blender ... 030918.zip