2024-09-24 Sculpt, Paint, & Texture Module Meeting

Meetings
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1

Check the overview thread for more information about the meeting.

Present

  • Hans Goudey
  • Sean Kim
  • Julien Kaspar

Since the Last Meeting

  • This is the last week of the Brush Refactor project, concrete data about the end results of it will be posted as we gather and finalize data.
  • Sculpt: Add Mask from Boundary operator should land sometime this coming week.

Meeting Topics

  • Sculpt: Replace “sculpt pivot” with 3D cursor
    • Some minor bugs to fix, still planning on landing before 4.3
    • Will be removing “Set Pivot Position” operator in favor of “View 3D Cursor 3D”
    • There are plenty more improvements we can make for the 3D cursor in general, but we want to get this current implementation out for feedback, especially since the current state of the sculpt pivot has many issues.
    • Hans has seen some feedback indicating that gizmo control would be a nice idea, but that’s a general feature that we can add to be used in all the modes that use the 3D cursor.
    • Julien brought up the possibility of adding the 3D cursor into the toolbar for the options it provides (e.g. Orientation type).
    • There was some minor discussion about undo support for the 3D cursor, Julien plans on talking to other people at the studio about this.
  • Geometry Nodes: Node tools soft selection and sculpt mask support
    • Some feedback about edit mode selection & sculpt mask synchronization was brought up in review.
    • Should still land for 4.3
  • What should the priority be for the module in the upcoming weeks / months be?
    • Sean was interested in getting other module member’s feedback on tasks to prioritize.
    • The short list is still the same as the Sculpt: Short term planning task.
    • Discussion on if Geodesic distances is something we want to explore at this point
      • While this is a nice to have, and would help both performance and accuracy issues across brushes and tools in Sculpt mode, it is less well defined than the above two issues & unlilkely to be prioritized right now.
    • Julien plans to look through the open issues & project board to see if there are any other things that could use attention.
  • Good First Issues
    • Inspired by the modeling Module, it’s probably a good idea for us to brainstorm some issues that could be tagged as such, since there haven’t been many new entries lately.
    • A general reminder to potentially tag items with the label, no other immediate actions for this topic.
  • RCS Ideas
    • Measure tool in Sculpt Mode
      • Is this something we want?
        • While there are some general difficulties with using the Measure tool, we can’t see any reason to not add it.
    • Sculpt Gesture Tools: add a modal keybind that toggles Front Faces Only
      • Discussion shifted to the general concept of the “Front Faces Only” setting for the gesture tools and brushes.
      • View Normal automasking is sort of doing the same thing with additional options, we should investigate whether we want to replace the other settings with this feature.
      • There was a consensus on the naming for this and other automasking settings to be improved & made more obvious what the effect is.
      • The implementation of this has some technical hurdles to get over, but is feasible to achieve.
      • There was discussion about if we want to limit the automasking settings that interact with the gesture tools.
        • It was brought up that the filter tools already interact with the automasking settings and don’t limit options.
      • Julien mentioned that the automasking settings already have a convenient keybind as Alt-A to bring up the pie menu.

Need Help

N/A

14 Likes
2

Why this readiness, when the feedback you have is that there are obvious issues with design ?

  • 3D cursor is not a persistent position. It will be moved in other modes, for other objects.
  • 3D cursor is moved the same way as previous sculpt pivot in this implementation.
  • 3D Cursor being forced is also source of bugs to solve. There is no option to change pivot in Sculpt mode. It could be forced without visible changes in UI, without involving 3D Cursor ; user would just notice a resolution of bugs.

So, the 3 goals of design task are not reached. Why not trying to redefine it, instead of pushing this ?

In all other modes, 3D Cursor is a visual indicator, a position, an orientation (free of use), easy to define. That is the user who decides if he uses it or not, and how he uses it.
That is not a concept obvious to new users.
Here, you are forcing it to be just a pivot, in sculpt mode. That will not help them to dissipate that confusion, between those different concepts ; that are 3D Cursor and pivot.

If the issue is the storing of positions, we need tools to quckly and easily to store positions. That is not a problem limited to sculpt mode. That concerns manual modelling, animating process. Availability of same tools for Edit mode and Object mode and Pose mode will be welcomed.
If the issue is positioning of pivot, 3D Cursor could help because of its snapping options, its dragging. But that does not require to intertwine them. Sculpt pivot point may directly have same ways to be repositioned or temporarily updated at 3D Cursor position.
If the issue is visibility of sculpt pivot point ; it could have its own overlay, named as is, not confused with 3D Cursor.

3 Likes
3

Measure Tool would be very useful.

1 Like
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Very useful indeed. :+1: