INDUSTRY STANDARD KEYMAP FOR THE VSE - up for discussion!
Google doc: INDUSTRY KEYMAP FOR THE VSE
Get it here: Industry Standard Keymap for the VSE - based on the 3.5.1 keymap · GitHub
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Industry standard shortcuts differ between 3D apps and video editing apps, and we try to keep Blender keymaps internally consistent across editors.
What is the approach to deal with those conflicting goals here? To have a separate keymap for video editing that changes shortcuts across all Blender editors? To use these shortcuts only in the video editing template? To use different shortcuts for the e.g. playback in different parts of Blender? To only add some shortcuts for the video editor where space is available, without replacing existing shortcuts?
Those are good questions. I guess the first questions is why have an Industry Standard keymap in the first place? And who should it target?
Is the Industry Standard keymap only for allowing 3D people to transition from another 3D app to Blender? What about sculpting, drawing(GP), tracking, animating etc.? These questions are not for me to answer.
This writeup is based on the quite tedious and time-consuming process of trying to compare what are considered “Industry Standard” keys in NLEs with the keys used in the VSE.
Why you may ask? Well, some people meet Blender first as a video editor. Should these people be forced into a steep learning curve, or should we try to meet them half way? And what if we’re actually able to do that without much compromising of the existing keymap paradigms of Blender?
Ex. in the first section is it only the pick linked L key in the default keymap which is affected for the VSE. I bet no one knows about this key, and it has not been prioritized being exposed in the menu, even after the wait-for-input patch was implemented: Blender Archive - developer.blender.org And the K for split, which has become Ctrl+K.
The changes in the attached keymap are only affecting the Sequencer and no other editor. The additional keys/operator adjustments/tiny macors/python operators suggested here are really up to you people at the BF, how far you’re prepared to go in order to welcome new users of the VSE in the non-default industry standard keymap.
The industry compatible keymap is currently designed for users coming from 3D apps, mostly generalist apps but more specialized apps tend to follow similar shortcuts.
I understand the motivation of wanting to ease the transition for video editing apps as well. Though without the design (and possibly implementation changes) for how this would integrate into Blender as a whole this is an incomplete contribution. That then you or another developer would need to complete, before it can be reviewed.
A few ways to approach this:
- Make a patch for a limited set of changes for sequencer specific shortcuts that do not conflict with editor consistency.
- Make the case that it is worth breaking consistency in the sequencer editors, with an idea of how far that would go.
- Propose a design for how a dedicated keymap for video editing would work, when it would be applicable (in templates, workspaces), how it would be selected and edited by users, etc.
Some more key aspects of the IC keymap I’d like to mention:
- Extremely minimalistic overall. A heavy reliance of context menus and open to customization
- It’s mimicking other industry apps without compromising on Blenders paradigms (this one is typically very difficult)
I didn’t look much into the VSE keymap but I’d say important for the design is to:
- Pick one primary reference app if it’s not clear which industry conventions to follow. (For other editors it was Maya and Zbrush)
- Also keep a level of consistency across the entire keymap (That effort also went into syncing painting, sculpting and modeling for 4.0)
A lot of grey area here. Hard to sometimes choose how faithful to be to Blender or other apps.
Knowing that any keymap change in Blender will end up as a never ending screamfest between BF devs, and devs being generally annoyed by the existence of the VSE, I’ll leave this as my contribution and waste no further time on trying to contribute to this matter. Thank you for your time.
Hey guys,
I know this post has been sitting here for some time, but I still want to leave a comment since Industry Compatible Keymap (ICK) topics rarely get much attention.
A little bit of backstory: a couple of years ago, I tried to propose an improvement for the Industry Compatible Keymap. I shared my idea on Right-Click Select and Devtalk, but neither gained much traction. Eventually, I connected with William Reynish on the Blender Coder Chat Room.
William and I chatted a bit about the current ICK decisions based on his post, and we shared similar thoughts. We agreed that ICK shouldn’t try to encompass every 3D software keymap but instead should be designed around the most widely used applications within specific domains, while still making some compromises to create a Blender’s Industry Standard keymap. He mentioned this will be the approach he would take if he had to do it again.
However, even after many informative discussions, the project never came to fruition. At the time, he was working for Unity and didn’t have much availability, and I didn’t know how to code back then. Despite partially completed the ICK optimization based on my expertise in different 3D software and what William and I discussed, the project didn’t move forward.
Fast forward to today: if anyone is looking for collaboration on this project, I’d be happy to contribute since I started learning to code specifically because of this.
There were also some discussions in this post.
In 2023 I did a big overhaul of the IC and default keymap for the purpose of improving it for sculpting and painting related modes (including grease pencil).
Other editors and workflows were not addressed back then.
I’d be happy to look over what you have in mind. The keymap needs more maintainers and I don’t have enough experience in every workflow it covers.
When I revamped the keymap, my approach was to keep the core principles around as much as possible from Williams keymap, but with a couple of important points:
- The keymap needs to embrace Blenders paradigms, while at least “resembling” other industry standard shortcuts (This avoids developing new features specifically for this keymap)
- A heavy focus is also using and improving context menus. It’s an intentionally minimal keymap to avoid relearning a lot of shortcuts.
Definitely, from what I manually remap the ICK, what I can say for sure is 90% of the mapping can just remap without new feature development, the rest will require certain level of development on the pie menu and coding for some feature, for example in ZBrush hold Alt hover on the mesh then hit the to switch between the meshes, but this feature just can’t be done in Blender, so these features will require some actually programming.
I think what better is not necessarily fully based on what William created, even he mentioned the decision he made for the ICK has flaws, what appropriate is most important.
I make this a couple years ago, back then I tried my best with my 0 coding knowledge, so the keymap should be the most straightforward modification. But since this one was created long time ago, I think it will be a good idea to spend sometime to review this keymap together, and now I can contribute even more directly to the code, I wonder if there’s already an existing repo?