Sean MacIsaac

I agree about this--but as for Hotkeys, I think they should just be customizable. But common and easy to use functions should be obvious and clearly marked. I have a maximize workspace button on one of those mockups, underneath the quadview. You could assign it to a hotkey in an editor. Yeah, we wouldn't want to force a way onto people. I agree here. I think you are right, and we should absolutely keep things in rooms then if things are going to be like this. I had an idea that the help would be "built" in also, you hover over an item and there's a popup with the text explanation and a button to view a brief video explaining what the tool is used for and how to use it. I agree with ZBrush's interface, it's brutal. Rounded buttons or widgets in certain places are esthetically pleasing. The whole process will be audited in real time here on the boards. So the UI will be a better UI, not something that looks creative and different for the sake of being different. I hate that. No custom rooms anymore, I like the idea of closing them. As I have it in the UI design already. Absolutely I think silo is silo and it's UI skinning is an 'okay' concept. I like the idea of a clean unified UI that is very customizable--but to a point where tutorials and books that cover 3D Coat can be understood by anyone, because the UI is clean. What if any UI element could be dragged and dropped somewhere else? Or removed? Then you could create a very lightweight environment to work in. Custom rooms is a no go. 1. We could have a prompt come up and warn the user, that way it wont close accidentally. To open it, you click on the plus button and drop down list appears of the rooms you can choose from. 2. I disagree. What if there was an option to turn them off? 3. Quadview was asked for in this thread. Andrew also thinks this is a problem and so it will be removed from the mockup 4. Custom rooms is a no go. 5. Gap can be changed 6. Check out Google Chrome. The reason for this is that the menubar is a child of the rooms, so that rooms are parents of the menu bar. However, in the visual representation, the parents are the children. Custom rooms are gone. We are just feeling this out, the idea is to be creative, and to creatively solve problems. thank you. Current 3D coat is non standard and "creative" looking as in it does utilize the API of the operating system it exists in. It is already special. Yeah, the interface should speak it's usability and simplicity. It should be smooth and "honest". We should probably talk about this more--but for now, we are sticking with rooms. Rooms are here to stay. I understand how you feel and 3D Coat was the first software I used that had separate rooms. Although at first I found it confusing, it is now a fundamental part of how it works. I think for that reason, we have to keep the rooms. Max is quite a bit different than 3D Coat. Smart...and intuitive maybe? For now, I think a discussion is healthy. When the time for a poll is here, we'll do it. I agree. It's a shame about the pages not being able to go over the window header--what if we have a custom header? custom rooms is a way for you to create a custom interface with all the interface options--but I think it's a no go. Quadview--I think this is a good idea to have. But on here, it's just a button. :-) I think for now--we'll just keep going at the slow pace I'm at and by the time your ready to focus on this. The timing should be fine. :-)

Context sensitivity means anything dealing with the current context. An example of context sensitivity in 3D Coat right now is the tool bar at the top and how it changes options based on the tool selected. We'll see what we come up with as time goes by in regards to how to expose the user to the functionality in 3D Coat.

Amber, I removed those images I sent to Andrew--we are essentially starting from scratch here, ;-). I understand you don't like round buttons. As for menu placement in odd places--speak your mind and we can see where they'd be better suited. This process is organic and fluid--nothing is set in stone. This is going to be fun. I want you to know, if you guys don't like it--it's not going to happen. As for transparency... There would definitely be something to manage--there are many ways we can handle this--such as context sensitivity. Now, what people mean is this--it should NEVER EVER be only via a hotkey that you can access a certain command. Which is what I mean by Transparency. I think we can agree this is not friendly. Context sensitivity handles this. Grayed out I think is not quite the good way to go about this as menus can still be bogged down by menu entries. But commands that cannot be accessed via this tool should simply be invisible. I will have to think about this Absolutely, a flexible UI is the way to make everyone happy. I completely understand and agree with you. What we are going to do here, is make 3D Coat easier to interact with, this is the goal. :-) I removed the set of mockups I sent to Andrew because they were causing confusion. We are doing this slowly, keeping in mind the fact that people are very familiar with how things work. Personally, I think the first step should be cosmetic with some very minor changes to usability--and then slowly update the interface with new changes. We don't want to overwhelm anyone. Now, if you look at the wiki with the MyPaint interface you should know that we communicated very clearly with each other and although there is in the end only a few interface elements that were designed we went through a myriad of concepts. Those few designs started in August to roughly around the end of October. To do this properly we have to move slowly.

Amber: A recent project I did the UI design for: http://mypaint.intilinux.com/ http://wiki.mypaint.info/index.php?title=UI/Brainstorm http://wiki.mypaint.info/index.php?title=Iportnovs_en All of your suggestions have been taken into account. ---- I am glad that a lot of you support this--I want to make sure you understand that the design of this UI is happening in concert with the posts here. The evolution of it will be logical and organic based on your needs. I like some of the ideas you are pushing here. :-)

We are going to start from the basis of 3D coat, and slowly build on ideas in this thread with your comments. Your concerns important to me, because with your points of view it is how we will build this. We will be starting from scratch as the launching point being re-organization of the UI hierarchy. We are going to start from the basis of 3D coat, and slowly build on ideas in this thread with your comments. Your concerns important to me, because with your points of view it is how we will build this. We will be starting from scratch as the launching point being re-organization of the UI hierarchy. I am going to add these to the first post, these request are very logical and I support them. Personally, for myself and we are going to need a consensus for this, I want the power to customize my workspace and it needs to be simple and easy. We need to find a right balance of customization options. And we will.

If the criticism is constructive I don't mind. Everything gets approved by you guys. So if you have a better idea, talk about it. Don't like something--talk about it. Simple and clean is the goal--we need to do everything the best possible way! Yeah, the sliders I am going to change, I agree on them being an issue and in my first series of mockups I changed them. I don't think forcing UI colours is a good idea--however, I think we should remove the option to chose between the flat and 3d buttons and just pick a single one which would be a mash up of the two. And as for the modo look--don't worry about it. The way the UI is going, it will look like 3D coat, just better.

This is the start of what will become the improved interface for 3D Coat. And to make this happen, we need your input. My name is Sean MacIsaac -- I have been in 3D since 2004. I have also been designing interfaces for longer. I picked up 3D Coat and thought to myself, this is a great program but it has a big problem for me--the interface could be steamlined, simplified and more efficient. So--I took 2 days and did a design. And I emailed that to Andrew, Andrew said "It's good, but why does it look so much like modo?" -- and through some back and forth Andrew agreed that he needed to hire me to design the interface--but make it look like 3D Coat ;-). He also told me that he greatly valued the input of the users on the boards and I told him I totally agreed. So, here is the beginning of our story, we need and want your input through this whole process--and now together, let's start. 1. Read this entire thread before commenting--this will reduce overlap. 2. Keep your replies as short and clear as possible as I will try to reply to all of them--and see rule #1. 3. Be constructive 4. Negativity and fear won't build a great interface--co-operation and working together will. These are mock ups for the design process, and therefore change is easy and encouraged. I want to know what you guys think. 1. Rearranging Interface hierarchy In the current UI, the menu bar is the child of the mode panel (Sculpt Mode, Voxel Mode, UV Mode etc). The menu bar is currently placed underneath it's children--the parent is the child. So the first change is to visually present the interface hierarchy of the interface. 2. Changing UI style and spinners, making the icons a bit more polished. Reason for changing the spinners / sliders: It is logical to directly manipulate the number and not the text. Added quad view layout button, and full screen button. Rooms can be closed and added by clicking on the [+]. This *may* change due to current limitation of pages not being able to be put into the header. 3. Removing and Adding Rooms Context Sensitivity (Greying out of Menu-Entries and Icons which make no sense (are not available) with the currently chosen tool) More telling progress bars Rethinking, simplifying widgets for object creation and transforms. Sparse cursor "decorations" which indicate the current workmode. Clearer Visual indicators (eg: if a Brush allows for Alphas or not) Key-remapping options (every action could be remapped) UI and Command Transparency: Every command should be available clearly in the interface Ability to create custom rooms. So that you can have access to all commands in one window and create a fully customizable interface. ============================================================================ Due to the confusion I have removed the past mockup.

My mesh performance was slow, I reloaded the mesh (voxel) and it was fast again. Is there a clear history button? I just started using this a week ago.