Arkanis

I haven't, My life is quite difficult at the moment, and our studio was handling some movies VFX that where quite heavy. I've been working on it, but haven't got the time to give news here or to Andrew. That's the reason why I haven't been very present on the forums or with Andrew. Sorry to make you all whait, things are settling down, but I will post what I've been working on this week so you people get something fresh. A.

Phin : Not exactly, but statisticly males spread more AIDS than women. Anyway, it's the male that has to use a condom, and if he is infected it's because a female infected him before. So the message goes both ways. He's the killer because he has been killed before by a women... Bah, it was a very very short deadline and we did our best, lets hope people will like it Now I must get back to work on this 3DC UI you know ? I will take time to answer also people posts here. A.

Hello everyone, Sorry for the long delay but as you all know my computer crashed, I had to pay 2500 to recover some non backuped projects that where on it, so I had some serious presure on me and I had to do some work to recover those Euros back. Anyway, just to share it with you all here are the three spots for MTV for the international AIDS campaign. Just for the technical part, we where a small team (3 persons) with a very short deadline (2 weeks and a half). The team was composed by the AD, the animator (myself) and one musician for the sound effects and music. It's going live today since it's the international day for the fight against AIDS, so I'm happy to share this with you all. Hope you like them... Youtube links : The Hunting - The Night - The Disco - Vimeo links : The Hunting - http://vimeo.com/2395172 The Night - http://vimeo.com/2395217 The Disco - http://vimeo.com/2395235 More on the UI on the next days, I promise. Ark.

People, juste a message to let you know that my computer died on me three days ago. Lucky me I had a LOT of backups... so nothing is lost. But I'm building a new computer rig to get to work again. Thanks for beeing patient. I will be posting more screens this week-end on pie-tooloriented-menus, docked/undocked, and some other things too. Take care, and sorry for the silence. A.

Mantis : You burned the surprise Yes different subtools will be available in the pie menu depending of the mode in wich you are. And you will be able to chain pie menus, I will be posting screenshots soon about the chain pie menus so people understand better what I'm talking about. Shortcuts for the different modes are in the schedual too and you will be able to custom every shortcut in the software. Buqa : Ribbon, bah... you will be able to build your own ribbon docking the different panels. But I must say that this kind of UI is not well suited for modeling/sculpt/paint workflows... Eats way too much screen space, and you end up with a panoramic view of your model, not optimal at all. And you will get something like Blender. I love Blender, but the way Blender actually lays down things is getting hard to manage (all those squares). "Why do they call this a ribbon interface interface? From what you showed it just looks like a Toolbar with a new name! " I totaly agree with this... it's just hype. lcb8 : if you read my previous post, icons aren't yet redone, but yes they will be redesigned from the ground to make them more simple and intuitive. More to come soon guys, thanks for the feedback and all the replies. A.

No worries Phil, glad you are happy with the news. I know 3DC has grammar errors and weird names for some tools or settings, we will rename them with common used names or things more straightforward. I actualy speak and write almost 5 languages, so sometimes things get mixed up in my head... A.

Here are the pictures attached for those who can't see them in the previous post.

1) We haven't started yet to change the tools and parameters names. So actualy I'm using the ones that you can find inside 3DC. 2) I'm working at the same time I'm answering to posts in here, so I type fast and sometimes mistakes get in. 3) Final UI text will be reviewed by someone whos native language is English and who is a language teacher at university. 4) I'm not offended, this forum is open to get users suggestions. On the other hand it would be wise to say things differently, because things like "Don't mean to offend but is the English in it going to be correct?" can sound a little harsh. But no worries Phil I'm cool... A.

Are you kidding me ? Similar to Zbrush ? Where ? When ? Zbrush don't have dockable panels as we are planning to implement, I don't thinkg the look and feel is like Zbrush neither. Dark themes are best for artistic work, neutral gray doesn't interfere with colors of the creative thinking, it's the reason every pro app has a dark grey or neutral grey theme. You only saw a panel, whait for the rest, then you can tell me if it looks like it or not I will like to add that Zbrush uses collapsible panels CONCEPT, but they didn't invented it, maya and max have this since a long time ago. We don't need to reinvent the wheel for everything, we have to be smart and take the good concepts that are out there. Otherwise you will end with something painfull to use for the common user because of some Alien minded GUI. P.S : Forgot to tell you, we want to make the pie menu custom, so you can drop in the tools you want from a pre-made list. That way it doesn't get clutered if you never work with some tools. A.

Rimasson : There will be a multi panel panel (if that makes sense) where you will be able to select everything related to the brush (shape presets, Alphas, Texture, Color presets, Sculpt modes, etc). And you will be able to add your own presets of course. I will be posting a screenshot soon. A.

Rimasson, I bet you would love it... but no... sorry, I went for a more adult theme, I promise I will make a skin with it so you can feel like home Enough talking, lets get to the pictures : Explanations on it, feel free to ask questions. Will post later today screenshots of the overal space and how things get docked and stacked. Look and feel is subject to change, but I posted this so you people get the grip on functionality. A.

Hello everyone, MTV spots where how to say ? a LOT of stress... but everything went fine. Now on the UI, I will be posting screenshots tonight so you people can get a glimpse of what is comming, and can also make suggestions. I will be posting tonight dockable panels (how they look like, functions), Fast launch icon menu (how it look like, functions), General empty layout. Stay tuned tonight for it. A.

Hello all, I've been very busy lately... but keep working on the GUI, I have to submit a bunch of screenshots to Andrew tomorrow. And if he agrees, we will be submiting some screenshots very very soon. Sorry to be off lately, but here at work we have three spots for MTV Europe down the pipe and it has been VERY VERY busy around. Talk to you in the next couple days. A.

@PoopaScoop : If you read my post carefully you will realize that we are going that way, but not for Volumetric Sculpting. I wanted to spread it across the hole board but discussing with Andrew there are some things that make this difficult. 1) There are some tools that are only available under the volumetric sculpting tab and nowhere else. 2) Using greyed buttons on different modes is just confusing and ugly. 3) If Vol. Sculpting was a sub-mode of Sculpt, that would be trivial, but it's not. And tools even behave differently. We are defining (related to brush tools) three big areas : Paint/Texture, Sculpt/Detail, Vol. Sculpt. And each of them has unique tools you can subselect. There will be a unique brush editor to define all the brush aspects all across the board. You will be able to save presets (brush vector shapes, etc.). I can't comment more on this at this point. @Juan Carlos Stay tunned my friend, soon some more stuff will be posted. I'm just hell busy with work, UI redesign, moving to my new home. @Philnolan You will be able to change colors, and save different presets. @David There will be icons. If you look carefully to current 3D-Coat, the only thing that uses icons is the left toolbar with the tools. And if you read my statements, we will be implementing a über quick tool access made with icons and text (or tooltips). And it's gonna be even better than that. There will be icons also for brush shapes (that show the shape itself), icons for different modes (pinck, smudge, etc.) if people wants of course.

Ok people, time for some news now, 1) There will be dockable panels to the left, right and bottom. These panels can be drag & dropped also outside window (dual screen arrangements). They also can be stacked side by side once docked or on top of each other. 2) Colors can be custom, but default skin will be dark grey (not the actual one), as we all know neutral grey is better suited for artistic work like sculpting, 3D, color correction, compositing. 3) GUI will be mainly Text, BUT there will be a nice surprise for icon lovers, a quick access menu to tools that will be icon or text (you can chose both if you want too). As also icons for some things even if you go the text only thing. 4) Each stackable panel can be collapsed (even if it's docked) to save space, and uncollapsed again if you need it. 5) Able to save different layouts for different modes of work : painting, sculpting, etc. 6) Tools beeing re organized, there will some major tools that will in the future include others. 7) A unique and centralized brush editor that will be universal for painting, sculpt, etc. (to change shape, size, and all the brush/pen parameters). New panels for colors, textures, alphas, etc eating less space and better organised. 9) New layer panel way improved. 10) Quick panels access with shortcuts (don't know how to explain this better than this, you will get it later when you get to see it). 11) more to come... and maybe one screen shot or two if you people are nice ;-) Take care, Hard working on this, and Andrew is working like mad on the new features comming as optimizing the beast. A.

@Nathan, I think maybe you didn't get what I meant, I wasn't very clear, when I say "at the same time" I willing to say that while you sculpt you are adding color at the same time... Of course any model need to be painted and then re-sculpted if needed, that is not the question I'm laying here. I'm asking how many of you people sculpt painting at the same time. Thanks, A.

I have a question for the users of 3D Coat around : What is your usual workflow ? 1) Sculpt, then detail, then paint (color, etc.) 2) Sculpt and paint at the same time 3) Neither of those (please explain) I'm asking this because we had a discussion about this with Andrew, and he told me a lot of people do this (sculpt and paint at the same time, wich I think is odd). My experience always told me to sculpt, then detail, then paint... but maybe I'm wrong. Please post your workflows because depending on them we will decide about some UI placements. Thanks, A.

Alright people, this will be my last reply on this thread, if you want to continue discussing about the UI design, move it to the new interface sub-forum in volumetric forum. @Sonk : We will have icon based interface, but not for everything, and in our own way. Some ideas will be taken from the mudbox interface (and you will recognize them), wich I think is great, but other simply won't because they don't adapt, and we want our own flavored UI. As I said previously, we are taking ideas from other packages, putting in there ours and mixing everything at our own flavor. And that's very important and I beleive that will set us appart form the rest too. But as I said, there are some things we can't talk about yet. You will all know pretty soon, so don't worry. This is an open community and Andrew first concern is that everyone is please with the tool. So we will be listening as possible as we can, but also following our path of development. As soon as we get some things working and going, and when Andrew agrees, we will be starting posting screen shots, but not yet, we aren't yet ready. And his first concern now is to work on the tools and make them better. Anyway, thanks Andrew for this great tool and let hope we will take it to the next level for 3.0 A.

We are targeting to release the UI live with the 3.0 release... BUT, for now Andrew and his team are focused on the preformance, stability and toolset of the new 3.0 release. This is his primary goal for the release, we will try to put in there the UI. If time schedule make this impossible, the new UI will be available for a 3.x release. But we are working hard on it to make it available with 3.0... so cross you fingers. P.S : We are listening to the ideas you have in mind, but also take in consideration that we won't be able to implement every single idea that will pop up in here, since the hole UI need to be consistent and unified in the hole 3DC experience. A.

Ok people, time for a little insight to calm down a little bit the things going on here... I'm "involved" in the new 3D-Coat UI design. So I wanted to make some statements here about the new UI Design : The two options will be available to use, "text only" interface and "icon based" interface, and both at the same time if you wish. For the icon based one the layout will be different, icons will be redrawn to something that is more representative and "universal" for everyone. Some tools will be renamed to something more universal and common in most 3D applications. There will be a lot more changes in the UI, but I'm not able to talk about them for now, and we have to plan them with Andrew. This is a complete overhaul of the interface to make it more Pro, more streamlined, and also to let you arrange it the way you want to fit the best possible your workflow. As a hint I can give you the word : dockable/undockable panels. We are taking ideas from well known packages but also implementing ours... so this will be an interseting mix for everyone and I beleive that in the end everyone will be please with the changes, and the custom layouts you will be able to make for youself. Best regards, A.

Well well well... Greedy people around it seems. Even if you are a hobbyist, the price is a bargain actualy and you shouldn't complain about it ! Guess you people never paid for support or suscriptions over at Autodesk, Softimage, etc... Go and try it, then we will see if you still think 100$ or 120$ for an upgrade is a lot to ask. And I must say that Andrew is amazing in responding right in time, fixing bugs and getting in touch with his community... Autodesk is kind of trying to change that over the AREA forums... never been banned form Newteks forums ? Never waited forever to get any admin answer ? Geez... wake up people, free upgrade for a point release ? In what world do you live ? Do you work for free or for nothing ? The price is excellent and I will be taking it. When silo anounced the price up for the 2.1 release, and upgrade prices, same people around complained about price beeing tway high... Same as 3D-Coat, they had the program beeing around for 1 year without income form existing user base. In the end the complainers are a small group that think that everything has to be free for them, but not giving anything in return. And don't come bitching about you having reported bugs... indeed it's helpfull, but do you beleive it's worth you all a free version ? he puts a LOT MORE effort than you do on programming and coding this sweet piece of software. And real beta testers are "closed groups", those who are proffessionals and accept to take theyre free time to debug the thing. But for that you have an agreement with the company... Do you have one ? no ? then STFU... Go for it Andrew... in big studios also when software is underpriced, they tend to think it's a toy (even if it's not), I had to fight for people to use Silo in mine... and now more and more are using it... so there... go for it. A.