Contextual Tool Invoking & Gestures - Sculpting QoL Improvements

[wendallhitherd]

 

 

One thing that really makes ZBrush great is their emphasis on keeping artist's hands off the keyboard and on the tablet. I think there is room for improvement to the interface WRT 3DCoat's pure sculpting feel. One feature in particular is context-driven tool invocation. This is one of ZBrush's core concepts that makes it "weird" but also does a great job of keeping your hands off the keyboard -- it essentially packs many keyboard shortcuts into gestures. I don't expect 3DCoat to implement any zbrush interface options verbatim but it seems the 3DC interface doesn't have certain event-responses exposed in the UI that I can load tools into. A few examples of such gesture based tools are in the following video:

 

 

ZBrush has cleverly used many context gestures, as well as permutations and combination of gestures, I will outline them a bit below

To sharpen it up, here are some specific examples, and their 3DCoat equivalents:

• Tools can be invoked with held-down modifier keys, while using other brushes. The masking mode gesture is exited when the control key is lifted, and the original brush is returned to. (in ZB's case, control key = mask gesture). In 3DC, I need to switch to freeze tool to freeze, and then also specify a specific stroke mode, then switch back to my original brush. This is several keystrokes.
• Mask tool invocation mode (Rectangle, stroke, curve) can be modified if the stroke is started when the mouse is over the geometry, vs when it is in empty space. 3Dcoat already has some of this boilerplate implemented for screen-navigation, but it is not used for tool or stroke modes, and as far as I can tell it is not possible to change the way a tool works depending on whether the cursor is over geometry or not. In 3DCoat I have an array of keys on the keyboard dedicated to stroke-modes, in ZBrush my most-used stroke modes are handled by cursor-over selection.
• Combinations of modifier key gestures allow for way fewer shortcut invocations. EG spacebar + control + alt + shift are all used to generically modify a brush effect, but are also used in combinations. Spacebar, for example, is pseudo-logically used to "move stuff" that has already been drawn in the stroke. Spacebar will move curves, selections, lines, that are currently being stroked, in screen-space. I think 3DCoat has similar tools here but they are all packed into configurations and are not accessible via gestures unless you area already in, for example, rect mode.
• Gesture controls are influenced by which key is held down first when the stroke begins. This increases the "hotkey permutation space" by an order of magnitude. Because now, control-click-alt does something different than alt-click-control. Essentially, the order the modifiers are pressed, in addition to when the stroke is first invoked, allows for much more functionality to be packed into a single tool without having to switch brushes, or configure your current brush to do something specific. The modifier keys form a sort of "hotstring". 

 

These are all features that have some degree of implementation already complete, I just wish that they were exposed to the user generically. For example, the shift / control keys already have response options at the top of the screen, but they only allow you to invoke a small subset of 3DCoat's tooling -- smooth, reduce, etc. Why not just expose those keys to be any tool the user selects? The UI already has event handlers for hover-over vs empty area clicking, but only for navigation. Why not expose those so the user can implement their own hover-over tool modes? 

 

Just my thoughts,

-Liam

[Elemeno]

ive asked about this previously , 

having their currently tool shortcuts are so hard to remember , having zbrush where you hit b , and cb for claybrush  is just a perfect shortcut , or as you showed having ctrl as a secondary tool like masking or slicing just speeds up everything 

 

be nice if they had a few tweaks but i believe they dont want it close to zbrush and how zbrush works ... but who knows maybe they will ..