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Handling a lot of control points on screen

edited 10:24PM in Suggestions
I've noticed that it becomes rather difficult to differentiate which point belongs to a character when having either 5+ characters in a scene or 2+ characters close together. There is the feature of coloring them that makes it a little easier to figure out who is who, but it can still be difficult to remember which color is for which character. With additional points possibly being added in for a "look at" mechanic and finger/toe posing, the scene is going to become extremely cluttered. I had a couple of suggestions that could make this problem manageable.

1. Color code the character listing, located at the right side of the screen, to the color that is assigned to the character's rig. This would make it easier to associate a control point to the character based on its color.
2. Add a control point visibility filter. This is much more complicated, but could be very future proof. It would involve assigning a filter level to each point and then allowing the user to turn on/off the different levels.
- Different level examples
  - Everything - All points would be shown
  - Appendages - Only show the hands, feet, elbows, and knees points
  - Detail - Only show the fingers, toes, and tail points
  - Extra - Only show the additional controls like the vertical direction point, thrusting force direction, and the autopole point

The levels would interact like checkboxes where you can have any number of them turned on and off. The only exception would be the "Everything" level in which this would control the state of every other one. If you turned everything off, then all the levels would be turned off and vice versa.

I think the filter is a nice solution because it kind of details the order in which I think most people layout their scenes. Get the rough shape of it and then get more detailed until you get down to last final touches.

Comments

  • edited 10:24PM
    I second this. Tis so difficult to have two or more of the same characters with different skins and having to memorize which is which.
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