Ability to snap to the edge of nearby objects while moving or scaling items. Would make it easier to place e.g. multiple items on a table or floor.

option to add collision detection to pose movements so that a mesh cannot overlap with itself but instead will flatten against its opposing surface. Combined with volumetric deformations this would stop the unnatural creasing around organic joints (i.e. how the elbow and back of knee skin deforms when you bend the joint). I know collision detection usually takes a fair bit of horsepower but this could be set for lower quality collisions for a speedup. This is related to skin simulation (add in ability to variably anchor some parts of skin to e.g. bony prominences and that would make a very quick skin simulation.)

Rather than render all consecutive frames of an animation in which nothing in the camera view has moved or changed, could these frames just be duplicated and move on to the next frame? This wouldn't be a huge speed up for most animations if it was technically simple it would be worthwhile, especially for longer animations of complex scenes

The ability to position markers in space with names for easier access than snapping the cursor, then the selection, to everything. Populate a submenu in the snap-to menu with markers already used. Could also populate existing objects in this (would have to be hierarchy or would get full quick).

Then if I wanted to move anything to a location that is used repeatedly, I just click on it then snap-to directly.

Would like to see the addition of the ability to place line and angle markers so as to be able to work out directions that animated objects can follow, specifically for balls bouncing off walls (I'm sure there are plenty of other things it would work for too).

This would involved selecting start and end points for a line, and calculating angles where two lines intersect, and also production of an opposite angled line (e.g. so a ball striking a flat surface, e.g. on a pool table, can have a line drawn on its path, another for the surface, and a reverse angle shown which would be its future path post collision.

This would simplify some animating tasks (see thread at http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=120956&page=5 to see the contortions involved to work out the paths of what should be a simple exercise.

When I mirror an armature, can Blender have an option to automatically mirror the bone names?

i.e. rather than having to individually change shoulder001_L and shoulder001_R (extruded from shoulder_L and shoulder_R) to upperarm_L and upperarm_R, I can just change one side and the already mirrored bone will reflect the name change too?

I would like to be able to move bones around in pose mode and set constraints of location and rotation just by moving the bone to where I want the limit to be and then either key shortcut or clickable button (maybe just a little button beside the constraints limits to assign the current setting to the particular constraint(s)?

e.g. if I move my armature to the limit of a joint's natural movement, I can just click on the constraint that I wish to assign and set the current value to it.

Would it be possible for blender to simply remove all the vertices which are not involved in a particular render? (e.g. backs of objects, parts off the camera view) so that there is less render time involved? I know this would reduce quality (e.g. mirrored surfaces may reflect items not seen in the regular view) but would speed up render time, particularly for animation where subjects may come in and out of view and so for long periods are not involved in a scene.

This could be a render option which could be enabled / disabled.

See the bomba rig at blenderartists.org at the following URL:

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=128607&highlight=bomb+rig

this script allows the selection of the mesh rather than finding armature bones (title of thread is animation like Pixar). This is a much cleaner way to control a rig and more intuitive. Would be nice as an option for armature control.

I would like to see the ability within the NLA / action editor to specify which frames are used for the action.

This would allow only part of the action to be used rather than the full action.

This is particularly for walk cycles - the current easiest way to have a symmetrical walk cycle is with the mirrored pose from the buffer, e.g.
set up frame 1
paste to buffer
add mirrored pose to frame 12
add original pose to frame 25
adjust distance offset to suit walkcycle, add details

the problem with this system is that when the cycle is repeated, frame 1 and frame 25 are the same and so there is a noticeable pause at that point in the animation.

The long-winded way around this is to go to frame 24, key everything, then delete all keys at frame 25.

It would be easier for the animator to just be able to tell the NLA that although the action is from frames 1-25, you only want to use 1-24 or whatever.

rather than have to find objects from other files, I would like to have a more easily accessible object library so I can add my own primitive objects like suzanne, plane, cube etc.

I would like to be able to use a sculpt-like mode for finished near-complete models without adding geometry.

The idea is to automatically generate a UV mapped displacement / normal map when entering this mode. Sculpt as normal but with more limited maximum displacement (i.e. to what a normal map allows). Blender paints on the maps automatically to approximate the sculpted details.

Custom brushes could be used or a clone tool to paint things like wrinkles, scales, folds, bumps.

By that I mean something like pose mode but for a dynamic mesh edit - move the armature to new positions, if you don't like the deformation then edit the mesh directly. Blender should take the new shape and automatically key it so I don't have to muck around with the IPO editor. It should have the option to create a mirror key too. Then I can add muscle and joint movements in one go. The vertex groups should be connected to the shape keys so I can fix multiple joints at the same time and Blender will realise that the arm fix doesn't apply to the leg fix because they involve different bone vertex groups.

This is a slight evolution of the same idea by myself (added in vertex group comment)

Constraint which is similar to copy rotation but only applies to a certain range of motion of target (could just be a modification of copy rotation)

This is specifically to deal with motion of clavicle (collarbone) which could be in an arm IK chain. It should follow rotation but doesn't move much until the arm is rotated a certain extent

i.e. arm as abducted from side until about 35 degrees out from body. Clavicle does not move appreciably. From 35-120 degrees clavicle copies (about 50%) rotation of upper arm, then from 120-180 degrees arm moves independently.

For corrective shape keys to avoid deformation on joint movement.

A more user-friendly and intuitive method would be something like a pose mode with a mesh edit.

Individual bones can be moved and then the mesh altered to correct deformation. A new shape key would automatically be created and affected by the rotation of the same bone (plus mirror image for symmetrical meshes).

There should be no need to set up the drivers by hand. Blender would automatically set original bone rotation -> 0.0 on shape key, and fully rotated position -> 1.0.

Ideally multiple shapes could be entered for the same bone in the same plane of rotation and these blended together e.g. starting mesh -> 30 degrees transforms basis to shape A, 30-60 degrees transforms shape A to shape B, 60-90 transforms shape B to shape C.

Also ideally multiple planes could be set to drive one shape key, e.g. bone is moved to new position and shape key set, if the new position involved both x and y rotation blender will set up the driver to include.

just another way of achieving the same thing, maybe an easier way in some instances - ability to select an item, choose a start and and end, a start frame and a finish frame, and have blender keyframe / stick it on an IPO curve automatically.

A new kind of armature bone (with an arrow on the end?) which tells blender which direction an armature will go on a path. Can be rotated but independent of rest of armature.