Latest ideas

As far as I can tell the current method for excluding/including objects from light lists is done through materials/groups. I think it would be A LOT easer for the user to do it by object.

multi-threaded fluid simulation
multi-threaded cloth simulation
multi-threaded preview render
multi-threaded playblast render

another nice update for the preview renderer would be (as seen in modo) to render like a progressive jpeg. so the longer you wait the clearer the render gets. this lets you have preview open all the time on a seperate view and constantly see your changes

http://www.seanjmacisaac.com/misc/Blender/colorpicker.jpg

Here is the new color picker that I designed, now all we need is a brave programmer to make it a reality!

If you think it can make it even better, share it!

In cinema and photography the law of thirds has always been an effective method of composing shots to make the most of representing a 3D space using a 2D medium. However, with a physical camera it is a lot quicker and easier to line up a shot according to four imaginary grid-lines even without a tripod than it is using a combination of view-ports in software applications, tweaking camera position and rotation to get the most out of focusing on multiple elements of a scene.

The first part of my idea is the inclusion of an optional grid, separating the screen vertically and horizontally into thirds using four grid lines.

The second part is that those grid intersections could be used to quickly set up the composition of shots. Any of those four intersections could be parented to an empty (which in turn would be parented to an element of the scene). This means that the camera would be able to track something off-centre while you simply focus on getting something else in shot and lined up at the other side of the screen.

In my opinion this would speed up efforts to compose shots with the ability to fit multiple objects into the frame organically.

Mesh lights would be a really great addition to the blender internall. I know it is possible because I saw some time ago at graphicall test builds with this options.
Link to this build:
http://www.graphicall.org/builds/builds/showbuild.php?action=show&id=510

Mesh lights with indirect ray bouncing(even single bounce) would be a comparable to Global Ilumination!

We need to press too many buttons + save and reopen file for deleting materials and textures from the Blender scene. Simple Delete action should be enough, the rest should do Blender automatically.

Stencil/Drill Tool
We all know the problems Blender has with booleans, since I hear they are updating that with the coming of BMesh, I'd like to suggest a stencil/ drill tool that would be similar to the ones many other 3D/animation applications have. It could operate much like the current retopo tool but would allow a direct "drawing" of vertices/polys into the given mesh. Anyone familiar with the Lightwave version of this tool should understand the methodology.

Extrude and Bevel Tool
The bevel modifier does not allow enough control on complicated objects and the current Bevel script has a tendency to complicate topography.
A bevel tool with an extrude option is needed in Blender (it would be nice to be able to define the angle at which the extrude would take place relative to the viewport by using the ctrl+middle mouse button). The bevel tool should give options on whether or not the creation of tris is acceptable. Also being able to make multiple bevels in a single step to create a "crown molding" effect would be quite useful.

The 'center' buttons only work for some object types (just meshes?). It would be useful if this function could be extended to all types of object.

In several modifiers, constraints etc. you can select object they're affected by (for example Armature, MeshDeform, Mirror and Lattice). It would be more natural to click into that textbox and then click on the object you want to select.

Especially when working with mirror modifier, it'd be great to be able to quickly set a location of a vertex to zero with a certain axis (usually x) when working with center vertices. This can be done with the n-menu (transform properties) but it requires using the mouse and it's not a single function (not fast, not hotkey, a menu).

Also sometimes you might want to clear the rotation or the scale on a certain axis only.

In edit mode it'd work in the object's local co-ordinates, I believe (rotation and scale are probably unusable, unless you count face normals, and that's only for the rotation angle of a face).

It'd work like this:

press alt+g
-->
menu item 1: clear location
menu item 2. clear loc X (would be toggled with XKey)
menu item 3. clear loc Y (would be toggled with YKey)
menu item 4. clear loc Z (would be toggled with ZKey)

Same with rotation and scale.

By default every lamp gives a circular (infinite point) highlight. You should be able to use custom shapes to be used as the highlight.

The way I can see this being implemented:
- Set the scale of the highlight shape similar to how the arealight now sets its area size.
- Just like the earea light make a pulldown menu with the available shapes, point (default), round, square, rectangular, custom
- When you select custom you can input the name of an object. This can be a (flat) curve object, polygon object, etc. This wil display the custom shape at the origin of the lamp, similar to the custom draw type for the armature/bone system.
- At the lamp texture and input tab you get an extra mapping option next to Global, View and Object, you also get Highlight. This wil simply project planar on the custom highlight shape.

I understand that this might not be easy to implement as the existing specular and diffuse shaders assume round highlights. You also neet to take into account the distance op the lamp to the object in order focus/defocus the custom highlight shape.

A feature like this could greatly increase realism I think. This would also make make rim lighting (with lamps, not the ramp shader) much easier.

it would be very helpful if there were the option to always make IK targets snap back to the bone they are attached too after moving them. maya has this option.

it doesn't seem like this would be hard to add (but i have no clue about the ik code)? just solve the IK and if the IK target isn't positioned on the bone anymore after the mouse button gets released then set its position back to the bone? it should be an option.

edit:
the new "limit distance" contraint is very overcomplicated for this purpose. you need a helper bone to prevent cyclic dependency problems and it's very fiddly to set the right distance.

why not have a simple checkbox in the IK solver constraint for enabling a snap back like described?

I'd like a 'Dynamic' constraint, usually to be applied on bones. It is a 'fake soft body'.

The constraint would just make the bone tend to stay in its position (inertia), accelerating to reach its new position, then oscillating after reaching it (as if the bone had a rubber joint).

Better to explain with images:

http://www.moscafilms.com.br/emilioleroux/blender/dynamicbone.mov


On its simpler form, the constraint would not need a target. Just:

STIFNESS -how stiff the bone acts. How quick or how lagged it will spring to the target rotation

DAMPING - the tendency to stop oscillation more quickly. (A theorethic damping of 0% would make things oscillate forever in real life. That's why cars have dampers)


It would be incremented by other options:

DRAG - something like 'air density', which would make the motion be slower, like underwater -or undersyrup-, without messing with physics.

GRAVITY - an additional value that would try to pull dynamic bones to the world's 'down' axis.


With the advent of pyConstraints, I grew excited and started the project, but now I see I am both new to python and blender, and also my math is very poor. I am willing to work on it, tho, but I need help (or, more honestly speaking, i could help someone).


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I whant particles to collidate as real as meshes with the bullet-physics.
Would be very usefull for some special-effects works!
So emitted "balls" would roll with real phyiscs-collision!

greets,
daFassi

Hi,basically what I propose is simply use a 2d uv texture to control how particles strand primitives get rendered over the emitter object.
Strand primitives have tip size,root size(the start and end parameters on materials)and width fade and some others too.
That properties,if controlled locally(for every strand),could help a lot in improving rendering quality and optimizing memory usage.
A common use could be making short fur little(and more sharp),and long fur bigger(and soften)simply texturing start/end and width fade.
As it now I simply don't know how to do this behaviour.

http://www.softimage.com/products/xsi/tour/workflow.aspx

Alows you to transfer attributes of one model to the other. Like UV's, Textures, Rig etc..

something i think that would take Blender more over-the-top than it already is would be muscle, and perhaps even skin, simulation.

check out

http://www.cgcharacter.com/cgskin.html

http://cgtoolkit.com/muscletk.htm

Make sure bug info gets fetched from tracker.

1) add lp_integration.py and convert to bt_integration.py
2) add crontab for bt_integration.py when it works.

The developers of Freestyle , a non-photorealistic renderer, have suggested that their renderer be integrated into Blender. Showing support for its implementation, here is one user's request to accompany the request of Freestyle's developers.

http://freestyle.sourceforge.net/

Sometimes you just want to give money easier!