利用者:Nicholasbishop/Sculpt Settings Cleanup

This is a scratch page where I am trying to work out how to better organize the sculpt tools and sculpt options, both in terms of implementation and UI. Some of this may be applicable for the other paint modes in Blender.

Brush characteristics

Direction

The fundamental difference between most of the current brush types is the direction vertices move. The draw brush (and the layer brush) move vertices in the direction of the vertices' average normal, the inflate brush moves vertices along their individual normals, the pinch brush moves vertices towards (or away from) the brush center. Flatten and smooth are similar, although slightly more complex to calculate; flatten pushes vertices towards a plane; the direction of that plane is defined by an average of a small number of vertices around the brush edge. Smooth pushes vertices towards their neighbors. Grab is the only brush that operates somewhat differently, using screenspace mouse coordinates to move vertices.

Stroke vs. Non-Stroke

Most of the current brushes are of the stroke type. That is, they operate continuously on the model as you drag. However, the grab brush, as well as any of the other brushes with the Anchored option enabled, work by using the same mesh as at the beginning of the operation during each update. If a Dot mode where to be added (where only one instance of the brush is applied to the model and it follows the mouse) it would also be of a non-stroke type.

Immediate vs. Delayed

By default, brushes operate on the model as quickly as possible. (The limiting factor is usually the speed with which the model can be redrawn.) With the Smooth Stroke option enabled, application of the brush is delayed so that the stroke can be subdivided and smoothed. ZBrush's Lazy Mouse is another potentially useful tool that uses this type of delayed application.

Pattern

The pattern (of intensity) for all the brushes is controlled largely through the brush curve and, optionally, a texture. The texture controls are somewhat problematic; while the current system allows access to all of Blender's texture controls, a simpler setup is needed in addition to that. It should be much easier to, for example, load a directory full of brush textures and perhaps show thumbnail icons for them, rather than rely on often undescriptive names. It would also be helpful to have a set of image textures for sculpt mode included with Blender by default.

Brush Combinations

The current separation between brushes is somewhat artificial. There's no good reason why multiple brush operations, such as draw and pinch, can't operate at the same time. One way to do this in the UI would be to show some brushes as sliders rather than toggles, so using the above example, you would select the draw brush, then increase the smooth slider to a higher value. In order to make this a workable system, brushes should be creatable and nameable, which is already possible in texture paint mode.

Presets

While this system would make brushes more flexible/powerful, a selection of presets should also be created to offer a sort of standard sculpting toolset that can handle both quickly blocking out a model and detailing.

Other Considerations

It would be helpful to be able to quickly switch between different brushes, either by pressing a modifier key or switching tablet tools (such as switching between stylus and eraser.)