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Home ? Feedback ? Colour picker/eyedropper

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07/02/2011 10:56:44

DreekoMuvizu mogulExperimental user
Dreeko
Posts: 1257 		Any chance of a colour picker/eyedropper tool for selecting colours and textures as it gets a bit annoying changing the colour of a number of objects if you'reusing a custom colour

cheers

D
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07/02/2011 18:53:56

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		I second that - I use that trick in Photoshop all the time, but it would be nice to be able to replicate colours easily rather than having to write down the RGB values. Or just guess!
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08/02/2011 17:21:57

Emily
Emily
(Account inactive)
Posts: 346 		Hey Ziggy & Dreeko - this is a feature I have been requesting for over a year!

In the meantime, here is a workaround (if you have Photoshop):

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08/02/2011 17:35:26

jonbezMuvizu mogulExperimental user
jonbez
Posts: 201 		Yeah I would find this very handy aswell. Plus Dreeko could color his dragon twice as fast with this feature Big Grin
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08/02/2011 18:58:52

NeilExperimental userMuvizu staff
Neil
Posts: 396 		Emily wrote:
Hey Ziggy & Dreeko - this is a feature I have been requesting for over a year!

Come over here and write it then, Em.

We've discussed it a few times in the office and the trouble is we have two ways of detecting the colour where you click:

1) Take the actual RGB value of the pixel you clicked on. This will likely not be the colour you were looking for because it's been affected by lights, shadows, etc.

2) The colour of the *thing* you clicked on. E.g. if you click on a table leg, and that table leg has been coloured brown, you select the same brown. To get this, we have to cast a ray through the scene to find that you clicked the table leg, then work out what material is on that table leg, and extract the colour.

I'm assuming what you want is #2, which is harder (although not impossible) to implement. We haven't done it yet because you can already copy colours from objects using the custom entries in the colour picker. Textures are even easier since there's an 'in use' category in the texture picker.

Sorry if that sounds lazy, but with the sheer number of feature requests we get, we tend to focus on: 1) fixing things that are broken then 2) adding things that you can't already do before 3) making more ways of doing something that can already be done. Don't take that to mean we'll never add a colour picker, though. Instead, take it to mean "we'll probably do it eventually, but what do you want first?"
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08/02/2011 19:51:55

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		@ Neil Thanks for the (in-depth!) reply, and I see what you mean about the difficulty of how to do it. Personally, I usually just want to make one object the same colour as another, like the Format Painter in Word and the like, so I can clone the colour scheme from, say, one guitar to another. Is that more do-able, you think?
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08/02/2011 20:56:35

NeilExperimental userMuvizu staff
Neil
Posts: 396 		ziggy72 wrote:
@ Neil Thanks for the (in-depth!) reply, and I see what you mean about the difficulty of how to do it.

No worries. Sorry if it sounded snappy, it wasn't meant to be but I was in a rush for my train home. I just wanted to try and get across why some things that seem simple and have been consistently asked for (to quote Emily, "for over a year") haven't been done. We're a small team and although some things sound really simple and a great addition, we always have to balance them against our available resources and other priorities.


Keep the suggestions coming, please. I'm currently overhauling the UI and I'm very interested to hear how people think it can be improved. Many of your suggestions have been great.

ziggy72 wrote:
Personally, I usually just want to make one object the same colour as another, like the Format Painter in Word and the like, so I can clone the colour scheme from, say, one guitar to another. Is that more do-able, you think?


I'm unfamiliar with Word's Format Painter, could you please describe it? Ta.


Have you used the custom colours in the colour picker? I understand that it's not what you're looking for, but would allow you to copy colours from one object to another without having to write down RGB values.
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08/02/2011 21:57:53

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		Neil wrote:
I'm unfamiliar with Word's Format Painter, could you please describe it? Ta. .


Sure - you select a block of text, click on the Format Painter button, and whatever you click on next has the same font, colour, size, etc applied to it as the first block of text. I could see something similiar in Muvizu, where the 'format' of one object could be applied to another (and not just colour, perhaps).

Neil wrote:
Have you used the custom colours in the colour picker? I understand that it's not what you're looking for, but would allow you to copy colours from one object to another without having to write down RGB values.


Actually I haven't - I don't quite know what you mean (must've missed that tutorial somewhere!). Hang on...

Oh right, you can drag the colour off the top and down onto the swatches. I did not know you could do that. Nice. Is that what you mean by using the custom colours?
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09/02/2011 01:25:28

NeilExperimental userMuvizu staff
Neil
Posts: 396 		ziggy72 wrote:
Sure - you select a block of text, click on the Format Painter button, and whatever you click on next has the same font, colour, size, etc applied to it as the first block of text. I could see something similiar in Muvizu, where the 'format' of one object could be applied to another (and not just colour, perhaps).

I see, thanks. I'll have a look at that and see if anything similar can be adopted for Muvizu.

ziggy72 wrote:
Oh right, you can drag the colour off the top and down onto the swatches. I did not know you could do that. Nice. Is that what you mean by using the custom colours?

Yup, that's the fella. Hopefully that'll help you along in the meantime.

I've been thinking about what I can do to make colour selection and re-selection easier in the new UI and I've got a couple of ideas. Leave it with me.
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09/02/2011 18:22:45

NeilExperimental userMuvizu staff
Neil
Posts: 396 		Neil wrote:
I've been thinking about what I can do to make colour selection and re-selection easier in the new UI and I've got a couple of ideas. Leave it with me.

You'll be pleased to hear I've just got drag-and-drop working with colours in the new UI.

So you'll be able to use the mouse to literally drag the colour property off of one edit dialog and drop it onto a colour property of another. I'll add this same functionality to the texture properties.
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09/02/2011 22:02:41

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		Awesome news! Well, to sad cases like me and Dreeko anyway To everyone else I'm sure it'll just be a nice little feature!
edited by ziggy72 on 09/02/2011
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09/02/2011 23:54:04

DreekoMuvizu mogulExperimental user
Dreeko
Posts: 1257 		Emily wrote:
Hey Ziggy & Dreeko - this is a feature I have been requesting for over a year!


I asked two days ago and now...

...Neil wrote:
You'll be pleased to hear I've just got drag-and-drop working with colours in the new UI.

So you'll be able to use the mouse to literally drag the colour property off of one edit dialog and drop it onto a colour property of another. I'll add this same functionality to the texture properties.


...was it something you said Emily? dunno

PS: seriously though, well done Neil!
edited by Dreeko on 10/02/2011
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10/02/2011 13:52:29

NeilExperimental userMuvizu staff
Neil
Posts: 396 		Dreeko wrote:
...was it something you said Emily? dunno

I was going to say that she didn't say please, but as it turns out, neither did you. :p

I should probably poiint out that these new UI features are extremely unlikely to make it into the next release of Muvizu, unfortunately. The UI work is a complete rewrite and as such won't be finished and tested until after the engine upgrade is complete.

Sorry about that, but I promise* it'll be worth the wait.



* - Look, an actual promise. Weird, huh?
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10/02/2011 20:31:59

jonbezMuvizu mogulExperimental user
jonbez
Posts: 201 		Neil wrote:
You'll be pleased to hear I've just got drag-and-drop working with colours in the new UI.



Great work neil.
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22/07/2011 14:22:08

simonhefferMuvizu mogulExperimental user
simonheffer
Posts: 225 		So is this in then (as the OP was in Feb)? 'cos I just thought about an eyedropper tool too!
Another suggested way of doing this (I know, too late!) would be a custom colour set.
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22/07/2011 14:29:15

DreekoMuvizu mogulExperimental user
Dreeko
Posts: 1257 		simonheffer wrote:
So is this in then (as the OP was in Feb)? 'cos I just thought about an eyedropper tool too!
Another suggested way of doing this (I know, too late!) would be a custom colour set.



The new UI has still to make an appearance, but when it does I'm sure it will bring some cool features with it. What they will be is still anyone's guess (apart from Neil!)
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22/07/2011 14:37:08

simonhefferMuvizu mogulExperimental user
simonheffer
Posts: 225 		My breath is suitably baited!
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22/07/2011 15:31:13

NeilExperimental userMuvizu staff
Neil
Posts: 396 		There IS a dropper coming, but I'm not sure if it's going to be in the first release with the new UI.

Essentially, the new UI has been a huge technical hurdle which has taken most of my time and effort. There are so many new features that I want to incorporate that sadly, some of them aren't going to be finished in time. But don't worry, they won't be forgotten and will be steadily included over the next few releases.
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22/07/2011 15:50:28

DanimalMuvizu mogulExperimental user
Danimal
Posts: 477 		I can just see it: I'll finally get used to the quirky camera and character movement and--BAM--a whole new quirky interface to learn.laugh
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22/07/2011 18:33:21

DreekoMuvizu mogulExperimental user
Dreeko
Posts: 1257 		Danimal wrote:
I can just see it: I'll finally get used to the quirky camera and character movement and--BAM--a whole new quirky interface to learn.laugh


As interfaces go, it's got to be one of the easiest to pick up you have to admit..

It's hardly Maya!
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