Tooltip + Hotkey shortcut preview. (For new users)
Hey Blender team, A group of excited co-workers and I have been obsessing over the new 2.8 update. We are all 3DS Max and Maya users trying to migrate. As part of the migration effort we are attempting to learn the software. The interface is looking good, However, as we followed tutorials we were flooded with hotkeys left and right with little to no reference as to where that hotkey corresponds to in regards to the UI. Its far easier to remember the location of several buttons or tab menus than it is to pick up hotkeys. Unfortunately, we cannot properly figure out how to navigate and learn shortcuts at the same time. As a result, it hasn't been as easy as we though to pick it up. It would be really helpful if we could navigate through the menus and learn functionalities and be able to mouse hover over the button/menu/action and seeing the attached hotkey if mapped. This allows us new users to learn how to navigate the UI better and then link a hotkey in our minds to the action. Chances are, if you forget the hotkey, you will remember how to get to it in the menus and vice-versa. Lastly, if by some chance there is a user or developer that reads this post, a good learning opportunity for a video is to show case the menu navigation and their actions along with the hotkey. Something like this would be absolutely invaluable for new users with previous 3D package knowledge to be able to migrate over. We are loving the work the team is doing and look forward to the full release! Thank you.
5 Comments
I think that's important for newcomers. So even blender has implemented some cool tooltips with shortcut displayed, they don't always work. Also their description is not very helpful. I suggest the tooltips retrieve the online manual page of that specific button (wen you keep hovering, it will certainly will have time to load it) The best option is to have a tooltip / mini tutorial (with steps how to use this thing and an animated short video)
This pains me to say because I truly hate Autodesk. I like Autodesk tooltips approach. They have a timed cascading window with wonderful images showing what the tool does. As well as simple instruction on how to use the tool. It would be a lot of work to produce this and question we will see much improvement in the manual either. I get it oh too well, documentation is always last on the list.
Blender has always been very hotkey-centric. There have always been hotkeys that don't have corresponding ui elements, or those elements are so obscured that they are difficult to stumble upon. For the most part though, if you hover over something that has a hotkey, the hotkey is shown in the tooltip. Where exactly are you not seeing this happen?
* @dpdpforlife * I think when you change de keymap (for industry standard for example, the shortcut don't show up in all cases)
You should try out the Bforartists fork that will go over the 2.8 overhaul with the philosophy they have had with 2.79, might take a few months after 2.8 goes to master - but with the former 2.79 they added iconology to the UI, added 200 hotkey exclusive operators into the UI so you can actually click on them and discover them, and removed 400 redundant operator UI entried to minimalize the UI and workflow, also a maya/max toolbar. They probably will do the same with 2.8. They also have improved tooltips to be a somewhat more descriptive. They also default to WER navigation and probably maya style viewport navigation for the next fork (right now it was just single mouse click and drag systems, intuitive). It's the same Blender, just.. more familiar and discoverable, less bloated. They had tool icons in the toolshelf before Blender officials even considered it. I can't wait to see what they do over the 2.8 sourcecode. You can use BFA as a stepping stone now.