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  • Published 4 Feb 2022

Add a toggle for an additional feature where Pose Library (Asset Browser or the legacy Pose Library) thumbnails are generated using the viewport view instead of an active camera

Edit: I've made some major edits to this post over several days.

Proposal and Example: I pose a hand and wish to save that pose. I selected all the bones I want to save as a Pose Asset, execute Frame Selected, which will frame the current selected bones (and relative geometry) in the viewport, rotate the view to showcase the hand and its geometry in a pleasing way for a readable thumbnail, and I press Create Pose Asset with the generated thumbnail using the current viewport view.

Pseudo-code: User presses Create Pose Asset. Take screenshot of current viewport view. Resize screenshot to maximum thumbnail pixel resolution Y axis. Save Pose Asset with generated thumbnail.

Pseudo-code (assuming active camera absolutely has to be used): User presses Create Pose Asset. "Save" current active camera as a reference (variable). Create new invisible camera, set it to active, set viewport to this camera, do whatever the current system does to generate a thumbnail. Delete new camera and set reference camera as currently active camera again. Save Pose Asset with generated thumbnail.

Pros:

  • Far more beginner friendly overall, because it just makes intuitive sense that what they see in the viewport is being converted into the pose thumbnails, rather than mucking around with multiple cameras, their setups, and resetting poses, etc.
  • Allows the user to have more freedom when certain poses are non-descript or hard to read with the current setup camera. Example: Not all poses or keyframes of an animation are necessarily readable from one active camera's view.
  • Using the viewport view to generate thumbnails is much faster overall, further explained in the following pros.
  • Excellent for quickly prototyping poses where one doesn't necessarily care about absolutely perfect pose thumbnails.
  • No need for additional cameras (and their setup) just for thumbnail creation in the scene if the user doesn't want them.
  • No need to move the current active camera around just for generating proper thumbnails of a pose for a selected area.
  • No need to reset a character's overall pose just to create a proper thumbnail for a specific area, like the face, hands, and feet. Example: I have the character's full body posed, and I just created a new facial expression in that pose that I like and want to save is, so I just rotate the viewport view to their face in a pleasing manner, select the bones, and save the pose/thumbnail immediately.
  • If a downsized/cropped screenshot is used instead of what I surmise is the default behaviour of using Solid Shaded rendering, whatever the user sees before creating a pose and its thumbnail will be exactly what they see in the Pose Library, in whatever shading or lighting they're currently using. This gives more visualization control for the user and perhaps makes the thumbnails/poses more readable to them.
  • The user can quickly customize their thumbnails by rotating the viewport view and perhaps "replacing" an existing thumbnail, but this would be an additional necessary function to be scripted in.
  • As a toggle, the problems described below are avoided and the default behaviour of using the active camera is maintained.

Cons:

  • In a production, perhaps this is too much freedom and having custom viewport generated thumbnails might make it harder for other employees/users to "read" them. Setting up multiple cameras and resetting overall poses is more universal/controllable/maintainable.
  • This kind of function assumes the user has optimally orientated the viewport view to showcase the selected bones and geometry to generate a great thumbnail.
  • Saved Pose Assets and their thumbnails of an animation, such as a walk cycle, could be misaligned if the user forgets to disable such a toggle for said feature and has since moved the viewport view from the last time they saved a pose. Honestly, however, surely this could be easily learned/avoided.
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Development Status: Open

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sapienpark
4 Feb 2022

2 Comments

Lauloque

Have you looked at the Blender Institute's pose-thumbnail addon?

More about it: Pose Library Thumbnails & Selection Sets - Blog - Blender Studio -

sapienpark Author

I was somewhat aware of addons to add thumbnail functionality to the legacy Pose Library, but I was referring to the other "Pose Library" in the current Asset Browser. I should've made that more clear (I edited the post for this, so thanks for the heads up). Also, your linked addons/info do not seem to add the feature I'm proposing, which is to utilize the viewport for creating thumbnails, and not an active camera in the scene, unless I'm wrong.