Sorting out ancient way of working with 2D shapes
My idea is about Blender way to work with bezier curves. That was the weirdest thing I saw when I first tried it. You select bezier curve and bam, Blender places one already drawn curve in view-port.
That's odd I thought. Why giving me a curve, instead of giving me an option to draw my own curve, exactly where I want it.
Luckily, I discovered the single point. My favorite way to draw curves. I just add single point and start extruding it where I want. And that's solved. But...
Why not changing that and naming that to something that really is. Change the cursor to pen, and abandon idea of extruding points. Instead, call it drawing. And let people draw. It is basically the same but just avoid people using extrude. Make it look like it's drawing.
If you can, make that pen behaving better so people can adjust point handles as they go (like in affinity for example)
2D shapes are often basics for 3D object. Enabling users to get the most of 2D tools would be beneficial. Maybe bolean 2D tools one day. Maybe draw 2D mode with white background and fixed view.
Just an idea. I think it can be done easily because everything is already there. I use that single vert and single point all the time.
2 Comments
It's what does every Add Object operator by default.
What actually happened is that you went to the Add menu and chose to add an object from there. Much like how in Maya you go to the Create menu or shelf to create objects, and it just... Creates the objects you asked with a default shape, and you are free to edit that later on.
You didn't select a tool to design a curve of your liking like you would on Photoshop. There is no such tool.
Maybe we could have one in the future, we do have a few tools to draw a few mesh primitives in the scene that behave similarly to 3DS's object drawing :
But, those were added relatively recently (back in version 2.80 i think), and to this day don't seem to be often used of showcased in community tutorials and documentation, so I have a feeling they aren't that popular among users.
Notice that I mentioned two big standard software, Maya and 3DS, that each use a different approach in "creating" objects. One creates an object the moment you ask so, the other requires you to create it from scratch. Both are valid, both have pros and cons depending what you need and want. Both work. And yet,
That's from the third-party community-made "Add Curve: Extra Objects".
And again, it isn't a tool that draws curves, and shouldn't be. It only adds an object in your scene, the only key differences from the default "Add Bézier" are 1. the curve inside that object is only one point instead of two pre-transformed, and 2. it switches the interaction mode into edit mode instead of staying in object mode - which is quite confusing for lots of beginners that don't yet understand how objects and data blocks work.
Have you looked at all the tools and operators offered when editing a curve?
Note "Draw" and "Curve Pen" tools 😉
I doubt this to be that prominent of a usage/need in Blender!
Of course, I could be wrong and biased by my own usage and perspective. But considering that takes just a quick glance to see where Blender's curve modeling and surfacing are compared to other 3DCC softwares like 3DS, and yet most people rarely ever mention or even know about it: I think it is because most people coming to Blender don't look for that in the first place.
Hence, I doubt the need for the BF's developers to do expand Blender's curve'n'surface modeling possibilities is urgent, not while we lack so many things in so many other areas that are far more in demand.
But that aside, I have the feeling that Blenderalready does have lots of tools and ways to do the things you need.
Perhaps things could be done to enhance the UX in discovering and using those tools, that would be better. But I don't think this can be addressed by complying how Blender (a 3DCC software) functions to make it feel like another 3DCC, or even a 2DCC, or having tools that behave significantly differently from each other (like how the above addon makes you switch interaction mode unlike any other default object creation operators) just because of a varying user preference.
I love redoing and re-contextualizig UI and UX but Blender is so wast it can be overwhelming. I also agree there are two schools of thought. Create by adding object on the screen and create by drawing that same object on the scene. I can even say I am more prone to "add". But not always and not in shape editor.
Draw, curve pen, construct curve shows only after you already created 2D shape and go into Edit mode. And this is exactly what I am talking about. Re-contextualizing the way to draw curves without too much work. There is already everything there.
You pick that pen, and the moment you click in the scene, you are in edit mode and you click where you want and construct the curve. *manual drawing by hand is not what I suggest. I do have wacom Cintiq. It's the click and drag I suggest.
And I am doing the same thing with that extra object, one point. I am just doing it with extrude. I have to exit edit mode. Maybe that draw would also need exiting edit mode of some sort, with command to end drawing. Lot's of 2D software works like that. You need to end drawing with escape or enter.
In object mode, there's annotate pen tool on the toolbar which is completely different thing. ha
A perfect place to draw 2D shape icon.