Color Coded Collections
I love the collection system, and as a visual person color coding can really save time. Both photoshop and substance painter do a similar thing with their layers/groups.
This is a mockup (
for an addon
):
Here's an example of how it works in Substance Painter.:
- If a folder is inside another folder it inherits the same color.
- Unless you assign a unique color.
- Layers ( objects in blender ) can also be assigned unique colors. - I would NOT recommend this for Blender.
26 Comments
I like the idea. But based on your mock up:
My two cents.
* @Ryxx * Another option is putting the color picker into the filter menu, so you can choose if you want it in the outliner or not. Some people might need quick access to it. The only caveat is a color picker isn't necessarily a filter option, technically speaking. It's close enough though.
i think this should be not only by addon but just hard implemented thng that u can assign tint of color to collection... and it is also applied in both outliner and viewport...
* @Maciej Jutrzenka * Applying it in the 3D Viewport wouldn't work very well, though, because objects can belong to multiple collections. Which collection's color would be displayed?
* @Jason van Gumster * Too many possible improvements are hampered by the ability of objects belonging to multiple collections. The whole grouping system is held back because of this. This is a major setback and it will probably never be possible to implement it as long as this exists. In order to align Blender with other industry apps, the collection system has to be simplified down.
* @ Okavango * You're absolutely wrong. There are too many advantages of having an object in multiple collections to get rid of it.
* @Jason van Gumster * He's not entirely wrong on this. Especially when you get more complicated View Layers to render, it becomes a nightmare of Collection sets to turn on/off objects for rendering. Maya had this same issue before turning to Render Passes, like Softimage does. Collections are great for moving data around between scenes, and organizing, but rendering should be completely separated.
* @ Okavango * we call this thing "cumulativity". Yes, any content management system is characterized at least by two parameters
But this was completely ignored when collection system was designed, so it was made extremely flexible. Too much flexibility was released, and it cannot be taken back, because it will vastly break backward compatibility with 2.8.
* @Paul Kotelevets * Didn't say it wouldn't be a tough one.
* @Jason van Gumster * I think if object belongs to multiple collections, then it simply cannot have color code feature.
Its a band aid solution but considering the benefits that you'll get from being able to visually organize items and quickly detect desired marked object far out-weights the niche cases where issues can occur with multiple collections problem.
(truth be told I didn't even knew that you could have object belong to multiple collections until now, since I usually just drag/drop.)
* @Vas * Or instead of no color, if an object belongs to multiple collections it automatically is given an exclusive color that is only for objects belonging to multiple collections (exposed to the theme editor so it can be chosen by the user) but cannot be used otherwise for color coding.
Same type of imperfect band aid but at least allows a visual distinction between an object that is in multiple collections and an object that isn't part of a color-coded collection.
* @ Okavango * close to impossible.
Very handy idea, but I wouldn't place the color icon beside the collection name because it is not that important to occupy that space & make the UI even more complicated.
Can this be marked as completed? It is in master
coming in 2,91 or 2.92
I dream of that all days, as someone who has a ton of collections, including ones with only wireframes or bounds objects, It'd be great to be able to distinct them through their mesh or wireframe color !
The outliner's filter menu could also have a "sort by" menu to sort collections by color, alphabetically, none (back to how it was before sorting), etc.
where can i download this addon
Yes C4d have a solution.IT is possible.but please not full Color covered the whole colection list.
Pleaaaaaseee yes
this is such an essential tool to interface between user and program more efficiently
We also thought about it, but photoshop and substance layers systems are not cumulative, unlike the Blender's collections layer system. What if there are cumulative objects, that belongs to several collections, should they be marked as colored in other colored/uncolored collections?
Also, nesting - should a color affect only the root collection, can nested ones have their own colors, and shouldn't these colors mix, for example?
dribbble.com/shots/1928022-Photoshop-Layer-Panel-Coloring
How to find colored collections in 999 collections list? Maybe some mod to filtering engine?
Fixed color pallette or full RGB? (fixed can help to avoid duplicates, easier to find, RGB is too much flexible)
Is display in the viewport a special mode, the coloring is constant, or maybe it will work as a syntax highlighting for the collection in which the object is currently selected?
(highlighting can possibly make scrolling long lists more convenient, or make it able to see objects in viewport that belongs same collection as active one)
Proposal is interesting, but it needs to be supplemented.
* @1d.inciner * Cinema4D has this color system and it works very well, but it does one thing differently than Photoshop to address the cumulative layers. Instead of having the entire background tinted, it only displays a red or yellow or any color square next to the layer's name and you add squares like badges. And then you can filter by color and hide other colors completely, simplfying your item tree. I think this whole thing should just copy C4D.
* @alex.majewski.pn * does C4D have cumulativity? Are there some examples?
yes this would be cool! those things that, if you dont want you dont have to use it, but makes life so much easier for those that want it!
YES!
Yes please, but I don't think in the scope of things that this feature would be too hard to implement. So I think it should land in the master build.