Hi Duarte, I am interested in working on this, but I am only very-part-time, so progress would be slow; maybe your "funding" proposal can snag a more full-time person, but until then I can see what I can do (after finishing my current project, which will probably take another month or so). I wouldn't need any funding to do this.
Feel free to send your more detailed proposal to me and we can continue discussion off-list. - Howard On Tue, Sep 22, 2015 at 1:48 PM Duarte Ramos <[email protected]> wrote: > Sorry for the double email, the previous one bounced back, this is the > actual address I use for the committers mailing list > > Bezier Curve tools revamp > > Hello to all members of the Blender Developers mailing list, especially > Ton Roosendaal and all blender developers and contributors, my name is > Duarte Ramos, and I am seeking a way to sponsor Blender development of a > specific set of features regarding Bezier curve tools by making a > monetary donation for a development grant. I wish to inquire about it's > feasibility and whole way to go about accomplishing it. > > TL,DR: > > - Do you (Blender Foundation) accept/manage sponsored development of > this nature? > - To whom and how should these matters be addressed? > - Does improving bezier curves and tools fit in the whole development > process and global vision for the future roadmap? > - Are the features asked for feasible (from both technical and > ideological point of view)? > - Are there any available developers willing/motivated/capable of > working on such features? > > The long version > > I have been a Blender user for about seven years now, closely following > development and lurking around the mailing lists and commits logs. What > started out as an experiment mostly just for fun and curiosity, ended up > becoming my main source of income for my freelance work. I am an > architect working mostly in arch viz and rendering of architecture and > interior design (you can see some of my early work here > http://www.duarteramos.pt/home.html#ArchViz); for a long time I used it > simply as a hobby, but lately I find myself relying more and more on > Blender for my commercial work. > Bezier curve editing clearly is not on the same level of refinement as > other areas of modeling, which is totally understandable given Blender's > main target audience for whom what we currently have is probably more > than enough. I however would love nothing more than to see them > improved, and to such end I am willing to make a monetary donation to > help in the development of new functionality, so I would like to know if > the Blender Foundation would be willing hire/mentor a developer to work > on such features; also since I am led to believe that you maintain a > relatively open policy about who works on what based at least partially > on personal interest, I guess it's also relevant to ask if there are any > available developers or programmers, knowledgeable enough and motivated > to work in such areas. > > While modeling for architecture I find myself often using bezier curves > as an actual modeling tool and final rendering geometry (lots of > extrusion or path based geometries), my main aim here would thus be > improving workflow by reducing the need for destructive operations like > converting bezier curve objects to meshes. For now what I would > initially like to propose would be: > > - The ability to assign material slots to curve segments, > - The ability for the 'derived mesh generator' to use said material > slots directly from curve object or from a bevel object in the generated > mesh. > - Material slots for built-in bevels and rims, perhaps a system akin > to the one used with the solidify modifier, with material index offsets(?) > > From the user interface point of view this would likely 'just' require > making curve segments selectable (like mesh vertex, edge, face selection > modes), and the ability to store material slot data to those segments. > The 'derived mesh generator' would then have to be able to read these > and apply them to the created mesh geometry (with bevels, extrusions and > fills). > > I have prepared a more detailed and complete list of improvements all > related to Bezier Curves that I'd like to share. Most are probably too > extensive or out of scope for this limited funding, and would likely > break backwards compatibility, yet the time seems right for these topics > seem to fit well into the 2.8 Workflow Sprint ( > http://code.blender.org/2015/07/blender-2-8-the-workflow-release/ ) and > the upcoming 2015 conference discussions, with more time to plan and > less urge to keep backwards compatibility, allowing for deeper more > radical changes. Depending on your opinion about the feasibility of this > project and the developer time this limited funding could 'hire' maybe > more topics can be tackled, or perhaps instead make some groundwork and > set some solid foundations as basis for further improvements in this > area if time/funding allows. > > I was hoping this e-mail would also serve as publicity to get the > attention of any additional potentially interested users or companies > who may want to contributing with additional funding that can grant more > development time. > I regard these changes as general improvements that will benefit every > user, or at the very least not disrupt whoever doesn't need them. > Hopefully they'll be valuable for numerous more artists outside > architecture or construction industry, like professionals in the Motion > Graphics industry like television, publicity, 2D graphic animation (for > example > > http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?295010-Blender-text-conversion-improvements-wishlist > ), especially if these improvements also affect text objects, or perhaps > people in industrial design ( > http://plus.google.com/101076135528517730950/posts/DHGBFYHoBcA )or > precision modeling. > > Only additional request/condition I would set is that all this gets made > in a manner conducive to it's inclusion in Blender main development > trunk, preferably within the time-frame for the 2.8 release if feasible. > I just want to avoid seeing these features buried in some lost > development branch, or have to use some outdated obscure custom build to > take advantage of new features. > > I apologize for the wall of text, I am very enthusiastic about this and > eagerly awaiting to hear your opinions on these matters. Looking forward > to your reply > > Best regards > Duarte Ramos > > _______________________________________________ > Bf-committers mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers > _______________________________________________ Bf-committers mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
