How do you...?

[patricks]

One thing, there seems to be a problem with that material, it renders dark for some reason, the wood mats where done way back last year so maybe something has changed with the settings

i just checked the Material here and it works correct and refreshes also correct in the Material Editor

Greetings Patrick

[nigec]

It renders black in tr1 and 2
the texture is missing in the deffuse channel?

[Richard]

Hi jc4d

i am not sure if i understand your explanation image ... but Thea works with "Materials" and having a list of materials in the scene editor has its meaning ..... for example , you can have 100 objects in the scene but they only use 10 different materials ..... you will have it much more easy locating the material you want to change then searching on the object list . The reason there is a second Material list in the content panel was just to satisfy sombody who wanted to have the Material thumbnails bigger ...


if you select a object you can double click on a material from the Material browser and it get applied to the selected object ( or even you have selected more then one object )
you can even drag drop a material to any object or to the Material Browser ( for saving it ) ...etc.

Richards explanation image ... well ... it shows that he has a lot of questions which i hopefully we be able to explain him with some easy to follow video tutorials

Greetings Patrick

Hey mate!

As I said in my post a few of the issues I have had been answered in the preceeding posts. Though still some answered seem to still reserve the question why?.

I agree with jc4d, having all the objects, cameras, lights and materials in one panel means LOTS of collapsing sets and scrolling and agree that if there is a material list below why wouldn’t I want to use that for one it actually can be seen. Strange that the one panel that could use tabbed panels doesn’t have them. It’s almost like this is aimed at a node based feel but makes for some hassles in handling.

I would like to expand on his suggestions for right click:

1. Select objects using material – this is so handy when you want to hide or delete an object that might be behind the model and find it by it’s material
2. Duplicate material

This is about the most useful panel in the interface yet has no function!?

[jc4d]

Hi Patrick,
I see your point (I guess ) but what if the behavior of the material list is transfer to the materials content in order to clean up a little the UI and make the workflow more straight forward.

Let try to explain with words the procedure that I put in the previous screenshot.
- If you try to drag a material from the materials list to some object in the models list doesn't work.
- If you try to drag a material from the materials content to some object in the models list doesn't work either, gets a duplicated material tough.
- If you drag a material from the materials list to some object to the viewport is assigned to that material.
- If you drag a material from the materials content to some object to the viewport is assigned to that material too.
- If you double click in the materials list nothing happens just allow to edit your material in the material editor.
- If you double click in the materials content is apply to the object that you have select and open the material in the material editor.

So my point is that materials list is redundant in this case because you can do same and even more things with the materials content.
Anyway we can have a little icon to change the view into List or Thumbnails and sort it by alphabetical order even.

Now for the context menu as Richard pointed with right click we could have:

New material
Duplicate material
Export material
Import material
Clear unused materials
Build missing preview
Build all previews

Cheers
JC

[giannis]

Many thanks to all people that presented their workflow. We will try
to take them into account while enhancing functionality.

best wishes
giannis

[patricks]

Hi jc4d

the material list has a purpose ..... it for visual information on materials ... for example you can quickly see if a material has clip map or displacement , if it is a emitter or uses medium ( small icons show up beside the material ) ... the same for the object list where you can see if the object is hidden or animated .... etc.

this kind of Scene editor are common in other 3D programs too and are needed fro a quick overview to know what is going on in your scene ( especially if you have a lot of object/materials )..... of cause you can use the content panel for material assignment and drag / drop ..... if you dont need the material list in the scene editor, just dont use it .... but even you dont find any use for it, other do ...

the Scene editor gives important information about your scene

Greetings Patrick

[patricks]

just in case i did not explain myself good enough ...

the Scene List is mainly a visual indicator to know what is going on and what you have in your scene.

an example :

you have a very big scene with 100 or more objects and maybe 50 materials and maybe the scene was not even created by you . You know that you have to change some of the clip maps in this scene or enable some of the disabled lights or change the color of a emitter .... how could you quickly find those items without a Scene List ? .... with Thea scene list you can find those items very quick ...

when creating a UI and a workflow, you have to thing in a lot of different scenario the program could be used and try to find a way that can satisfy most of them ...

maybe a single person dont need some of the features or workflow ... but maybe a company where different people are working on the same project do need some of the features and workflow ....

Greetings Patrick