Remarks on the controllers

To talk about brush creation and controllers
danielharmsen
 
Posts: 4
Joined: 11 Sep 2013, 15:20

Remarks on the controllers

Postby danielharmsen » 17 Oct 2013, 14:43

It has been a while since my last input, and I see that you’ve been busy with 2 new updates already, keep up the good work.

I’ve been directed here from the suggestions forum by ben-o for my questions/remarks on the brushes. I’ll run by a list of remarks/questions I encountered when using the brushes.

First of all, the output/input tolerances for controllers and parameters.
I only found out by asking in the forums that some the stroke parameters generate signals between 0 and 1(time for instance). I can only assume that the same holds for the signal inputs? Related to this are the accepted inputs for the brush parameters, they have varying restrictions which aren’t mentioned anywhere. For instance, the rotation only accepts values between 0 and 360. Can this be mentioned somewhere on-screen like in-between brackets?

On the direction/rotation parameters, I’ve been told that the unit is in degrees, however where does it start, and which direction does it go to? (for instance is 0° right, and 90° top?)

I can’t seem to use direction as an input to make a shaped brush that can create a circle with the shapes pointing inside. This should be possible since the idea is to directly link direction to the rotation of the shape.

It seems that constructing the brush parameters only serves to modify the shape/flow parameters already present in the right side bar. I thought that the controller editor served more like a “build your brush” interface than a “modify this brush” interface.

The signals tree in the controller editor is kind of misleading, since there is only one true signal there. I had expected the hierarchy to be different. For example:

Sources: Random, Noise, Sinus, Step, Time, Pressure, Speed, Length, Tilt, Azimuth, Direction, Canvas PosX, Canvas PosY, Canvas PosX[0..1], Canvas PosY[0..1], View PosX, View PosY, View PosX[0..1], View PosY[0..1].

Mathematical Transformations: Ease Cubic, Ease Power, Exp, Log, Smooth, Mix, Frac

Basic Math& Logic Operators: Add, Sub, Mul, Div, Min, Max, Clamp, Floor

I would also have expected the following:

Sources: Constant (gives a constant signal of a user defined value), Ramp (in essence identical to time only there is no max value as there is now, with a user defined ramp), Pulse generator(alternating between 2 user defined values at a user specified interval), Counter (generates a signal, similar to time/ramp only the output is in integers increasing to the next the value at each ,5 point)

Mathmatical Transformations: Trigonometric functions (with the ability to select sin cos tan, and maybe more advanced ones), Derivative (transforms the signal to it’s derivative), Integrator (uses the signal to generate it’s integrated form)

Basic Math& Logic Operators: Comparator/Gate ( if a>user defined value then b continues)

I assume here that Floor rounds the input down, in which case I'm missing Top(reverse of floor) and Round (to the nearest integer), and that Step is a switch that increases from 0 to 1 at time=0(or perhaps at a user defined time). I don’t really know what Frac does.

I can’t seem to control the colour with just the brush parameters, as if the color chosen in the side bar takes priority. This seems to happen for Color, Hue, Saturation and Value. If it is a brush related thing, it would be handy to know if certain options cannot be changed.

The allowed shapes are very limited, will there be a support to implement your own shape? Specifically, it would be awesome if you could select like 1/5th and that you would get a slice of pie in which you could make 1/5th of your shape. If you then finish, the new shape will be made by repeating the pie slice 5 times. This way users can make a part of a star or the whole thing if they chose 1/1th and lots of different shapes.

That was all for now,

Daniël Harmsen

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u2bleank
 
Posts: 1182
Joined: 11 Jun 2012, 10:41

Re: Remarks on the controllers

Postby u2bleank » 17 Oct 2013, 21:29

Hi danielharmsen,

I will try to answer you questions :reyes:

..Can this be mentioned somewhere on-screen like in-between brackets?

There will be tooltip to explain what's going one for each Operator box. Furthermore some parameters will be deprecated and new one will come.

On the direction/rotation parameters, I’ve been told that the unit is in degrees, however where does it start, and which direction does it go to? (for instance is 0° right, and 90° top?)


Good question, it will be documented in the tooltips.


I can’t seem to use direction as an input to make a shaped brush that can create a circle with the shapes pointing inside. This should be possible since the idea is to directly link direction to the rotation of the shape.


The next release of Black Ink will add new 2D Vectors operators who will be usefull to do what you describe.

It seems that constructing the brush parameters only serves to modify the shape/flow parameters already present in the right side bar. I thought that the controller editor served more like a “build your brush” interface than a “modify this brush” interface.


Controllers are just a part of more a more complex system/picture.
We have designed Black Ink to be generative and powerfull but we try to avoid programming language and complexity at the first sight.
So to do what you describe future modules ( like this one ) will emerge.

The signals tree in the controller editor is kind of misleading, since there is only one true signal there. I had expected the hierarchy to be different. For example:...


The classification is far from perfect but it's subjective. The important is that we will add a search feature ;)
And All operators aren't implemented yet.

I assume here that Floor rounds the input down, in which case I'm missing Top(reverse of floor) and Round (to the nearest integer), and that Step is a switch that increases from 0 to 1 at time=0(or perhaps at a user defined time). I don’t really know what Frac does.


Have a look or here also

I can’t seem to control the colour with just the brush parameters, as if the color chosen in the side bar takes priority. This seems to happen for Color, Hue, Saturation and Value. If it is a brush related thing, it would be handy to know if certain options cannot be changed.


It will come

The allowed shapes are very limited, will there be a support to implement your own shape? Specifically, it would be awesome if you could select like 1/5th and that you would get a slice of pie in which you could make 1/5th of your shape. If you then finish, the new shape will be made by repeating the pie slice 5 times. This way users can make a part of a star or the whole thing if they chose 1/1th and lots of different shapes.


Idem, keep an eye on this list

That was all for now,


:relief:
Anyway thanks for the feeback. I have noted some of your idea for Node Operators.
Continue to share your thoughts ;)


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