Sculpt Paint: Expand/Gradient Tools #99770

New Issue

NOTE: This design is still under discussion and is incomplete.

Issue

Currently there are operators to expand masks, face sets and colors.
This concept could be merged with a Gradient Tool to create color gradients across surfaces.

These expand and gradient operators both would also need a toolbar equivalent. This would solve the following issues:

Complex tool settings could be exclusive to the tool (Like use of Textures, different falloff gradients, options to favour targeting boundaries or loops, etc)
The shortcut operator can be simplified for very general, regular use-cases (Also to save space in the status bar)
The tools can be made more discoverable

Inconsistent naming

Currently the word "Gradient" is used in many places and they are not strictly related:

A Color Ramp Gradient
The Gradient Tool option
Use of falloff curve or linear Gradient on expand

We should try to find a more consistent naming scheme for these features.

WIP Ideas

The gradient tool could share a lot of the keymap and options of the expand operator (Gradient along geodesic surface, topology or screen, loops, recursions, textures for noise, etc)
The gradient and expand operators should not get merged though. This would further bloat the feature into something barely comprehensible.

NOTE: This design is still under discussion and is incomplete. # Issue Currently there are operators to expand masks, face sets and colors. This concept could be merged with a Gradient Tool to create color gradients across surfaces. These expand and gradient operators both would also need a toolbar equivalent. This would solve the following issues: - Complex tool settings could be exclusive to the tool (Like use of Textures, different falloff gradients, options to favour targeting boundaries or loops, etc) - The shortcut operator can be simplified for very general, regular use-cases (Also to save space in the status bar) - The tools can be made more discoverable ### Inconsistent naming Currently the word "Gradient" is used in many places and they are not strictly related: - A Color Ramp Gradient - The Gradient Tool option - Use of falloff curve or linear Gradient on expand We should try to find a more consistent naming scheme for these features. # WIP Ideas - The gradient tool could share a lot of the keymap and options of the expand operator (Gradient along geodesic surface, topology or screen, loops, recursions, textures for noise, etc) - The gradient and expand operators should not get merged though. This would further bloat the feature into something barely comprehensible.

Changed status from 'Needs Triage' to: 'Confirmed'

Added subscribers: @JulienKaspar, @JosephEagar, @Jeroen-Bakker, @DanielBystedt, @Limarest

Notes from recent module meeting:

- Current design ideas on adding gradient tools
- Could be based on Expand operator design
- Discussions on expand:
    - Hard to use because of automatic inverting and no preserving of previous mask
    - We have to make a tool version, so users can configure it in detail before using it
    - Also would make it easier to add color expanding
    - Expand performance problems in multires
        - Joe has an idea to fix this
        - Incremental geodesic calculation could also solve high density meshes performance issues
        - Julien will  make a task for changing he mask expand operator defaults and updating the expand/gradient tool design

Notes from recent module meeting: > - Current design ideas on adding gradient tools > - Could be based on Expand operator design > - Discussions on expand: > - Hard to use because of automatic inverting and no preserving of previous mask > - We have to make a tool version, so users can configure it in detail before using it > - Also would make it easier to add color expanding > - Expand performance problems in multires > - Joe has an idea to fix this > - Incremental geodesic calculation could also solve high density meshes performance issues > - Julien will make a task for changing he mask expand operator defaults and updating the expand/gradient tool design

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Sculpt Paint: Expand/Gradient Tools #99770

Issue

Inconsistent naming

WIP Ideas