Custom Manipulators: Where to take advantage of manipulators #51844
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This task is to collect a list of properties & tools that can take advantage of custom manipulators.
Feel free to post suggestions as comments so we can review them to include in this list, or suggest reasons why any of the suggestions should be rejected.
Note that this task is not intended to go into highly detailed design for each kind of manipulator, for this we can link to a separate design tasks if its needed.
Some rough description of design may be useful here just to communicate whats intended.
Persistent Transform Manipulators
Image Editor: UV Manipulator
Similar to 3D view, a manipulator for transforming UV's.
F-Curve: Key-Frame Manipulator
Similar to 3D view, a manipulator for transforming bezier curve handles. (could use some design & discussion with animations)
Properties
3D View: Paint Mask Image
The mask image used for painting could use a manipulator to place it.
3D View: Camera DOF distance(done)DOF distance manipulator can be edited when "Limits" are enabled.
3D View: Camera/Lamp Focal-Length/Spot-Size(done)Support using the spot axis or camera frame to adjust the angle of the spot / focal length.
3D View: Force Field(done)Support using an arrow to adjust wind strength.
3D View: Clipping Border
Currently the only way to set the view-port clipping is with drawing a border in the view, there is no way to adjust it afterwards.
Benefit: If the initial border isn't accurate or the user wants to adjust it, they can adjust the box instead of re-drawing it each time.
Design Summary: Each plane of the clipping border can be rotated or translated on its axis (not sure exactly how this should work, some design is needed).
Open Topics:
3D View: Area Lamp Size(doneb569151ffb)The rectangle defined by the area lamp could be adjusted by clicking on it.
Benefit: Simply allows direct editing of this setting in the viewport.
Design Summary: The area rectangle would be a hotspot that can be clicked on to adjust.
Open Topics:
3D View: Camera/Lamp Target(done459365443f) demo videoThis would be a kind of transformation manipulator where you can point the lamp or camera onto the surface of an object to control what the camera looks at (like having a temporary track-to constraint).
Benefit: Users could easily point cameras & spot lamps to a location without having to preview render or set it as the active camera.
Design Summary: This would likely be handle on the camera/lamps view axis.
3D View: Camera Shift
Benefit: Currently adjusting shift buttons is quite indirect, this could be supported a little like panning the camera view.
Design Summary: Suggest this be a small grab widget in the camera corner, only visible from within the camera view. (This could also have a key-binding associated with it)
3D View: Empty Image(done5406109fbf)Benefit: This is positioned in 3D space but currently only editable via buttons.
Design Summary: Would use a rectangle cage (corners and center-point) to edit the placement of the image empty.
3D View: 3D Text-Box
Benefit: This is positioned in 3D space but currently only editable via buttons.
Design Summary: Would use a rectangle cage (same as empty image).
3D View: Edit Mode, Bone Roll
This may be an addition to the existing transform-manipulator.
Benefit: Simply gives a more direct way of adjusting the bone roll, it could support snapping too, in a way the button value doesn't - snap to axis or parent axis for eg.
Design Summary: An outer ring could be used to adjust the bone roll in edit-mode.
3D View: Pose Mode, B-Bone Roll
B-Bones have head and tail roll angles, currently only editable via buttons.
3D View: Pose Mode, B-Bone Spline(doned3ba86de07)B-Bones define splines, currently only editable via buttons.
3D View: Curve Vertex Attributes
Allow editing of
BezierSplinePoint.radius&tilt.Benefit: Radius and especially tilt are a little abstract when editing via buttons, direct manipulator access makes it clear what you're editing.
Design Summary: The active vertex would have a radius and tilt widget around it (possibly larger then the transform manipulators so they can co-exist).
Open Topics:
Nodes (Compositor): Box/Ellipse Mask
It should be possible to change size and position of the Box/Ellipse Mask borders per widget.
~~Nodes (Compositor): Viewer Node ~~ (done)
The tile ordering center (which already looks like a widget) should be a draggable widget too.
Nodes (Compositor): Viewer Border(CTRL+B) (donefe8fcb4343)Adjust the border bounds
Nodes (Compositor): Translate / Transform / Scale /
CropNodes (doned7905dab6a)It should be possible to perform all transforms through a widget, like in any other image editing program.
Nodes (Compositor): Sun Beams(done3f644682b0)There is a position input for the sub beams node, which could be widgetified as well.
Nodes (Compositor): Corner Pin node(doneba4ffe90cd)This node desperately needs a widget. Pretty simple widget, just four corners. I suppose it could also have the soon-to-be-standard transform widget in the center of it, as well (that would be a nice bonus!)
Movie Clip Editor: Track Transform
Transform manipulator for aspect ratio, width and height and rotating.
Movie Clip Editor: Transform (Cage)
It would be great to have a box widget that appeared when ever more than one control point was selected. This widget would let you move, rotate, scale, and warp the selected control point positions.
Also, there should be a hotkey to turn on/off widget visibility, at least in the compositor. This is necessary to get a clear, unobstructed view of the composited image.
Tools
3D View:
Edit Mesh Spin(done)Modify the center axis, and angle.
3D View: Edit Mesh Screw
Modify the center axis, and turns.
3D View: Edit Mesh Edge Slide
While interactive edge slide doesn't especially require a manipulator, adjusting settings after using a number button is quite indirect.
Benefit: This allows tweaking edge slide input without using operator redo panel, though admittedly this isn't the most important use-case for manipulators.
Design Summary: The closest edge-rail to the cursor would be used as a manipulator (Internally Blender is already defining an edge-rail for this tool, so its only a matter of highlighting it).
Modifiers / Constraints
Note that its an open-topic if we even should support manipulators for modifiers, so making a short-list of possible uses here to see if its worth supporting.
Modifiers:
Constraints:
Undecided Suggestions
Putting items here which may requite more design before we can tell if they are something that fit well as manipulators.
3D View: Group offset
Group.dupli_offsetcurrently only adjustable manually through coordinate input or from 3D cursor positionReason: It's not clear what this setting would be attached to, when would you see this manipulator in the 3D view and how would you know which group you were editing. Also, since this often is left at zero, its likely any object with a group would show some manipulator at the view center. I think this might need its own design task - or have a general design task where we figure out how to expose arbitrary location settings as manipulators in a way that isn't annoying/distracting.
3D View: Proportional Editing, Vector would be a moved arrow for translation and scaling. There would be a circle for proportional size. And between both an horizontal line could be modified used as a curve widget to adjust falloff.
Reason: I worry this conflicts with existing transform manipulator. ~ ideasman42
3D View: Move Object Origin
Reason: Object origin isn't a property, the manipulator would be moving all object data. This is another example of a manipulator that you would probably want to keep disabled, the effort to enable, access & disable seems like it might not be worth the hassle, although I can see this point is disputable too. ~ ideasman42
Postponed Suggestions
This is simply to list some ideas that may be useful but out-of-scope for this task, or too controversial (where there is too much design needed or questionable if they should even be manipulators).
3D View: If possible a "move-like" widget to manually place/snap the 3D cursor about the scene
SpaceView3D.cursor_locationReason: I think making the 3D cursor into its own widget would conflict with placing it, OTOH something like this functionality could be useful, so think this is more of a design task (see: blender/blender-addons#28451 #40952). ~ ideasman42.
3D View: Bezier curve extrusion value
Curve.extrude, bonus points if it allowed snapping with the hypothetical widget snapping systemReason: There are quite a few bevel settings for curves and text its not clear which you would show in the 3D view and I suspect if you are editing some of these settings you probably want to edit others. Another reason am unsure of this is there isn't an obvious place to show the manipulator. ~ ideasman42
3D View: Texture Mapping, For a mapping node taking as an entry generated or world coordinates (an origin that correspond to point easy to identify in 3DView) , we can think of a manipulator in 3D view to set offset, scale or rotation of the coordinates. There could be a manipulator visible only in camera view for Window or Camera coordinates.
Reason: Blender's texturing pipeline is likely to move to using nodes, this means we will likely end up needing a way to display a manipulator for a node in the 3D-View. Thats fine but not a straightforward task.
3D View: Rotate Edge or UVs or Colors. When dealing with Ngons, we can need to do several iteration of Rotate Edges. And for rotating UVs and colors, we have another operator to Reverse UVs and Reverse Colors. An interactive manipulator could decrease number of calls and number of operators.
Reason: Nothing wrong with this suggestion but it seems a bit obscure. Also we would need to add the option to set the number of steps for this tool.
Changed status to: 'Open'
Added subscribers: @ideasman42, @JulianEisel
Added subscriber: @DuarteRamos
Custom Manipulators: Identify areas where they can be usedto Custom Manipulators: Identify areas we can take advantage of manipulatorsCustom Manipulators: Identify areas we can take advantage of manipulatorsto Custom Manipulators: Where we should take advantage of manipulatorsSome humble suggestions
Group offset
Group.dupli_offsetcurrently only adjustable manually through coordinate input or from 3D cursor positionIf possible a "move-like" widget to manually place/snap the 3D cursor about the scene
SpaceView3D.cursor_locationBezier curve extrusion value
Curve.extrude, bonus points if it allowed snapping with the hypothetical widget snapping systemBezierSplinePoint.radius, tiltBezierSplinePoint.radius, mesh bevel weight, skin modifier radius, custom normals, etc@duarteframos. thanks for the suggestions (undecided: 1, 3, postponed: 2, accepted: 4)
You mention custom-normals, this is fine but a bit too vague and I think should be part of bigger design task of how we should expose normal editing. So will leave this for now.
Custom Manipulators: Where we should take advantage of manipulatorsto Custom Manipulators: Where to take advantage of manipulatorsAh true, didn't think it all the way through about when/where to show said manipulators.
About group center perhaps make the widget visible when called from Properties Window > Object > Group and maybe add an option there like Set Group Center in the dropdown menu next to Set Offset from cursor (not an essential addition)
For curves I would envision something displayed at object center while the curve is active (selected too?) along the lines of the mockup bellow (may be togglable somewhere along with all other widgets)
Per vertex values should affect all selected I think, following the new 2.8 guideline that
Altno longer needs to be pressed to affect all selection.Yes I imagine normal editing would require a larger project that would perhaps include a more comprehensive normal editor along the lines of what Blend4Web includes , definitely out of scope here
Added subscriber: @EjnarBrendsdal
@DuarteRamos - ok, see what you're getting at, still some Q's remaining.
One reason I'm a bit skeptical of this is - AFIACS - it gives incomplete access to the settings you would typically access when changing bevel. You would likely want to access [fill, bevel resolution... possibly offset].
Another is that the manipulator you edit is visually disconnected from what you're editing.
We could have a manipulator at the object center to adjust any number of properties - but at that point its really just an on-screen gizmo that replaces number buttons. After 2-3 of these its going to become confusing what settings you edit.
Also it could be annoying if the part of the curve you're interested in isn't at the object's center - this is a hint, IMHO that the manipulator should be re-considered.
Eg - the curve its self could show a highlighted rim which could be dragged up to add depth, once this is done the option to adjust bevel could be displayed around the curve rim.
Note that there are a lot of obvious cases where manipulators make sense, I wanted to avoid getting too caught up in the corner cases, so setting curve/bevel case as postponed since I think this needs some design work and its not really a high priority use-case AFAICS.
Added subscriber: @stilobique
Added subscriber: @sebastian_k
I am not sure if this task includes the compositor, but I'll post it anyway
Node-Editor / Compositor:
Box/Ellipse Mask
It should be possible to change size and position of the Box/Ellipse Mask borders per widget.
Viewer Node:
The tile ordering center (which already looks like a widget) should be a draggable widget too.
Viewer Border (CTRL+B) is a good candidate for a widget as well.
Translate/Transform/Scale/Crop Nodes:
It should be possible to perform all transforms through a widget, like in any other image editing program.
Sun Beams:
There is a position input for the sub beams node, which could be widgetified as well.
@sebastian_k, thanks for the suggestions, all seems reasonable, added to list.
Note that the viewer node is already widgitified in 2.8x, you need to have the viewer node selected though.
Added subscriber: @hadrien
Hi Campbell, hi everybody, here are some of my own ideas.
3DView
A pivot handle (like the bézier control point handles) as well as a rotation dial would control the bbone's curve offsets and roll in/out respectively. Right now, the workflow for manipulating those is quite convoluted - although as always it can be automated - and involves creating additional control bones that hook up to those properties through drivers. The downsides are it takes time, and needlessly complexifies rigs.
There could also be additional dials for scale in/out and also something for easing in/out, although I can't come up with a good design idea for the latter (maybe some sort of slider between bone head and tail ?), and there is a risk it becomes a little crowded.
Graph Editor
A simple X/Y translate and rotate manipulator for keyframes would be welcome.
I imagine the modeling operators are obvious targets for manipulators so I won't suggest them.
Lastly, I heartily second the 3DCursor placement idea.
Oh and I also noticed rmb/esc do not cancel manipulator operation, but maybe it's not supposed to ?
Hadrien
Added subscriber: @p2or
A widgetified Render Border in 3D View (adjust the border bounds and its center) would be awesome too. Reference: https://developer.blender.org/T47267#435975.
Added subscriber: @Ko
Way to activate views from the top, side and others without touching the keyboard. As in this video: https://youtu.be/UlUssM353Rw?t=68
It will be useful if someone wants to use a Blender on a tablet device.
Good point, since bevel/extrude options can be controlled directly from object mode the widget would ideally also be accessible in object mode, but I can see viewport easily become crowded, so I'd totally understand if it was only available from edit mode
Don't have a strong opinion about it; I see Bevel Resolution more like a "quality setting" rather than an actual geometric property, I'd be ok without a dedicated widget but if one could be squeezed in it certainly wouldn't hurt. Bevel modifier and mesh bevel operator could definitely benefit from reusing the same manipulator
Understood, don't want to enforce the idea too hard here either, not so sure myself either, and I understand it is quite an unpopular modelling method.
Anyway just one final attempt, are hover-only widgets possible with the current system? I mean something that only shows up when hovering a certain object or sub-object (I think I've seen them in action in face maps widgets).
Bezier Curve widgets could be something that only shows up when hovering an existing curve vertex in object mode, preferably aligned to local curve normal, that way there is a direct correlation between extrude/offset/bevel values and resulting geometry, and won't collide as easily with other transform widgets.
Added subscriber: @Januz
A couple of ideas:
3D View: Camera Focal Length
This could be done with an icon in front of the camera that can be dragged away to increase the focal length. It would be great if it could also optionally display a translucent cone like spot lamps do. It would be easier to determine what's in front of the camera when changing focal lenghts.
3D View: Wind Force Field
Wind fields already dispaly an arrow, we could drag that arrow to change the force's strength.
Added subscriber: @Blendify
Please refrane for saying "we should implement x from y software". We should try to come up with our own ideas and not copy others.
However, I do love their manuplator widget and it would indeed be nice to have something like that of our own.
Suggestions:
VSE Properties: Strip transform, rotation, backdrop.
Added subscriber: @rocketman
Suggestion: Manipulators on Camera and Lamp objects should be accessed by entering Edit Mode for these objects.
For instance, one could select a Spot Lamp and press Tab to enter Edit Mode, which would expose the manipulators for size, angle, and falloff. These would be hidden in object mode so as to avoid clutter. Entering edit mode on a Camera could expose manipulators for viewing angle, shift, focus distance and clipping.
@Januz, 3D View: Camera Focal Length & 3D View: Wind Force Field are done already.
@rocketman camera FOV and Spot size are done already. Although not falloff and not using modes.
Camera DOF is done too but has some bug that needs fixing still.
@Blendify. sequencer backdrop was done but removed, can be added back again. Sequencer transform seems reasonable.
Added subscriber: @MichaelParucha
Added subscriber: @SeanKennedy
@sebastian_k Thanks for the Node-Editor / Compositor suggestions!
@SeanKennedy do you have some more suggestions for compositor widgets?
@campbellbarton. A better control of the plane track in the movie clip editor would be cool. Aspect ratio, width and height and rotating.
Added subscriber: @StephenLeger
generic Size control
Arc radius
Arc angle
From python perspectice, definitely need:
callbacks shoud return both absolute and relative changes done
feel free to take a look at
https://github.com/s-leger/archipack/wiki/Manipulable-%3F
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61a-ZaQzeVI
Added subscriber: @JorgeLosilla
3d View: Camera Guides Now we have a few composition guides when entering camera view mode. It will be usefull to give the ability to create custom guides, something similar to what 2d software for vector creation or image manipulation has. This will be very usefull for arranging compostions, specially in motion graphics.
Added subscriber: @zeauro
3D View : Texture Mapping
For a mapping node taking as an entry generated or world coordinates (an origin that correspond to point easy to identify in 3DView) , we can think of a manipulator in 3D view to set offset, scale or rotation of the coordinates.
There could be a manipulator visible only in camera view for Window or Camera coordinates.
3D View : Simple Deform modifier
People are used to set origin of object at center of geometry because blender's snap menu encourages them to do it. But a simple bend requires to have it at basis of the object or to use an empty.
So, doing a simple bend becomes counter-intuitive especially when you want a localized bend only on a part of the object.
You just not have to move limits. You have to adjust empty's location to avoïd a rotation of the whole mesh.
It is probably not simpler case but imho, as modifier that is hard to understand, simple deform modifier is a priority.
For all suggestions that relate to constraints/modifiers : I like the idea, but when is the manipulator displayed / how is it toggled ?
@ Hadrien Brissaud, I think that we could add an icon or a Modify toggle in the Apply/Copy buttons line.
Tools :
3DView : Rotate Edge or UVs or Colors
When dealing with Ngons, we can need to do several iteration of Rotate Edges.
And for rotating UVs and colors, we have another opperator to Reverse UVs and Reverse Colors.
An interactive manipulator could decrease number of calls and number of operators.
3D View : Proportionnal Editing
Vector would be a moved arrow for translation and scaling. There would be a circle for proportionnal size.
and between both an horizontal line could be modified used as a curve widget to adjust falloff.
Node-Editor / Compositor:
Corner Pin node:
This node desperately needs a widget. Pretty simple widget, just four corners. I suppose it could also have the soon-to-be-standard transform widget in the center of it, as well (that would be a nice bonus!)
Movie Clip Editor:
Rotoscoping:
It would be great to have a box widget that appeared when ever more than one control point was selected. This widget would let you move, rotate, scale, and warp the selected control point positions.
Also, there should be a hotkey to turn on/off widget visibility, at least in the compositor. This is necessary to get a clear, unobstructed view of the composited image.
I can demo any of these types of functions if necessary.
Updated main document, notes:
There are some suggestions that IMHO are basically moving buttons from the toolbar into the 3D view, for example - the number of steps for "Rotate Edge" or Rotate UVs/Colors" ~ To justify having a manipulator there should be a visual connection. OR, if accessing the toolbar isn't convenient - that should be solved separately and not by moving UI to manipulators.
Correction, if you were to click on one corner, then drag the cursor to another corner, this would make rotate UV's/Color into a useful manipulator. Perhaps this is what was meant?
Other suggestions suffer from a similar problem, inset or bevel for example - while you might want to edit them in the 3D view, we would probably want the manipulator to be the geometry thats being modified (eg, click on any edge to drag the bevel back and fourth). This is reasonable but a bit more involved. I'm not against but this isn't low hanging fruit. Added note about this under "Scope of Widgets" * #47345
Manipulators types will need the ability to be toggled, some off by default. Ability to hook up to hotkeys is always there.
Replies
My suggestion for the Movie Clip Editor is only for rotoscoping. We currently have a small dot in the center of a mask that allows us to move all points together as one, but having a bounding box around all selected points could allow deformation to the shape as a whole, such as non-uniform scaling or warping. I'm actually content with tracking points and how they're controlled without widgets.
Added subscriber: @lowercase
the missing manipulator is one that can be used to move object origin
for modifiers it would be nice if you could just skip using empties, I see you mentioned rotation for array
extrude_repeat operator would be useful with a transform manipulator, like a matrix extrude
Yes. That was what I mean.
We are currently adding lots of empties in our scenes just to use modifiers.
I thought that these ones would obviously by benefit of a manipulator help to decrease complexity in outliner.
Mirror (symmetry plane)
Cast (center)
Hook (center, radius, strength)
Vertex Weight Proximity ( target )
There are also those requiring empties to give a direction.
Normal Edit
UVProject
And those who are requiring two locations to work.
Warp and UVWarp.
In all those cases, it makes sense to keep a field to use an object meaningful in scene context.
But in most of times, we don't relate their use to renderable objects.
It could be frustrating to add an empty for modeling to delete it when modifier is applied.
And for animation, most of them do not recognize bones as a valid target.
And if we have manipulators useful for texture mapping, any modifier using textures will use them.
I have no doubt that manipulators for modifiers would be used.
When you are adding a modifier by menu ; you will instantly tweak its settings.
It seems logical to enable manipulator display at addition and to limit it to active object in case of multiple selection.
I don't see where is the problem to have manipulator display toggle as a modifier setting.
A manipulator display per modifier means ability to show several at same time in 3DView.
It would be a nightmare without different possible looks for manipulators like what exists for empties.
But if work is done in 3DView, it means no more scrolling in modifier stack.
But maybe, it is too much effort to finally convert modifiers to nodes.
Added subscriber: @fsiddi
@campbellbarton. I've added a screenshot to clarify what I mean by 'Plane Track' (Can be created with 4 tracks):
Cool!
Will custom manipulators work on all editors? I think F-Curve modifiers could also use them. For instance changing the strength and scale of the noise modifier by dragging two points (or icons). In the envelope modifier the min/max settings for each control point could also be dragged (they are represented as lines and dots now). The same could be done with the limits modifier, drawing lines for min/max settings and making them draggable.
The widgets could be hidden by default and activated while the F-Curve modifier is being edited (by clicking on the dot icon).
I think you missed my post above @ideasman42 because it got buried in a sea of equally awesome suggestions. :) I suggested bbone roll control in the 3dview, and translate manipulator in the graph editor.
Follow-up question : do manipulators support modifier key and numerical input ? Ctrl to snap, shift to toggle precision, etc. It would be nice for tools like extrude, edge slide.
Note that some of the suggestions raise too many questions, that doesn't mean they're bad suggestions - I just like to first focus more on clear-cut cases early on.
Also, my own opinion on your suggestions isn't in "final word" - other developers can work on implementing manipulators for parts of Blender they maintain.
Further, development on this area will be on-going and doesn't depend on this task which is just to get an initial list of suggestions for developers to work on.
@zeauro - uv rotate using a manipulator is likely to be quite awkward - for a single large ngon it can work. But for many faces its going to cause some overly dense manipulator cluster... again - maybe some nice design can workaround this, but IMHO this is moving towards rewriting a tool to use manipulators.
Added subscriber: @RayMairlot
I see @p2or suggested the Render Border as good candidate for widgetification (+1 from me), but I think maybe you missed this suggestion @ideasman42?
Added subscriber: @pablovazquez
Added subscriber: @satishgoda1
Some thought on the F-Curve: Key-Frame Manipulator
As an animator (mostly working in Maya for jobs, and Blender for personal stuff, so might lack experience with Blender's animation tools overall) the reasoning behind this manipulator is I find a little difficult to move several keyframes at once, especially when it's on a single axis - shortcut G+X/Y works but it makes editing in the graph tiring when tweaking loads of keyframes - either adjusting values (moving on y) or adjusting timing (moving on x) on an entire shot can feel taxing after a short while. Adjusting a single keyframe is fine with a tablet since middle-clicking during a transform will snap to the closest axis (and you can do that with a tablet pen), but moving several keyframes requires hitting G anyway.
So, a 2d manipulator like the one in the 3d view would be welcome. It doesn't have to look like two perpendicular arrows - it could be a box encompassing the current selection or something different. It should allow for moving independently on a single axis as well as freely on both axes. Maybe it could allow for scaling as well by dragging its corners. If it ends up taking that kind of shape it could get in the way of selection so it's probably important that it stays toggle-able.
Currently I don't see the need for a keyframe handle manipulator, since click+dragging/rotating with individual centers works well, but others might see it differently.
@hadrien, thanks for your feedback, though I'm not sure how manipulators will make moving multiple keyframes (which aren't on the same axis) any easier.
Just a note that I think adding a manipulator to the f-curve editor should be done carefully with feedback from animators, unlike other areas I don't think this is as simple as adding some handles to move the keyframes around (as with the 3d view).
This new orientation manipulator for lamps is too small. And sometimes it is not visible on the screen at all. The arrow that changes the size of the spot is also not too obvious (maybe it's better to use a large circle instead of it for the spot lamp?)
@Ko, increased the size and view-align the manipulator.
464c045b31@ideasman42 what do you mean by "which aren't on the same axis" ? I think simply using a click-and-drag rather than a keystroke is already much easier - this was the rationale behind pie menus iirc : less travel for the keyboard hand (it suddenly strikes me how primitives input devices still are...). I agree that neither this one, nor any other manipulator should be designed without the input of several of the target users.
Probably needs a mockup or two, I'll see if I can come up with a nice design.
Little feedback on the rotate manipulator - there's just one hiccup as far as I'm concerned : the view aligned circle (white) should be drawn bigger - right now it conflicts easily with other axes as well as trackball rotate.
And a remark on the translate one : shouldn't the hotspot for the central circle fill the entire circle instead of being just the periphery ? This is the way it's always been iirc, but it always felt kind of unusual to me, bit unintuitive having to target the circle instead of just hitting the center thoughtlessly, if you know what I mean. Now the center is used for trackball rotate when rotate manipulator is also active, but personally I'd prefer having it as hotspot for translate - that being said it should probably go hand in hand with a slight decrease in radius to avoid stealing too much area for trackball rotate.
Added subscriber: @AdamPreisler