Currently in 2.8, we have this manipulator widget:
We want to re-design it to to improve these areas:
- It should be less distracting
- take up less constant space
- We would like to be able to replace the XYZ angle indicator in the bottom left.
This is the design we've arrived at:
In the corner of the screen, users will see this:
On rollover, we reveal the sphere, like so:
Rolling over the buttons highlights it:
Side view:
Side View rollover:
Back View:
The viewport manipulator is designed to be able to replace the numpad for users who prefer a more visual interaction, and so it should cover the the same features. For this reason, we will also have a Perspective on/off toggle and a camera view toggle.
Preferences:
In Preferences, users will have three options:
- Manipulator (Default)
This option makes it so you can fully use the widget for rotation and to jump to various views
- Indicator
This option removes all interaction from the widget and makes it slightly simpler
- Off
We show nothing
Process
This gives some insight into our design process. We went through these alternatives before arriving at our final design:
Sketches
