Attempting a simple use case in blender/MPFB.

[NoHardWork]

I'm trying a simple use case but I'm struggling as there's no free tool that appears to hit the spot.

I would like to be able to do this:

Basic character:

* Tall with average muscle build.
* Blond short natural hair.
* Brown or dark blonde eye browns.
* Caucasian and brown eyes.
* In underwear or nude with obscured or absent privates.

I can mostly do this or get close enough though I have not worked out how to change the colour of the eyebrows. Not all of the system hairs appear to load but I edited the texture file to fix the colour. There is a lack of male underwear including boxers but I found something close enough though the red is a little harsh so I may need to edit that file as well.

Use case:

* I want to be able to pose it against various backgrounds as if there then take the image and superimpose it in gimp.
* This means rotating and orienting the character and then posing it to properly fit.
* Ideally once aligned to the background I want to export it with a transparent background to manage composing it in gimp.

I have absolutely no idea where to start with this, blender is totally counter intuitive. I need something really quick and not too fiddly to be able to repeat the process for many images.
It should be possible to just pick up the hand and to apply some rag doll basic physics to get it where I want with perhaps some options to select points not to drag beyond.
I've worked out that I can transform the skeletal parts but this doesn't do what I expect which is to clamp so you can't do things like make the arm stretch really long.
Turning on the helpers does something but I know not what.

I think this is one of the simplest use cases that might be useful for testing and writing a how to for.

Edit: This is another issue that again appears to be blender's fault with the UI where pose mode only arises if you select something rather than being a global mode you can select. It's like behind the door is a key, that unlocks a door to another door.

Brief run through so far:

* Stage A
* Add plugin, explanation of little arrow location needs to be quite verbose (near compass).
* Add assets sparingly, load asset button location.
* Create human from scratch
* Add eyes, eyebrows, teeth and tongue.
* Add rigging and rigging helpers.
* Explain how to get into posing mode which again needs to be a little verbose as it's indirect.
* Mention the right thing has to be selected for menus to turn up or work sometimes.
* Stage B
* Optional: Align object and camera.
* Make a plane, transform it then make material and import image.
* Alternatively just add new image as plane.
* Position guy such as if he is falling through the sky into an open manhole.
* How to render and with transparent background I don't know yet.

If I can make a howto of this and perhaps others can pick it up then it reduces the bar for entry for the basic use. This avoids rabbit holes and a problem where this is not simply the normal learning curve. It should not be this hard is not always an untrue statement. There are usability design issues where things can be hidden such that you can find most stuff easily enough but some things have very poor visibility. Telling people to press hotkeys isn't good in a tutorial for various reasons including that they need to be in the right context otherwise it's just pressing a random key that could do anything but it might be hidden in the background putting things in an unknown state.

There are other small issues with the tool probably well known such as:

* Really big scrolls lists for things like clothes which is awkward even with a fly wheel mouse wheel.
* Sometimes the right thing has to be selected to load and unload clothes but it's not obvious starting out. You just get a python error that makes it look like it's broken rather than a notice about there being nothing selected.
* I guess there's little you can do but bother them on it but the blender UI has its problems where once installed the MPFB tab is a super tiny little arrow buried in clutter with a double arrow cursor to expand making it look like the same to resize the sidebar with a weird dynamic to drag on the whole panel.
* Several small roadbumps not worth mentioning.

I have to wonder if there is a usability issue list anywhere. The less friction the less frustration such that only the things that are necessarily complicated are complicated.

[joepal]

First: thank you for the thorough feedback. Getting user feedback on UX is something that is obviously needed, and also something that has been requested for example at https://static.makehumancommunity.org/m ... sting.html

In general, the best way to put suggestion is in issues at github, at https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/issues

For UX issues, it would be helpful with one new ticket per issue. A screenshot showing the problematic area and a mockup with a suggestion on how it should look in order to be better would also be helpful. There is a "UX" label one can set on issues too.

In generel, and as you say: Since this is a Blender addon, avoiding Blender is pretty difficult. The addon uses the standard patterns in Blender, and does not add things which Blender already do out of the box. For example, switching between object mode and pose mode is such a thing: This is a standard operation in Blender.