Hi all,
I have two workflow improvement suggestions which are addressing the same rubric: the way some nodes hold and make accessible to the user, elements or objects they work with (as inputs or whatever), which are a line with a long list of elements, sometimes accessible with a drop-down list.

The two types of nodes I'm having in mind are groups and nodes related to geometry capturing. There might other circumstances where this method is employed, but since I haven't got into dynamics and simulations, I'll address just these two that I have some experience with.


1.Groups - instead of or in addition to the long list line, a button that opens a geometry spreadsheet (GS) style window. Beside listing all the elements set by the group type, this windowed interface would have the ability to select an element and having it highlighted in the viewport. Also, the ability to add/remove to/from a group, similar to how you'd select objects and add them to the current bundle.
Of course this doesn't have to be a “different thing” - this button could simply open a GS window with the current group filter to show only the elements in the group, but the abilities described above have to be added to the current GS. The current way of adding or removing elements from that long list is, to be blunt, pure masochism.


2.Capture nodes and all other nodes that use bundles of objects (bones, regions, etc) as inputs

The same issue I have here - a line text with a long list of bones, like capturelayerpaint, capturemirror, bonecapturebiharmonic, etc, sometimes also accessible as a drop-down list.

The solution would be a node that collects objects (like bundles do) in order to be fed to other nodes that need these bundles of objects. The “collection node” would need to have similar functionality to the bundles in order to easily add/remove/etc objects from its collection. Or add this functionality via a button next to the current list that opens a bundles like interface, although a new “collection node” (which would have that button too) would bump up the proceduralism since it's reusable, similar to groups.

Would also spare us the often annoying picking sessions (which are great, not annoying, when you have just a few things to mind or want to pick a limited no. of things) allowing for a more Houdini style (viewport as a viewer FTW) workflow more suitable for big scenes and complex characters with lots of bones and geometry.
Bundles are a great feature and I know very well that there's a need for a “scene bundle” type like the current one, which can be used to create “premade” selections for a skeleton say, but it would be great to also have it as an interface for “bundle nodes” to be used at SOP level for more proceduralism.

I invite you to leave your input regarding these ideas, explain why you think they're great or stupid, or if you have better ones, you know the drill.

Here's a concrete case, where the 2nd matter as is in the current form, makes working with a big skeleton (not as big as in a production scenario probably) a frustrating experience. It's sufficient to mess up the order of one bone at the picking time and you've back to starting over. Having to remember or writing down the order doesn't sound very procedural and editing those long lists is a task I refuse to even contemplate.




It would be a great improvement to have a button to bring up a bundle like interface or even calling an actual bundle. Arrows for moving up and down and the ability to simply drag bones for reordering would be needed. And maybe also a smart ordering, when certain naming conventions are followed. This way you won't have to worry about the finicky viewport picking.