###### tags: meetings

# 2023-04-20 Animation & Rigging module meeting

_The meeting was on [date=2023-02-23 time=18:00:00 timezone="Europe/Amsterdam"]. It is open for everybody interested to join on Google Meet (link below)._

People present are referred to by first name for brevity. Others are referred to by full name.

**Present:** [Armin Halac](https://www.arminhalac.com/), [Fani-Eleni Pandi](https://projects.blender.org/ArtisticBee), [Brad Clark](https://projects.blender.org/BClark), [Christoph Lendenfeld](https://projects.blender.org/ChrisLend), [Denys Hsu](https://projects.blender.org/cgtinker), Eduardo Rubio, [Ivan Cappiello](https://projects.blender.org/icappiello), [Jason Schleifer](https://projects.blender.org/JasonSchleifer), [Jon Matthis](https://twitter.com/freemocap), [Marc](https://projects.blender.org/Rincewind3D-1), [Marion Stalke](https://projects.blender.org/EosFoxx), [Nate Rupsis](https://projects.blender.org/nrupsis), [Nathan Vegdahl](https://projects.blender.org/cessen), [Nitin Rawat](https://projects.blender.org/Nitin-Rawat-1), Omer Almadani, [Wayde Moss](https://projects.blender.org/wbmoss_dev), William Anim

## Links

- **[Google Meet][meet]**. Note that there are no recordings of the meeting. This way everybody is free to say or show anything.
- [A&R Module Meetings agenda][agenda] for inclusion in your own calendar
- [Previous][prev] meeting notes
- [Issues][issues] & [Pull Requests][PRs]
- [#animation-module][chat] chat channel

[prev]: https://devtalk.blender.org/t/2023-04-11-animation-rigging-off-schedule-module-meeting/28864
[next]: ...

[meet]: https://meet.google.com/ora-nbxv-evf
[agenda]: https://stuvel.eu/anim-meetings/
[issues]: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/issues?state=open&labels=268
[PRs]: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls?state=open&labels=268
[chat]: https://blender.chat/channel/animation-module

## Since the Last Meeting / Announcements

- Meeting is hosted by *Nathan*, as *Sybren* is unavailable for personal reasons.
- *Sybren* is stepping down from USD/Alembic development coordination / reviews. Still available for discussions every once in a while, but 95% of his time is now Animation & Rigging (and a little bit Flamenco).
- Documentation efforts on [HackMD](https://hackmd.io/team/anim-rigging) by *Ivan* (`icappiello`) and *Vittoria Puggioni* (`toastamore`). If you want to join, poke `@dr.sybren` on [Blender Chat][chat].

## Landed

- Documentation:
- [#104404: Graph Editor Normalize](https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender-manual/issues/104404)
- [#105039: Copy Global Transform: Mirrored](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/3.6/addons/animation/copy_global_transform.html)
- Fixes:
- [#106943: Adding driver with python on inactive viewlayer doesn't catch dependency](https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/issues/106943)
- [#106888: Fix: Respect preview range when auto normalizing in Graph Editor](https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/106888)
- [#106904: Fix #106771: Selection offset in timeline when NLA track is offset](https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/106904)
- [#106890: Fix: Normalization with baked curves and preview range](https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/106890)
- [#106060: UI: replace "copy/paste buffer" by "internal clipboard"](https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/106060)
- [#106959: Animation: make properties from motion path library overrideable](https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/106959)

## Short-term goals / Ongoing Work

- [#104724: Animation: Add in Parent space alignment option to the Transform Orientation gizmo](https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/104724#issuecomment-926160)
- Approved, and landed.
- Needs documentation.
- Needs to be added to release notes?
- [#104949: Allow renaming F-curve modifier](https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/104949)
- Decision was made in the module chat to include versioning code & make Blender force unique FCurve modifier names on load.

## Ideas for a New NLA

*Marion* shows some possible directions for Animation 2025's NLA system.

- "My fantasy"
- Looked at designs already elsewhere in Blender
- More consistent selection/highlighting colors.
- Instead of checkbox for "active", use a proper icon.
- Use colors in both the NLA and action editor to show what clip is being edited, and that you're in clip edit mode.
- Selecting a clip automatically opens it in the action editor.
- A handle on the end of a clip indicated that the clip has more length available, to indicate that they can be dragged out and extended.
- Tracks can be expanded to reveal:
- Parameters.
- Modifiers. And make more things modifiers.
- Influence keyframes.
- "Meta strip" is a poor name. Confusing. Call them something more obvious, especially for non-native English speakers.
- Expanded track view also shows the sub-tracks of any meta strips on it.
- Not "push down". Instead "Add NLA clip".
- Allow including sound tracks. "Bring sound closer to the facial animation".

Feedback:

- Everyone loves it.
- *Brad*: Adam did some work on an interface where things are combined, so you can directly see e.g. the graph editor in the NLA as needed.
- Armin: it could be made easier to access the actions themselves. At work we have an addon that shows a list of all actions in the file.
- *Christoph*: Re: influence etc. keys in the expanded track view. A list of things you can key?
- *Jason*: what about modifying the influence or other properties on multiple tracks at once? Would be useful.
- *Brad*: right now the NLA editor is used for three different purposes: nonlinear editor, animation layers, and export manager. All mashed together. We're not just redesigning for one workflow.
- *Armin*: in Davinci you can make certain edits visually in on the clips, like dragging their corner to create a fade. Would be nice to have things like that instead of having to go to side panels all the time.
- *Denys*: we can take a lot of inspiration from video editors and DAWs.

**Marion asks**: where to upload the presentation recording and files for everyone?

## Patch Review & Decision Time

- Interesting patch by *Colin Bassnet*: [#106700: Core: Add sub-types for float-type custom properties](https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/106700)
- Everyone loves it!
- [#106521: Animation: shear left slider](https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/106521#issuecomment-923621)
- Naming: "shear left" or "shear right"?
- Could call it "shear from left".
- Most people seem to think that's a good idea.
- [#107089: Anim: add low-level function for simple FCurve key deduplication](https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/107089) has a Python API change proposal for Blender 4.0:
- Make `fcurve.update()` also deduplicate keys in a stable, predictable manner.
- Add `fcurve.keyframe_points.sort()`, `.deduplicate()`, and `.handles_recalc()`, which are the components of `fcurve.update()` for fine-grained control.
- **Proposal**: additional functions to go into B3.6, the change to `fcurve.update()` is for B4.0.
- *Brad*: any way to get a function that does everything in one go?
- Nathan: for now maybe just add a note in `update()`'s documentation to also call `deduplicate()`?
- *Denys*: what about a Python function for adding keys that doesn't do any checks? An "I know what I'm doing" function, to avoid the overhead of the current key adding function.
- [#99113: Add Selection functionality to weight painting mode](https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/issues/99113)
- Proposal: make ALT-LMB edge loop select in weight paint mode (like in edit mode). But ALT-LMB is already used for the gradient tool. Should we change it?
- *Brad*: loves the gradient tool, but it can be assigned to a hot key. And keeping selection muscle memory consistent across Blender seems more important.
- Everyone agrees, use ALT-LMB for selection.
- When to change it? 3.6? Sure! The sooner the better.

## Next Meeting

**NOTE: Next week (27 April) the meeting will be skipped, as it's King's Day in NL.**

The next meeting will be on Thursday [date=2023-05-04 time=18:00:00 timezone="Europe/Amsterdam"]. Again it will be open for everybody who’s interested. The provisionary meeting agenda will be linked in the [#animation-module channel](https://blender.chat/channel/animation-module) before the meeting.