ZBrushCentral

ZPlugin interface design

Community
#1

I am seeking a little input here. The following picture shows the interface of a small zplugin I have written and I am wondering if there are any glaring graphical or design issues I am overlooking. Staring at interface designs for too long makes you blind to any errors.

So, is the text not legible, the symbols on the buttons obscure, the contrast all wrong or whatever. Please let me now. I can’t tell the difference any more :smiley:

A little info. What you see is what will appear in ZBrush when the zplugin is activated with a SHIFT + click. The zbrush interface will be darkened out to shift focus towards the zplugin window. All buttons, switches and text fields are highlighted when the mouse cursor passes over them. The Scale Factor slider contains an empty button area. This is just to make it consistent with a couple of other zplugins i am making that use XYZ switches in that area.

Thank you for any input.

InterfaceTest.jpg

#2

Very well readable! Looking great!
Lemo

#3

Actually - yes, very nice and clean with enough space between to keep the eyes focused. :wink:

#4

Thanks guys. Much appreciated, especially since you had nothing negative to say :wink:

Will post a more complex interface later and see if you still feel the same.

#5

…as image format?
Very compressed without loss détails!

#6

Missed this until now.

Looks great. Clear affordance, readable text and has your recognisable house style. :wink:

… The zbrush interface will be darkened out to shift focus towards the zplugin window…

Great idea. :+1:

Looking forward to seeing more…

#7

and has your recognisable house style.
Oh no!!! What can I do to change that? :smiley: Just kidding, I did not realise I had a style. I was going for minimal graphical polish on the UI, so as not to distract and to keep the focus. But I still want a graphical edge to it, if that makes sense.

Strangely enough I always turn of any fancy Windows interface enhancements and go with the Classical look, but I love creating these graphic enhanced interfaces. Go figure.

PNG as image format?

Frenchy, who do you think I am? Marcus_Civis? :wink: No, I will be using the ZBrush texture exporter for this and that is limited to those three formats.

Will try and post some other interfaces later.

#8

Maybe change the bar also to orange instead the half shiny thingy ? Also maybe a few presets for scale of common programs maya, max etc :slight_smile:

#9

hey!

Very handsome and inviting design… streamlined functional too.

FWIW - I’ve only one minor suggestion concerning the radio buttons: I wonder if a third color might not be useful, one that indicates “disabled” rather than merely unselected. Obviously, in the sample interface here it would not be an issue but for the sake of generalized conventions, it might be worth considering.

Personally, I’d recommend making all active but unselected buttons a darkened orange and let the present dark gray represent disabled.

#10

:+1: :+1:
My tired eyes like this and so do I.

#11

Minimal distractive elements. Maximum clarity. Very slick!

#12

i wish the entire ZBrush interface was in this style…

great work

#13

I really like it…clear and concise with style…just the right amount…not over flashy…I’d say almost perfect…

have to agree on the scale slider color…am thinking either the same orange or…something more subtle like a dark gray blue that fits in without being too loud or too unnoticeable…if that makes sense.

:cool:

#14

Thank you for the feedback. It helps me make future decisions and of course complicates everything I have done until now :wink:

Nobody finds the bright white text distracting?

pixelsoul / aminuts : The way I see it the slider bars should only turn active (orange) when the setting is active or the slider is mandatory. As I think you meant the idea is to draw attention to selected items. Hopefully the unselected items are not so hard to find. I tried with all slider bars as selected but it did not work. Take a look at the Color Knob interface and you wil see. The graphic and color of the slider bar is still up in the air. It can be changed at any time so I am leaving it for now. But I will change it.

Svengali : I am currently battling with this. I know at some point I will need a third state but right now the switches, the sectioning of the interface and the script functionalities themseves do not require it. I am working on a solution. How does a cross hatch overlay sound?

Changed the background color ever so slightly and reorganized a couple of buttons. No Help or Cancel buttons on the top bar as I felt it just added visual complexity without adding functionality.

InterfaceTest3.jpg

Attachments

InterfaceTest2.jpg

#15

the white text is perfectly legible

#16

I see your point with your new set of pics.

Ok then…They are poifect! Can’t go wrong
with Harley colors. :smiley: