Channel Box Addon
Quick note: I’ll add ‘[$]’ to article titles from now on to indicate commercial content. I hope that’ll help clarify things for everyone!
Raschko writes:
Howdy People!
After using Blender on production work I’ve found the need to separate creation from use in order to minimise user error like building a rig then handing it off to an animation crew.
My first venture into this territory is an addon that only displays available unlocked channels for the selected object or bone to simplify animating.
I hope it helps every one in their endeavours and thanks for taking an interest.
“Quick note: I’ll add ‘[$]’ to article titles from now on to indicate commercial content. I hope that’ll help clarify things for everyone!”
Great idea! I’m tired of watching tutorials that fail to mention up front that you’ll need to pay $xxx (or even worse a monthly subscription) to use the software/plugin that’s being described.
Why the hell is this $5? I could write even better addon in 15 minutes and release it as GNU-free:
import bpy
class ChannelBox(bpy.types.Panel):
bl_label = “Channel Box”
bl_space_type = ‘VIEW_3D’
bl_region_type = ‘UI’
@classmethod
def poll(self, context):
ob = context.active_object
try:
return ob is not None
except (AttributeError, KeyError, TypeError):
return False
def draw(self, context):
entity = context.active_object
if context.active_pose_bone is not None:
entity = context.active_pose_bone
layout = self.layout
loc = layout.column(align=True)
for i in [i for i in range(len(entity.location)) if not entity.lock_location[i]]:
loc.prop(entity, “location”, index=i, text=”Location “+[“X”,”Y”,”Z”][i])
if entity.rotation_mode == “QUATERNION”:
rot = layout.column(align=True)
for i in [i for i in range(len(entity.rotation_axis_angle)) if not ((entity.lock_rotation_w,) + entity.lock_rotation[:])[i]]:
rot.prop(entity, “rotation_quaternion”, index=i, text=”Rotation “+[“W”,”X”,”Y”,”Z”][i])
elif entity.rotation_mode == “AXIS_ANGLE”:
rot = layout.column(align=True)
for i in [i for i in range(len(entity.rotation_axis_angle)) if not ((entity.lock_rotation_w,) + entity.lock_rotation[:])[i]]:
rot.prop(entity, “rotation_axis_angle”, index=i, text=”Rotation “+[“W”,”X”,”Y”,”Z”][i])
else:
rot = layout.column(align=True)
for i in [i for i in range(len(entity.rotation_euler)) if not entity.lock_rotation[i]]:
rot.prop(entity, “rotation_euler”, index=i, text=”Rotation “+[“X”,”Y”,”Z”][i])
scale = layout.column(align=True)
for i in [i for i in range(len(entity.scale)) if not entity.lock_scale[i]]:
scale.prop(entity, “scale”, index=i, text=”Scale “+[“X”,”Y”,”Z”][i])
return
def register():
bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)
def unregister():
bpy.utils.unregister_module(__name__)
if __name__ == “__main__”:
register()
Oh the formatting does not work (of course..). It’s here: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/f5d479d12337a24531f731374bc6e5ff
I can understand your sentiments about this addon. I don’t think your effort is wrong here.
But this post wasn’t appropriate. Post this somewhere more fitting and rather inconspicuous, such as BlenderArtists.
Raschko’s not doing anything wrong here. You just disagree with his method of sharing his work.
It’s rather rude to blast the guy here, as if he’s done something objectionable. I don’t see the need to shame what he’s doing.
A simple thread at BA would both make your point and provide a secondary option, to those who’d prefer your version.
I agree, this felt a little rude/aggressive to me as well.
Oh, and nice touch with the [$] identifier there, Bart.
You bet this is aggressive. It is in no means rude though.
Rude is using the hard-work of blender-devs that make the Blender API to release a commercial plugin that actually takes like 0 effort to make. I can understand commercializing hard-to code addons, but this is just cringe-worthy. Wanting $5 for this is inappropriate, rude and it is wrong.
I do not plan to release the addon on blender-artist. I actually think it is useless.
Free Market, that’s why
Thanks! I totally agree with you.
Some addons shoudn’t be to sale… especially when there are quite useless.
Overall, while some folks may look at [$] add-ons as troubling, I personally think it’s good to support both the free efforts of development, as well as interesting commercial efforts of development.
They both benefit the community, and begin with encourage acceptance that the Blender community has room for both free sharing as well as free enterprise.
In a way, Blender’s community might just be foreshadowing the future of business. Networks of smaller business will eventually become a more sustainable future of general commerce and increased self-employment.
I look at independent commercial add-ons and commercial content from small-business retailers in this way, as not a threat to free development or free philosophy, but a complement to them.
Correction: “…begin to encourage…”
Addendum: I know no one’s explicitly raised topic against paid add-ons.
But I sense some animosity was towards the commercial nature of the add-on.
Instead of animosity, we’re better to respect the fact that this option is merely that–an option.
Respect shouldn’t be lost in the process of turning down an option.
[general opinion on paid addons not specifically related to this one]
I don’t own a lot of paid addons but I bought a few because I knew they would make my work a lot more productive and enjoyable (they did). And they probably wouldn’t have existed without the market around blender. I say, paid addons FTW … just don’t buy them if it isn’t justifiable. Simple :)
Thank you for the kind words.
Quite frankly if there is an add-on you dissapprive of don’t use it or buy it as it us that simple. Writing a negative post and publishing code does nothing to improve the situation and and only elicits tension and is not constructive.
I do agree that some addobs could be free but given the Nature of Blender as being Foss doesn’t mean that all addons should be free as we are in a market of choice.
I can see the alternatives and the value if the work involved as you might feel as though the price is uneccptable but with that price comes customer service if issues arise and accountability.
Quite frankly if I see an easy to make overpriced addon, I make it better and release it free. It is that simple. And yes this improves the situation.
I do have nothing against hard-to-make addons that are priced reasonably. I have all against a code snippet priced at $5.
Why is it rude?
When publishing your work under the GPL, you simply have to accept something like that to happen.
Sometimes I’m under the impression that nowadays many users see the fact that Blender
is licensed under the GPL more as an annoying burden, than an advantage.
Where’s the point of using open source software in the first place, when everyone has
become so picky when it comes to publishing their code?
I will repay happy by this add-on
I do not understand programming
Good job