Lots of stuff

#1 · 24. February 2020, 13:51

Griasde Rischie,

I've got lots of cool feature requests for you. I'd like to discuss them here. 🙂

HOUDINI: Support for arbitrary rendering/export nodes | ability to set outputpath for export/render via rigthclick on parameter. It additionally creates additional parameters to control things like outputtype, task name, etc. (AOVs can be a bitch with this though)
HOUDINI: Prism cache node upgrade 😉
Setting environment variables whenever loading/saving/.. for different parts of the current environment. $PRISM_PROJECT, $PRISM_SEQUENCE, $PRISM_SHOT, $PRISM_STEP, $PRISM_USER, $PRISM_CATEGORY, $PRISM_FILE_VERSION etc
When creating a shot in the project browser. After having created the shot, automatically open up the step creation window. (Should be toggle-able)
Similarly, don't have an option to automatically create a new category, when creating a step, but instead have an option to automatically open the Category creation window.
When typing in a field that does not accept whitespaces or underscores automatically replace them with the next best thing. (Similar to how Houdini does it with nodenames)
Make "Send feedback" button more obvious.
Help text for what paths are expected when manually adding DCC integrations after the initial Prism installation.
"Recent Projects" should be below "Photoshop" in the Project Browser Options
Drag&Drop for creating external Tasks from Folders/Files in Renderings Section in Projectbrowser
Prism API for setting/getting stuff like paths/versions etc
Ability to convert odd resolution stuff (ye i know h264 doesnt work with it, but i need it)
Controversial:
- Rename Steps to Departments
- Rename Categories to Tasks
- Rename Tasks in Renderings to States
- Rename External Tasks to External States

More to come!

#2 · 17. March 2020, 17:31

Quote from RichardF on 17. March 2020, 17:31
First of all thanks for all the feedback. Always appreciated.

I already implemented many of your points after reading your post:

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

HOUDINI: Support for arbitrary rendering/export nodes | ability to set outputpath for export/render via rigthclick on parameter. It additionally creates additional parameters to control things like outputtype, task name, etc. (AOVs can be a bitch with this though)

Interesting idea. It would take some time to add this and I'm not sure if it's worth the effort at the moment. I'd prefer to add node directly to the state manager and not creating any spare parameters on it. Of course it would be useful for new/unsupported node types, but as long as there are not many requests for that, it has a lower priority for me currently.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

HOUDINI: Prism cache node upgrade ?

I heard you are working on something like that. Maybe you can share some details 😉

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Setting environment variables whenever loading/saving/.. for different parts of the current environment. $PRISM_PROJECT, $PRISM_SEQUENCE, $PRISM_SHOT, $PRISM_STEP, $PRISM_USER, $PRISM_CATEGORY, $PRISM_FILE_VERSION etc

Added in v1.2.1.63. There was already a $PRISMJOB variable so I skipped the $PRISM_PROJECT variable.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

When creating a shot in the project browser. After having created the shot, automatically open up the step creation window. (Should be toggle-able)

Similarly, don't have an option to automatically create a new category, when creating a step, but instead have an option to automatically open the Category creation window.

Added in v1.2.1.66. In the create shot, step, and category dialog there is now a new "next" button, which will create the entity and open the dialog for the next entity (like step after a shot was created). You can press enter in every dialog to trigger the next button and to setup shots, steps and categories very fast.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

When typing in a field that does not accept whitespaces or underscores automatically replace them with the next best thing. (Similar to how Houdini does it with nodenames)

Very good idea. I'll look into that in the next days.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Make "Send feedback" button more obvious.

I moved it from the help menu to the main menu bar in the Project Browser and State Manager in v1.2.1.66

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Help text for what paths are expected when manually adding DCC integrations after the initial Prism installation.

In v1.2.1.66 I added an example path under the integration lists.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

"Recent Projects" should be below "Photoshop" in the Project Browser Options

Changed in v1.2.1.66

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Drag&Drop for creating external Tasks from Folders/Files in Renderings Section in Projectbrowser

Added in v1.2.1.66. You can drop files and folder into the tasks list now.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Prism API for setting/getting stuff like paths/versions etc

With almost every update I'm making improvements to the API, but that's a massive task to build a good API for all features in Prism. I can give the path API a higher priority, but to make it really usable I also need to do a good documentation, which will take a while. So I'm working on it, but it's hard to say when it will be in finished.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Ability to convert odd resolution stuff (ye i know h264 doesnt work with it, but i need it)

That will be part of a rewrite of the media conversion functions. I'm planning to add a separate, universal media converter app into Prism, which will support that.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Controversial:

Rename Steps to Departments

Rename Categories to Tasks

Rename Tasks in Renderings to States

Rename External Tasks to External States

Steps to Departments, I agree. But I won't rename things like this in small releases. In one of the bigger releases in the future I will rename things like this all at once.

Categories to Tasks, agreed. Same as above.

Tasks to States. I don't agree here. States would be confusing in my opinion, because states in Prism is already reserved for the items in the State Manager. My proposal for a better name for tasks would be (Media) Products. But we have time until the next bigger update to decide on a name.

Same for the external tasks.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

More to come!

Looking forward to that 🙂

First of all thanks for all the feedback. Always appreciated.

I already implemented many of your points after reading your post:

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

HOUDINI: Support for arbitrary rendering/export nodes | ability to set outputpath for export/render via rigthclick on parameter. It additionally creates additional parameters to control things like outputtype, task name, etc. (AOVs can be a bitch with this though)

Interesting idea. It would take some time to add this and I'm not sure if it's worth the effort at the moment. I'd prefer to add node directly to the state manager and not creating any spare parameters on it. Of course it would be useful for new/unsupported node types, but as long as there are not many requests for that, it has a lower priority for me currently.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

HOUDINI: Prism cache node upgrade ?

I heard you are working on something like that. Maybe you can share some details 😉

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Setting environment variables whenever loading/saving/.. for different parts of the current environment. $PRISM_PROJECT, $PRISM_SEQUENCE, $PRISM_SHOT, $PRISM_STEP, $PRISM_USER, $PRISM_CATEGORY, $PRISM_FILE_VERSION etc

Added in v1.2.1.63. There was already a $PRISMJOB variable so I skipped the $PRISM_PROJECT variable.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

When creating a shot in the project browser. After having created the shot, automatically open up the step creation window. (Should be toggle-able)

Similarly, don't have an option to automatically create a new category, when creating a step, but instead have an option to automatically open the Category creation window.

Added in v1.2.1.66. In the create shot, step, and category dialog there is now a new "next" button, which will create the entity and open the dialog for the next entity (like step after a shot was created). You can press enter in every dialog to trigger the next button and to setup shots, steps and categories very fast.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

When typing in a field that does not accept whitespaces or underscores automatically replace them with the next best thing. (Similar to how Houdini does it with nodenames)

Very good idea. I'll look into that in the next days.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Make "Send feedback" button more obvious.

I moved it from the help menu to the main menu bar in the Project Browser and State Manager in v1.2.1.66

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Help text for what paths are expected when manually adding DCC integrations after the initial Prism installation.

In v1.2.1.66 I added an example path under the integration lists.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

"Recent Projects" should be below "Photoshop" in the Project Browser Options

Changed in v1.2.1.66

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Drag&Drop for creating external Tasks from Folders/Files in Renderings Section in Projectbrowser

Added in v1.2.1.66. You can drop files and folder into the tasks list now.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Prism API for setting/getting stuff like paths/versions etc

With almost every update I'm making improvements to the API, but that's a massive task to build a good API for all features in Prism. I can give the path API a higher priority, but to make it really usable I also need to do a good documentation, which will take a while. So I'm working on it, but it's hard to say when it will be in finished.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Ability to convert odd resolution stuff (ye i know h264 doesnt work with it, but i need it)

That will be part of a rewrite of the media conversion functions. I'm planning to add a separate, universal media converter app into Prism, which will support that.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Controversial:

Rename Steps to Departments

Rename Categories to Tasks

Rename Tasks in Renderings to States

Rename External Tasks to External States

Steps to Departments, I agree. But I won't rename things like this in small releases. In one of the bigger releases in the future I will rename things like this all at once.

Categories to Tasks, agreed. Same as above.

Tasks to States. I don't agree here. States would be confusing in my opinion, because states in Prism is already reserved for the items in the State Manager. My proposal for a better name for tasks would be (Media) Products. But we have time until the next bigger update to decide on a name.

Same for the external tasks.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

More to come!

Looking forward to that 🙂

#3 · 18. March 2020, 20:21

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 18. March 2020, 20:21
Thanks Richie!

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

HOUDINI: Support for arbitrary rendering/export nodes | ability to set outputpath for export/render via rigthclick on parameter. It additionally creates additional parameters to control things like outputtype, task name, etc. (AOVs can be a bitch with this though)

Interesting idea. It would take some time to add this and I'm not sure if it's worth the effort at the moment. I'd prefer to add node directly to the state manager and not creating any spare parameters on it. Of course it would be useful for new/unsupported node types, but as long as there are not many requests for that, it has a lower priority for me currently.

Yeah It's a long shot. Let's see if there's something for this in the future.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

HOUDINI: Prism cache node upgrade ?

I heard you are working on something like that. Maybe you can share some details ?

Nope 😉

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

When creating a shot in the project browser. After having created the shot, automatically open up the step creation window. (Should be toggle-able)

Similarly, don't have an option to automatically create a new category, when creating a step, but instead have an option to automatically open the Category creation window.

Added in v1.2.1.66. In the create shot, step, and category dialog there is now a new "next" button, which will create the entity and open the dialog for the next entity (like step after a shot was created). You can press enter in every dialog to trigger the next button and to setup shots, steps and categories very fast.

Works great, thanks!

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

When typing in a field that does not accept whitespaces or underscores automatically replace them with the next best thing. (Similar to how Houdini does it with nodenames)

Very good idea. I'll look into that in the next days.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Make "Send feedback" button more obvious.

I moved it from the help menu to the main menu bar in the Project Browser and State Manager in v1.2.1.66

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

"Recent Projects" should be below "Photoshop" in the Project Browser Options

Changed in v1.2.1.66

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Drag&Drop for creating external Tasks from Folders/Files in Renderings Section in Projectbrowser

Added in v1.2.1.66. You can drop files and folder into the tasks list now.

Perfect, thanks!

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Prism API for setting/getting stuff like paths/versions etc

With almost every update I'm making improvements to the API, but that's a massive task to build a good API for all features in Prism. I can give the path API a higher priority, but to make it really usable I also need to do a good documentation, which will take a while. So I'm working on it, but it's hard to say when it will be in finished.

Probably good to get a list of things that would be great to have as an API. I'd feature request the list for that instead then. 🙂

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Ability to convert odd resolution stuff (ye i know h264 doesnt work with it, but i need it)

That will be part of a rewrite of the media conversion functions. I'm planning to add a separate, universal media converter app into Prism, which will support that.

Sounds great. Can we do a default convert with prores or something if it's an odd resolution? Shouldn't take long and my head would stop hurting.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Controversial:

Rename Steps to Departments

Rename Categories to Tasks

Rename Tasks in Renderings to States

Rename External Tasks to External States

Steps to Departments, I agree. But I won't rename things like this in small releases. In one of the bigger releases in the future I will rename things like this all at once.

Categories to Tasks, agreed. Same as above.

Tasks to States. I don't agree here. States would be confusing in my opinion, because states in Prism is already reserved for the items in the State Manager. My proposal for a better name for tasks would be (Media) Products. But we have time until the next bigger update to decide on a name.

Same for the external tasks.

Yeah the 2D Tasks stuff is a hard. Products isn't perfect yet. Let's keep it in mind and sometime in the future during a discussion about something completely different, the perfect word will come up. 🙂

Soon more, I'm sure!

Thanks Richie!

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

HOUDINI: Support for arbitrary rendering/export nodes | ability to set outputpath for export/render via rigthclick on parameter. It additionally creates additional parameters to control things like outputtype, task name, etc. (AOVs can be a bitch with this though)

Interesting idea. It would take some time to add this and I'm not sure if it's worth the effort at the moment. I'd prefer to add node directly to the state manager and not creating any spare parameters on it. Of course it would be useful for new/unsupported node types, but as long as there are not many requests for that, it has a lower priority for me currently.

Yeah It's a long shot. Let's see if there's something for this in the future.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

HOUDINI: Prism cache node upgrade ?

I heard you are working on something like that. Maybe you can share some details ?

Nope 😉

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

When creating a shot in the project browser. After having created the shot, automatically open up the step creation window. (Should be toggle-able)

Similarly, don't have an option to automatically create a new category, when creating a step, but instead have an option to automatically open the Category creation window.

Added in v1.2.1.66. In the create shot, step, and category dialog there is now a new "next" button, which will create the entity and open the dialog for the next entity (like step after a shot was created). You can press enter in every dialog to trigger the next button and to setup shots, steps and categories very fast.

Works great, thanks!

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

When typing in a field that does not accept whitespaces or underscores automatically replace them with the next best thing. (Similar to how Houdini does it with nodenames)

Very good idea. I'll look into that in the next days.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Make "Send feedback" button more obvious.

I moved it from the help menu to the main menu bar in the Project Browser and State Manager in v1.2.1.66

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

"Recent Projects" should be below "Photoshop" in the Project Browser Options

Changed in v1.2.1.66

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Drag&Drop for creating external Tasks from Folders/Files in Renderings Section in Projectbrowser

Added in v1.2.1.66. You can drop files and folder into the tasks list now.

Perfect, thanks!

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Prism API for setting/getting stuff like paths/versions etc

With almost every update I'm making improvements to the API, but that's a massive task to build a good API for all features in Prism. I can give the path API a higher priority, but to make it really usable I also need to do a good documentation, which will take a while. So I'm working on it, but it's hard to say when it will be in finished.

Probably good to get a list of things that would be great to have as an API. I'd feature request the list for that instead then. 🙂

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Ability to convert odd resolution stuff (ye i know h264 doesnt work with it, but i need it)

That will be part of a rewrite of the media conversion functions. I'm planning to add a separate, universal media converter app into Prism, which will support that.

Sounds great. Can we do a default convert with prores or something if it's an odd resolution? Shouldn't take long and my head would stop hurting.

Quote from manuelkoestercg on 24. February 2020, 13:51

Controversial:

Rename Steps to Departments

Rename Categories to Tasks

Rename Tasks in Renderings to States

Rename External Tasks to External States

Steps to Departments, I agree. But I won't rename things like this in small releases. In one of the bigger releases in the future I will rename things like this all at once.

Categories to Tasks, agreed. Same as above.

Tasks to States. I don't agree here. States would be confusing in my opinion, because states in Prism is already reserved for the items in the State Manager. My proposal for a better name for tasks would be (Media) Products. But we have time until the next bigger update to decide on a name.

Same for the external tasks.

Yeah the 2D Tasks stuff is a hard. Products isn't perfect yet. Let's keep it in mind and sometime in the future during a discussion about something completely different, the perfect word will come up. 🙂

Soon more, I'm sure!

#4 · 19. March 2020, 16:12

I today's update I added the auto-replacement for invalid characters when typing in Prism input fields.

I also added prores for the media conversion. The mp4 conversion hasn't changed and still requires even resolution values, but now you have "mov" as a new option for the conversion. This will use prores, which supports odd resolutions and also has a higher quality than the mp4 conversion. But obviously the file size will be a lot bigger with prores than with the h264 codec.

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