Please enable beginner mode with One Click Setup by default

[slrgt]

Hi, I love your addon so much and recommend it to every blender user. The only issues that are frequently mentioned is that its really hard for non advanced blender users to use it. It would be great if there were some tweaks so it can be as simple as photoshop\krita where you just click a + and it makes another layer ready to paint on without so many options. Maybe by default it can be in this simple mode and then there can be an option for advanced mode?

My wish

It would be great if the default workflow after install was:

• select object
• press Quick Node Setup
  (this sets up the nodes, adds simple UV if needed, creates new image, automatically switches to texture paint mode)
• start painting
• optional press + to add a new layer that is ready to paint on and still see other layer previews with the one click

This would help a ton so digital painters can easily paint objects in Blender without learning advanced knowledge about nodes, uvs, etc. similar to how digital artists can pickup Procreate, or Substance painter and start painting on 3D objects in 1 or 2 clicks.

There can still be all the advanced options in Advanced mode and a Gear icon next to layers so after theyre made people have to option to change it to Brick texture, Ambient Oclusion etc

My reality

Currently the process for a painter that is a non advanced blender user when trying to paint on an object is:

• click the object

• click quick node paint setup

• learn what the difference between the principled, diffuse, emmission types are
  

• learn what these 7 options mean and which to enable\disable
  

• press ok

• press the big red ! button with since it seems there is a problem
  

• click + for a new layer

• figure out which of all these options you need to choose to start painting
  

• Choose New Image since it seems to be the simplest

• figure out what these options mean (resolution can be understood by digital painters at least)
  

• manually change to texture paint mode

• start painting

• if you want to paint on another layer press +

• see this big list again
  

• press New Image

• Cant see what you drew on the layer beneath it

• watch a youtube tutorial on ucupaint or read the docs so you can create a new layer to paint on while still being able to see the previous layers previews

❤️

I really love ucupaint and im very grateful for the tremendous amount of work you did and will be supporting the patreon soon. I just wish it was a little easier for digital painters and non technical users to install and start painting. I just thought I'd share my idea and the current issues i've noticed many people encountering. Thank you again for all the hard work you've done!

[ucupumar]

Thank you for putting a lot of thought into this. To be honest, I think adding another beginner mode for an addon is kinda difficult from a maintenance perspective. I already tried to make ucupaint as simple as possible to setup while still flexible enough for more advanced users. Things that concerned you on this issue are mostly intended, here are my explanation:

• The quick node setup settings are mostly just for more knowledgeable users, for beginner, just click ok is fine
• 'Add simple UV' button only appears on models that have no UVMap at all. It won't be there if the model already has UVMap. Beginner will only use default models on blender which already has UV, or model they got from the internet, which also most likely already has UV.
• About the big list of new layer options, maybe it can be simplified into submenus later
• There are reasons to not immediately go to texture mode, first is because blender undo system is kinda broken after changing modes and ucupaint also works on other modes like vertex paint mode, sculpt mode, or even edit mode
• I originally wanted to force users to only use material view to use ucupaint, but realized solid view can also be useful for ucupaint since it can isolate to only see one layer at a time with higher performance as a bonus. Also changing the view automatically is kinda bad since it can confuse a lot of users, especially beginners (EDIT: Hmm, maybe this is debatable).

Maybe you can give feedback or contribute to making the default ucupaint more intuitive to use rather than creating a dedicated beginner mode. On the discord server, I found out that ucupaint already has some beginner blender users based on the question. Like at one time, a user didn't know what UV was but already painted 3D models using ucupaint. I think it proves that ucupaint is already beginner-friendly to some extent, but it probably still needs more improvements.

[ucupumar]

Ok, I just added the button to switch to material view when doing a quick setup. One step closer to being more beginner-friendly 🙂

[slrgt]

Thanks for taking my suggestion into consideration! I think the best thing that can be done is to have less options when setting up and instead have them appear if people click a Gear icon. So by default almost nothing will be asked itll just set up the basic stuff that will work for most people and then the advanced users can easily change it by pressing the Gear and selecting what they want to change. So everyone gets the best of both worlds :) While doing some research to see if any other addons are similar i can’t across this one which seems to have minimal options asked and big previews for layers

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On Thu, Jun 6, 2024 at 1:49 AM, ucupumar ***@***.***(mailto:On Thu, Jun 6, 2024 at 1:49 AM, ucupumar <<a href=)> wrote: Ok, I just added the button to switch to material view when doing a quick setup. One step closer to being more beginner-friendly 🙂 [image.png (view on web)](https://github.com/ucupumar/ucupaint/assets/5253453/1b0934e8-6be6-415d-b057-ea47a3cc8ee6) — Reply to this email directly, [view it on GitHub](#121 (comment)), or [unsubscribe](https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/A3H6HE2LGDYY2IL2FEJCJULZF7Z7LAVCNFSM6AAAAABI3RRR6KVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDCNJRGQ3DAMRWGI). You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[ucupumar]

I think it's fine for now, I already changed the option to only show when the users are on different view modes. I need to make sure the user knows ucupaint is the one who changed the viewport mode.