Minor Pipeline Tools- Change background of all viewports
The most common email I get from people who have visited this blog is inquiries about the dark color of the background in the screenshots. No it’s not a custom UI, I just have a custom menu with a bunch of stuff including two ridiculously simple scripts… one which cycles the background color in all viewports and one which sets them to this dark grey.
I chose this color for a couple of reasons.
- With a darker color, particles are much more visible, meaning I can display them as single pixels.
- The color is dark but just light enough to easily see black wireframes.
- Have you ever opened Softimage in a dark room full of people using Maya and Nuke? It’s like switching on a searchlight. The light grey color scheme of the Softimage UI is waaaay to bright.
These two little scripts go a long way towards my personal enjoyment of the software. I won’t bother to display them in the post (wordpress kills the formatting), but here’s a file for each…
Since we’re on the topic… Softimage needs a new UI. It’s elegant and functional in many ways, but dated. The light grey is glaring, the huge arrow button looks absurd to new artists, (they’re right) and I have a strong suspicion that it’s a major factor which keeps new artists from Softimage. Just my $0.02.