What is Reddit's opinion of
Wings 3D?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
32 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
nWorld is long dead. It ultimately turned into two different products, Mirai and Nendo. Both were ultimately released by a company called Izware who have product pages for both, but that's about it.
Wings3D is an open source modeller based on the same underlying concepts as nWorlds, the winged edge mesh. It's a great little modelling package, but sadly is pretty much abandoned.
Interesting history lesson nobody asked for!
nWorlds started life at a company called Symbolics. Symbolics made LISP machines, powerful LISP based workstations in the 80s. They had a graphics division that created a series of products, S-Paint, S-Geometry, S-Dynamics and S-Render (texturing, modelling, physics and renderer respectively ). This software was ultimately ported to NT and SGI machines, then sold off to Nichimen Trading Company, based out of Japan. For years they sold it as Nichimen nWorlds.
Interesting fun fact(s)...
Symbolics.com was registered in 1985, and is believed to be the first .com address globally.
Nichimen was founded in the 1870s and is now known as Sojitz, after a merger. Nichimen and now Sojitz make everything... why did they sell 3D software? Beats the hell out of me.
Symbolics, the company behind the original product, was heavy into LISP. They also got into an early scuffle with Richard Stallman and ultimately lead to him forming the GNU license.
TL;DR -- NO.
Blender is fine, actually it is superb, but really quite a complex and versatile program that can do much much more than just simple low-poly 3d modelling.
If you want simple and to the point, check out Wings 3D:
Thanks, it was meant to be even nicer (this was the original model I built) but the way to make 3D banner atm (involving converting OBJ files to CGFX using EFE or another program I can't recall right now) doesn't handle transparent textures well enough, so I had to go for a simpler version.
I included the original model (as WINGS and OBJ) and texture (as PSD) in the codebase and the license (WTFPL) applies to those assets as well, so if anyone wants a free 3d LUMA model for their things.. go ahead I guess.
Try wings 3d, it's similar to an old program called nendo which was the first program I learned due to it's incredible simplicity. It's free, open source, and you can export whatever you make in it to the big boy 3d programs.
I have a feeling the reason it looks like this is that Nintendo used the Mirai modelling tools (known as N-Graphics or N-World and previously S-Graphics, part of the Symbolics Graphics Division - Symbolics being the company behind Lisp Machines in the 80s - but when Nintendo used it, it was sold to Nichimen Corp).
Mirai (and a smaller offshoot they made called Nendo) used a graphics data structure called winged edge that allows for very fast operations on geometry, but has the limitation of the geometry always being tightly closed. However operations such as extrusion, edge splitting and joining come "natural" with this data structure and at the time allowed for a "higher level" form of editing (they called it digital sculpting, although later it became more known as box modelling) than the triangle/polygon (many 3d tools didn't even had arbitrary polygons) editing other software used.
Today Wings3D is a 3D modeller inspired by Mirai and Nendo (well, more Nendo, less Mirai) and uses the same data structure. The geometry in your shot can be made in a few clicks with operations that existed in Mirai even in the early 90s.
I'd like to throw in a plug for Wings3D. It, like blender, is more geared toward artists. Once you've committed an action (e.g., extruding a face N units, adding a bevel), it becomes difficult to change later (starting over from scratch is often the best bet).
However, I find the modeler very easy to use. With diligence and careful planning, it is possible to create things with measured dimensions. I have successfully exported models and had them printed by Shapeways.
Edit: while I'm here, the RepRap folk have a list of CAD software
Its open source, completely free... and you can chose whatever camera controls from any of the major modeling programs. I find it to be really fast and useful for beginning a mesh.
I created my own open source projects that no one else wants to contribute to! :P
Actually I did contribute some code to an open source 3D modeling app called Wings 3D; I took the existing OBJ exporter and modified it to export in the X format. Wings is written in Erlang which was a nightmare to try and pick up!
Wings3D is basic and simple, not a lot of fancy at all. But powerful nonetheless. When you are better at just modeling, then try blender. Or just decide to learn blender and start with modeling only tutorials. Good luck.
Once you go free it really narrows the list down.
Blender is capable and you shouldn't really notice any major detriments, especially if you don't have an existing bias towards a certain application. The biggest flaw ( IMHO ) was the lack of ngons, which they just finally added, although it is on occasion a bit rough around the edges.
Wings3d is a pure modeller, and was my goto tool until Blender added BMesh. It's still amazingly capable, although the UI looks extremely primitive, that is misleading. I kinda gave up on wings as it seemed development was dead, but it looks like its alive again!
Lastly, check out Sculptris, a freely available sculpting program.
Check out www.setuptab.com That seems to be where most of the community for Messiah is now (You may already know this, but I'm guessing most people checking this out don't).
For anyone questioning the software, Messiah is a legit software package, it really does normally cost multi-hundreds of dollars (The $1200 figure I think is more of a "really high number so the rest look lower" one - the price I've usually seen it for is from $300-$500), and a fair amount of professional animation is done in it.
One note - Messiah does ZERO modelling. You'll need another program to create models - if you're on the cheap, check out http://www.wings3d.com/ or http://www.blender.org which are both free. Blender, of course, has its own animation and rigging tools, though since it's a more general purpose program it's not designed around the animation process in the same way that Messiah is.
It's much more limited than Blender (and I haven't used it myself), but some people swear by Wings3d for modelling. They'll often still take their models to Blender for shading and animation, though.
The little that I've done in 3D modeling involved using Wings3D because it was free. Art is just not a side of my skillset I've ever really built up so I tend to live it to the pros and avoid building models. That's why that is one thing Silverstag's development always seriously lacked. Even with Floris we were mostly a collection of coder-types with very little in the way of artists. We did have wingcutangel working with us for a little while who worked in the graphic design field professionally though and Floris' splash art was done by the efforts of Taragoth (the developer of Freelancer).
You could use something like Wings3D for basic subdivision 3D modelling. If 3D modelling is the route you end up going down, I think Wings is probably your best bet for ease of use.
Any subdivision modelling tutorial will also be applicable - the tools may have slightly different names but you'll soon find that functionality is broadly analogous.
As has been mentioned already, unless you run into limitations, Blender should be good for most of your needs. It used to be before BMesh was added, I recommended people also try out Wings3D, but now Blenders modelling is much improved. ( I still recommend checking out Wings though ).
That said, if you want something other than Blender, this list of 3D apps is pretty comprehensive, and gives you an idea of what other applications are out there. I would say start there if Blender isn't working for you.
unity is great, and can be a lot of fun.
also, if you're interested, Wings 3D is a great free 3D modelling program, geared towards lower poly stuff. http://www.wings3d.com/
there's a great thread going on over at salt world if you're interested. http://www.saltw.net/index.php?topic=82170.0 for low poly stuff.
Blender has a learning curve, but it shouldn't be too bad for basic modeling.
If you want something more basic, I remember using one called Nendo a long time ago, and there's an open-source project that was inspired by it called Wings 3D. It looks like it can export in a number of different formats. If you need something simple, you might look at that to see if it fits what you're looking for.
No. It's not a CAD program.
Wings3D is a 3D modeling tool which we use the Subdivision/Box Modeling technique to create models/objects.
Carrara 8.5 by DAZ3D is a good 3D package with a shallow learning curve. A more expensive pro version is available too with network rendering amongst other enhancements. It has been my main package since it was called Raydream.
For just modelling for free, there is Hexagon by DAZ3D and also Wings3d.
I would recommend using Wings3D, it's the best program to learn 3D modeling because it doesn't have a bunch of crap on it's UI, the shortcuts are easier to learn, and you can transfer your skills to other 3D modeling programs.
Dividing it into three makes the shading more consistent. Old systems like the N64 use vertex lighting, which takes a lighting sample at each vertex, and draws a gradient between them, so long thin triangles can end up being too dark if the pointier end is in shadow.
It also makes it easier to deal with in modelling applications, as many tools deal with "edge loops".
Art of Illusion might be what you're looking for. You can create all sorts of shapes and link them together, assign them colors and textures, cut pieces out of them using other shapes (CSG, aka booleans), and things like that. It has some bugs and hasn't been updated in a while, but it's pretty solid.
DoGA is quite a bit simpler, possibly more user friendly - it's more like building with Legos, and doesn't have all that many fancy features which might confuse you. It's extremely old, though; they were supposedly working on a new version, but that seems to have been abandoned.
I personally like Wings 3D; it's probably not quite what you want, but I'd throw it out there in case you'd like to try it! The interface is a bit confusing, but once you get used to it, it's extremely quick to work with. You can only create polygonal models (not pure geometric shapes such as spheres), and the texturing support isn't all that great, but you can do a whole lot of crazy things with your polygonal models with only a few clicks, such as extruding sections from them or "bridging" two of them together (like dumbbells).
All of these programs are free (DoGA might be shareware though?); go check them out!
I haven't used it in a long time so I don't know what the latest features are like, but you should try Wings 3D for modeling. It uses a special mesh representation that avoids many of the problems with meshes.
Wings3D is a free software I swear by, it's totally polygon-mesh based. You start with something simple like a cube and add/tweak features. You can keep it low-poly by choice
I wonder if anyone has tried Wings3D? It's free, easy to learn, and most importantly, able to make the kinds of meshes that can be easily imported into other 3d apps. Try it out.
One of my first modelers was this:
and had http://www.strata.com/ for my rendering.
Many years later, http://www.blender.org/ does almost everthing I need.
All of these examples have a lot of tutorials available.
There are a lot of inexpensive and free software packages for 3D modelling that output .stl files for printing. My favorite is Hexagon by DAZ3D but there are a lot listed at 3Ders.org. If not for Hexagon, I would recommend Wings 3D.
I don't really understand what you are trying to accomplish but I believe Wings3d uses that structure for meshes, plus its open source so you can investigate the code (its written in erlang) and maybe get something useful from there.
I work in the film industry with lots of experience with 3D modeling applications and Sculptris is an absolute must download. Just for the sheer fun of it. It's an organic 3D modeler that is freaking awesome. It won't export STL files though, so go ahead and try Wings which is more of an old school modeler that will export STL files.
Both are great programs if you take a few days to learn them.