Wings 3D or Blender?

[JeffrySG]

First you should read this thread: (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=2&t=19315)
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=2&t=19315
Typically posts like that are not allowed or discouraged.

But... if you're shopping around - considering Wings3d and Blender are both free you don't really need to choose between them. Get them both.

Also, Wings is a great box modeler with uv features, Blender has many different features besides modeling so they are really not trying to be the same thing. They both can work together quite nicely.

J

[puzzledpaul]

<< I'm shopping around for the best 3D Animation application nowadays. >>

Easy answer to this question for the 2 apps mentioned ...Blender.

No animation facility in wings :)

pp


Edit
One that often gets overlooked in this sort of discussion is Art of Illusion.
Modeller + rendering + animation .... and free.
afaik they've been busy working on / developing a user-friendly set of mesh modelling tools that appear to be fairly easy to use. (dunno how they compare with wings as haven't used them)

so - if you're looking for just the one (free) app that does 'the lot' .. I'd add this to your list for evaluation purposes. (I've only used it for rendering, btw)

Pretty obvious what I'd suggest trying if you don't mind using several apps / tools - and you want an extremely capable modelling app. tho' :)

http://www.artofillusion.org/



a few odds and ends of wings related info, btw www.puzzledpaul.com (http://www.puzzledpaul.com)

[Dann-O]

Get both. Blender has a lto mor efeatures and does animation it imports Wings native format so really nto much to fuss with there. Wings is much faster workflow for modeling and you can have blender do the rest. Anim8tor has some decent tools too and it does some animation. (how is that for muddying up the waters)

[DaedraLord]

Get both. Blender has a lto mor efeatures and does animation it imports Wings native format so really nto much to fuss with there. Wings is much faster workflow for modeling and you can have blender do the rest. Anim8tor has some decent tools too and it does some animation. (how is that for muddying up the waters)

it always gives me a ton of fuss when i try to import stuff into blender, but it does have way more features. so using blender in your workflow with other programs can be bothersome. i like to use wings anyway because it is so easy.
but blender is nice for organic modeling imo. i always have trouble acheiving the desired edge flow by box modeling. but since blender allows for edge extrusion, you can make a nice edgeflow pretty quick. (to be honest thats the only thing that i like about blender since i havent explored anything other than it's basic modeling features)

i would also recommend that if its not too late yet, learn blender first. then learn wings. why? because blender has a more common modeling style, so that would make it easier to learn other programs. if you learn wings first you will have a very hard time getting used to a less intuitive program.

[javierdl]

This is great info guys! Thank you all so much! :)
I used to use 3DstudioMax at work for about 4 years now, but I will no longer be doing 3D at work anymore :( and since I can't afford it myself... I decided to look into the free alternatives.

Thanks again guys,

DPC

[Dann-O]

Hey thansk for the heads up Paul I am getting a copy of Art of Illusion now. Wings is a great supplimentary modeler but it is really only that it is the best boxmodeler ever but well it is a boxmodeler. You can look into soem low cost options too but free is good. I use Wings and Messiah workstation. Messiah is only 299$ does rigging and animation GI and is very good at what it does but does not model at all.

[JPGargoyle]

Hi.

You can also try Realsoft 3D.
Version 4.2 is free.
Get it here (http://www.urob.de/index.php?para=107).


Best regards.

[javierdl]

Mmm, so far I really like the idea of using Wings 3D & Messiah together. Mostly because I like very much boxmodeling, which is what Wings is for. And my animation purpose will be mostly characters, which seems to be Messiah's strength, and its price is quite affordable/reasonable too.
Being this the case, what would I still want Blender for?
I realize it might be too soon to make any definite decisions as I haven't even gotten any "1st hand experience" on any of these applics :rolleyes:

Btw, this is great, no application-wars so far! :bounce:

DPC

[Klicek]

use wings for modeling :)

[arquebus]

Softimage XSI is a very good deal at $500 for a complete modeling, animation and rendering package.

[Dann-O]

Lightwave and XSI are fairly affordable now. I bought messiah because that is what I can get. I am quite happy with it. The renderer is quite good with a lot of advanced options like SSS fresel shaders global illumination plus rigging is quite easy in it and there are a lof of animation features. I might get blender for nurbs and edge extrusion but I am a box modler to the core. Messiah has lousy documentation though and no third party books really either. I think like Wings the basics are intuitive. Try the demo of messiah and ask in the forum here. Character animation is its strong point.

[javierdl]

Mmm, interesting. Thanks for the advice Dann-O. Thanks for reminding me about how affordable XSI is nowadays :)
Unfortunately I am not able to dedicate more than 3hrs a week to learn these applics (for now), so to start I guess I'll keep myself busy with the free ones (Blender & Wings 3D). After all, I'd prefer to start by mastering modeling. And afterwards I'll jump into the Messiah demo and I might buy it. If I'm not satisfied with results at that point THEN I'd consider getting XSI ;)

DPC

[Dann-O]

With only 3 hours a week to dedicate I might go a different route for a while like Wings and Bryce. Used it for many years and Bryce is cheap easy to master later you can use it to make backdrops and reflection maps. Two very simple straightforward apps. Bryce is limited but with only a little time to devote I don't think you can get into animations yet. work on modeleing and lighting a bit.

I like messiah but I will say it is really picky about geometry. no Ngons tris will nto smooth etc. It comes otu and slaps my hand when I make those little modeling mistakes. But I like the renderer and rigging is pretty slick and easy and you can get more advanced. (I need a bigger hardrive before I go deep into animation)

[Inflater]

Now this thread comes to the point where the suggested tool chain is exactly the same as mine: "Wings3D" for modeling and "messiah:workstation" for rendering and animating (beside "Poser", but I don’t want to be laughed at ;) ). I’m fairly new to messiah so I can’t tell much about the program. I just can say that the render engine of messiah alone is something one can fiddle with the span of his lifetime. This program rocks! But you really have to learn it; this is not a toy! And messiah is – all messiah preachers please forgive me – due to a lack of actual documentation not easy to handle.

But I don’t want to push this thread into the messiah direction.

Regards,
The Inflater

[Bigface03]

you might also want to try gsculpt, it a very good modeling program you can download it here

http://sourceforge.net/projects/gsculpt

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