hi I was wondering if you could give me some advice. I would like to learn how to model. I have had the free amapi once but thought it was too difficult and I was not able to find enough tut's to help me out. so I was thinking maybe anim8tor or wings 3d was better for me? I really need a proggie that there are a lot of tut's for, also for a thickheaded newbie like m, lol. I play around with bryce5 if that helps out. thank you

Uhm...you may want to try some of the programs in the box at the top of the forum. Funny thing about modeling programs is that each one has a different feel and which one works best for you is a personal thing. There are tuts for Wings3D but it's just a poly modeler, so you can use any tut for a program based on polys that has a similar toolset to Wings. Lots of people like the program too, so it'll be easy to get help. Again, I can't stress enough how it all comes down to personal taste and modeling style. Experiment and have fun!

sorry for being dumb but what is a poly modeler? I really need to learn the basics! thank you for answering so quick.

I'd recommend Wings3d, it's by far the easiest modeller I've ever tried. But Teyon isn't quite right about using any poly modeller tutorial. Wings is a sub-division modeller, which means that you start with a simple 3d geometric shape (usually a cube) and add geometry, pull it about and change it's dimensions until it looks how you want (easier than it sounds!)The bottom line is it won't do poly by poly modelling (which most poly modellers will) The poly by poly method is basically; draw a poly gon, draw another (or more) and so on until you have built up your shape. It won't do lathing either or spline modelling or booleans (don't worry about the terms, as you learn about modelling, they'll come up and you'll find out what they are!) These sound like limitations but aren't really. You can build ANYTHING with Wings, and I could teach any novice the basics in ten minutes, which I couldn't say about any other app. There's loads of tutorials over at the official Wings forum (www.wings3d.com and follow the links) and at www.cgtalk.com (again follow the links!) I did a tutorial on this forum a while ago which is ideal for beginners and will tell you all the basics. I'll post a link if I can find it :o) - Baz

Ah, we posted about the same time and I missed your question. 3d models are made of virtual wire cages, you've probably seen them. Each hole is a polygon. A Poly (polygon) modeller works with these and creates models made up of straight lines. There's another type of modeller called a Nurbs modeller (Rhino for instance) which works with curved lines, I've never used Nurbs so I can't tell you much more. - Baz

NURBs modeling uses splines (if you've ever used Adobe Illustrator, you'll know a spline is a type of curve) to create surfaces which you use to create whatever you want. It can be very fast but also very memory intensive because of how smooth a NURBs model is. The most important thing with NURBs models is getting a "clean" wire-frame through the use of point weights. These weights define where more detail should be placed when rendering. Another "benefit" to modeling this way is that you can export a NURBs model into a polygonal object at almost any resolution. However, most often this results in very high poly counts which make most meshes unusable. Getting lower poly counts that look good and work well in other programs from NURBs surfaces takes practice. Besides the NURBs type of modeling with splines, there's also PATCH modeling which is what Animation Master uses. This is a different type of spline based modeling that is similar to NURBs but somewhat trickier to work with. Finally, there's meta-ball modeling, an often overlooked, and in some ways failed, attempt at creating models with globs of "clay" which react to each other based on parameters defined by the user. This can be a tedious method of modeling, as you are forced to create every muscle mass using positive and negative influences of these clay-like balls to build a model. SubD, SDS, or Sub-Division Surfaces are a form of poly modeling and uses many of the same techniques as a polygon modeler but also uses weight information to add detail in select areas while leaving other areas relatively untouched. In this way, it is a blend of both Polygonal modeling and NURBs based modeling. It is the preferred method of the moment.

thank you Baz. that is really helpful. I know what booleans means and the wireframelook from bryce5. I have tried to model in it with booleans. takes a lot of work. I've heard people talk about nurbs being the best way to model but I just think I will start with this one. your enthusiasm about wings have convinced me to try it out. and with you around, claiming that you can teach anyone, I might end up learning it, lol. thanks again Baz

ok, that was explained pretty good. thank you very much Teyon.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12402&Form.ShowMessage=1005918

OK, here's the link to the first part of my tut! Let me start by saying I'm no modelling guru! Ther are many here who know a hell of a lot more than me, but I will do what I can to help you out! This tutorial is pretty basic, but it will show you the Wings work flow and a lot of the basic tools and shortcuts. Wings has changed quite a bit since I wrote this but the commands are still more or less the same it just has a lot of extra features now. Before you attempt this tutorial make sure you read right the way through it first. I made a major typo which could cause you to delete your model (don't panic if you do Undo in the edit menu will bring it back!) The error is explained later in the tut so you can look out for it (I told you to press backspace to deselect, this command is delete, I meant you should press spacebar which is deselct)

Have fun - Baz

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12402&Form.ShowMessage=1017418

Part two!

ok, how do I scale it. I found the scale tool but what do I choose? nothing seemes to do what I want...

Well I can't remember what's in the tut exactly but I assume you've created your sphere and cut it in half? Now select the object you want to scale (left click on it) , press b to change to body mode, the whole object should turn red? The pyramids at the top of the screen also select the different modelling modes. OK, you've selected your object, now right click and you'll see a list of tools, left click on scale, then on the next menu click on uniform, this will change the objects size equally in all directions. Other choices allow you to scale in just one or two directions. Once you've selected scale /uniform the menu will disappear. Now just move your mouse about and the object will change size, up or down depending on the direction you move your mouse. When you're happy with the size left click to exit the tool. Most tools operate in a similar way. Once you've figured out a few you'll have a good idea how to use others :o) - Baz

Attached Link: http://pub33.ezboard.com/fnendowingsmiraifrm3.showMessage?topicID=258.topic

Wings uses context sensitive menus via the right mouse button. Basically the tools work on a selected set. So if you select an object and right click you will get the Object context sensitive menu from which you can choose Scale with a left click, and then the type of scale (try Uniform) and then just move the mouse back and forth to grow or shrink the object. When happy witht the size just left click again and your're done. It's much easier to do than to explain. Works the same way with most commands. To work at the full object level click on the solid red pryamid in the middle of the Icon Bar. To work with faces, click on the thrid pyamid to the right. Edges, choose the one with red edges. Verticies, the one with red dots. Once you get the basic hang of it then things will start to make more sense. There is a somewhat out of date User's Manual available for download at the URL I've posted. A lot of the info in it is still good, so it might be worth a read. jon

I can't get it to select the object when pressing b. I have to do it manually and when I then use the uniform scale, it reduces the size of the different polys...NOT the whole object.

thanks baz and jon. have downloaded the pdf and looking in it right now. but still have the scale problem.

Hehe, cross posted with you there Jon! Pressing b will just change modes (body mode ) as jstro described above. If anything is already selected the whole object will turn red. I f nothing is selected, provided you're already in body mode clicking anywhere on the object wil select the whole thing, and scaling will scale the whole object. If some polys are being scaled and not others then you must be in face mode, so just press b or click on the right hand pyramid and you should be OK :o)

I pressed the spacebar to deselect all. then made sure the red pyramid was on. clicking the object with my left mousebutton only selects one poly and the pyramid is still red....tell me what I'm doing wrong, sigh.... sorry to be such a pest but it doesn't work in my end.

eeh, and another thing. why does it open up a proggie named erland? and when trying to close it, it closes wings. is this supposed to happen?

OK, I just tried what you are doing and might be able to explain it. Wings has something called smart highlighting. You can turn it on and off in Edit | Preferences. It is probably on by default. That's OK, smart highlighting is a good thing, but it might be what is screwing you up right now. Create a cube. Look at the Icon Bar. If the first three pyramids are surrounded with a white box, smart highlighting is on. If that is the case, click on the right most pyramid. The white box should change to be around just the Body or Object pyramid. If that is the case, now left click on the cube. The entire cube should become selected. If that is not the case, then something is wrong. With the cube selected right click out in the canvas area to bring up the Object context sensitive menu, choose Scale then Uniform and move the mouse around. Left click when happy. Now press the space bar to deselect everything and the white box around the icons should go back to surround just the first three pyramids again. If none of this helps, then go into Edit | Preferences and turn off Smart highlighting and try it all over again. That's a last resort, because once you get the hang of it Smart highlighting really helps with the work flow. Let us know how things work out and we'll keep plugging away at it till we figure something out. jon

And I forgot, Wings is written in Erlang and runs through an Erlang shell. If you close Erlang, you kill Wings. jon

ok. I did it with a cube and it worked. smart highlighting was not on by default. but it didn't matter. worked when it was on and off. tried it with the 2 half spheres and failure!...why won't it work with the half spheres?

I'm not an expert, I'm probably only a step ahead of you..the triangles you see on the screen (they're still there, guys..right? I'm 2 versions back, haven't run my upgrade yet..;) at the top represent different ways of looking at the primitives you play with. I usually pull up a primitive, and use the tools you can get (bevel, mirror, and extrude are my current favorites..;). You can make the tool work on a given dimension (xyz), or by clicking on surfaces, you can pick what you want worked on. If you drag the box around the entire primitive, you get action on all the surfaces. Another favorite is Tools|Tweak, in the command line above your work space. This allows you to move individual points on the primitive, which is where a lot of the fancy work gets done. The thing I first found out was to pull each shape 'out of the way' of the center, or you'll wind up with 2 shapes in the same place, which can get confusing..;) The 'U' command (just press U) will rotate the whole megilla, which is what you use instead of the 'direction ball' in Bryce (don't ya love my technical terms..;), but usually only in a single axis. Hope this helps.

OK, maybe I know what's wrong. You have two seperate half spheres, and you're trying to scale them both together? If so you have to select both spheres because Wings considers them to be seperate objects. Scale should then work. Alternatively carry on with the tut until the two hemispheres are connected. Wings will then see them as one object. If that isn't the problem try posting a screen shot showing your selection and include the whole screen. May help us sort it out for ya!

I found the U pretty quick, lol. I haven't selected both half spheres as far as I know. so that isn't the problem. I'll try and post a screenshot. have another question. ok, while I was waiting for a reply I started working on the doghouse(so cute) in the manual. It's easy to follow, allthough I couldn't get the first cubeplay to work. when I get to the point where I'm selecting 3 edges on the porchroof, I can't get on of the egdes selected correct. I suspect it's because I can't get that view you have in you tut in fig. 15d. so I can't see the whole line. how do I get that view?

I'll try again. how do I attach 2 pics at a time?

forgot to write to the last pic that this is what happens when I do uniform scale. I have selected the half sphere by drawing a box around it. the B thing won't work in this case...weird.

ok, zoomed in really close and I could select the right lines on the porchroof. now I have another problem. when I make the pillars, mine only becomes a few lines, not solid ones....see attached

Ah! I think you've got problems! :o( I'm no expert but it looks like you may have openGL problems. Let me guess and say you have an ATI graphics card? Make sure you have the latest drivers installed and if you have try turning off hardware acceleration and see if that helps. Some ATI drivers cause display errors, it's not a Wings problem and each time ATI bring out new drivers things seem to be improved. If this doesn't help hopefully someone else may have some suggestions :o(

if that was it but no...I have a Nvidia card. I regularly update everything on my pc so don't think so. but thank you for giving me a suggestion to a solution.

It looks to me that you extruded the verts of the pillars rather than the faces. You would get long skinny spikes like that if that is what you did. Which camera mode are you using? It will help us explain how to do things if we know what camera mode you are using. So if we need to tell you to turn the model over to see the bottom side, or that type of thing. Instructions will varry with camera mode. You can check that under Edit | Camera Mode. I prefer the Miria mode myself. jon

it says I'm in miraimode for the cam. yes, ofcourse! I'm a fool, lol it was the vertices and not faces. thank you jon

Well if its not a display issue, I don't know, to get the pillars like that you'd have to extrude the verts and then move them on the y axis. And the sphere? maybe if you extrude the faces and then scaled them. Try starting again, if you make a mistake or nothing seems to happen undo last action. It may be that you have altered the model but can't see the alteration, if you then try something else you just compound the problem. Having thought a bit more I think you must have tried some commands, thought they hadn't worked and tried again. So try again from scratch and careful what you click on :o) Baz

You're no fool. Looks like you've made it most of the way through the dog house tute, so you should be well on your way. All these simple tutes are for is to teach you what the tools are and how to access them. Once you get the hang of the interface, which it looks like you are well on the way to doing, then I suggest you just try and build some things - simple things, from scratch. Do a few itterations on the same type of object. Like make a ball point pen. Then do it two or three more times to see if you can improve on your technique or work flow. Build a blobby person without caring if they look real or not. Then build them a couple of more times. Once you feel really comfortable with the interface, then go out and get a good tutorial and try and build something hard like a realistic person or car. When you're at that stage, the Joan of Arc tutorial seems pretty good to me. Bear in mind, I'm not at that stage - I've not done it myself. :-) But it looks like a good one. jon

thanks baz, think I will start all over. could very well be that I did hit a few tools and didn't think they'd worked. will try and post my results when it's done. Jon, thanks for your manual. I think it's a really good piece of work. very helpful for me. the jeanne d'arc tut? what and where is that? and to both of you, a big thank you for your help and effort to get me on the right track.

Attached Link: http://www.fineart.sk/tut/Joan/Joanindex.htm

Well, the original tutorial is in French. if you want that one just do a Google search on Joan of Arc Tutorial and it will pop right up. There is an English version which is a little harder to find with Google, which I've linked too here. You best wait till you feel comfortable with the Wings toolset before jumping into this, or you are likely to get very frustrated. It was not written for Wings, so you will need to know it well enough to extrapolate what tool or technique to substitute as you go. I have seen others successfully follow it, so it is possible to do. jon

don't you worry. I won't begin on this now. looks a bit complicated and I'm not into human figures right now. more like toony characters.... thanks for the link

You're welcome Dane (or should I call you Great?) Looks like you're already starting to get to grips with Wings, it get's a lot easier from here! :o) The main Wings forums are at; http://pub33.ezboard.com/bnendowingsmirai www.cgtalk.com and there's one here on Renderosity, though it's been pretty quiet lately. Don't forget to post so we can see how you're getting on! Baz

noo, great dane is an old alias I used before. wish I could change it for the one I use now, plain and simple....the dane. (can you tell I'm danish? lol) well, let's see how well I'm doing on my own. seems pretty easy to use though

Attached Link: http://www.geocities.com/paulthepuzzles/aardvarks.html

You might also be interested in trying out the BT1 tut at the linked site - there's other wings specific info at the same site as well :) pp

Puzzledpaul's tutorials are excellent, highly recommended!

thank you paul, I allready had your link booked. seems like a good site. I'm sorry that I'm responding so late, but job and school are a bit too much these days. looking forward to some spare time, so I can play and learn. thanks baz, they look good.