Quite afew of you hear seems to like having Wings3D as a companion for Bryce. I was just wondering where do you start? I'm a total noob when it comes to Modeling so if I wanted to learn Wings3D where should I start?

Well, the Wings 3d forum..;) Honestly..download the manual from the web site. Go to tutorials here, and try Draculaz' spaceship tutorial (or mine..;), go to find Puzzled Paul's when your up to it. Ask questions..and..it all starts with your right mouse button..;)

Wings 3D, unlike Bryce which is a boolean/hightscale/metaball modeller, is a Subdivision modeler. What this means is that you construct a rough mesh of what you wish to create and then smooth it until you feel it is as slick as you like it. From there, you can import your models into Bryce scenes, which is a whole other page of explanation that I will ommit. I myself am just starting to pass through the n00b stage of Wingsing, so I'm not as knoledgeable as Drac or the other savants. Definently go check their sites. Just create a cube and go on from there. Enjoy sub-d!

What I've found to work pretty good: open Wings. sit in #rendergods demand help from any passing deities.

Yeah, start with a cube. Shift-tab turns the smoothing on and off, switch between the two modes to edit and preview. Setting edges to "hard" allows you te get sharp curves that do not look all globby. A big tendency for new modelers is to oversmooth and to smooth everything. The fewer polygons you have, the easier your model will be to manipulate, do not smooth until the very end. (And I'm talking about actualy smoothing, not the shift-tab smoothing.) Keep your polygons uniform and try to keep a well defined structure. FYI the way you get holes is to select both side faces of something, inset, and use the "bridge" function. This took me a long time to learn so I thought I'd give ya a heads up. Here is a table model I am working on: http://www.3dfightclub.com/~madmax/uploads/files/table.zip It uses hard edges well and is a very "clean" mesh. Feel free to mess around with it. Here's a great site with tons of technical tutorials: http://www.geocities.com/paulthepuzzles/aardvarks.html

I downloaded Wings twice and got discouraged each time and unistalled it. Then I found Drac's now classic "simple spaceship tutorial" and followed it step by step and ended up with my first usable model , other than what I had built previously in Bryce. I had so much fun using what I had learned that I ended up modeling for twelve straight hours! I ended up with about a dozen models that I could use, and they weren't half bad. I've used Wings for a couple of years now and can build a lot of stuff now I would have found difficult, or nearly impossible in Bryce, with the added benefit of being able to export what I built. I built these buildings this weekend while I was on the road with my laptop, which unfortunately has only Bryce4 on it for a renderer.

great buildings dana, I see your at home with wings, so now its time to try some blender , right? :P

http://www.thewings3dsite.tk

I want to thank everyone for the links and steering me in the right direction. You guys/gals are the best!!! Where can I find Drac's Ship tutorial?

here on site. in tutorials. that site above is mine also, i'd suggest looking up the interface section, explains all the commands cheers

Thanks Drac I found the tuts :) And I hope not to give up this time. I did the same thing as danamo, I downloaded/installed Wingds3D Twice.

it'll become a habit..we once compared how many versions we all had once..I was trailing up the rear with about 36..;) if you don't like Wings..wait a week..;)

I have been tempted to give wings a go, after seeing all the great stuff that can be modelled in it. But I really can't afford another adiction LOL!! Bryce and Poser give me headaches enough........still, am tempted!

what? it's a free program.. even I can afford that..;)

okay, I'm gunna give this wings thingy a try too. I think I'll have it mastered quite quickly.

Oh, and don't feel you have to be limited to starting with a "cube" primitive when you start modeling. Sometimes the sheer shape of a primitive will just inspire your imagination and you'll do some "stream of conciousness" modeling, extruding here, insetting there. You'll look at what you just created and you'll go "Dude, whoa, no way!"(or something to that effect)lol. Seriously though, only one of the models I just previewed started with a "cube". One started life as an octotoad and two started out as octohedrons.:-)

Lol, you probably will Rayraz, if you show the dedication you've given to Bryce. Besides, if an "old guy", like Phil* can catch on as fast as he did..;-)I'm sure you'll soon be doing some jaw-dropping stuff.

My birthday is this Thrusday I'm turning 35, I hope I still have a chance learning Bryce and Wings3D :)

Well Happy preemptive Birthday man!. Actually, I have quite a few years on both you and Phil. What I said was with tongue-in-cheek. If anything, I think the mental and creative discipline in using 3D apps will keep you younger longer(at least mentally)if you remember to get up from your chair and exercise occasionally,lol.

okay, gave it a try, so far I'm clueless as to how I should go about deleting polygons or how to resize a selection of multiple polygons as a whole rather then resizing each polygon individually. apart from that it's going smoothly

Nah! SILO is much better!

During my short wings endeavor I really missed 3dsmax :P hehe it's better at modelling too :) I could post a modelling wip if anyone's interested, even though it's a little OT to post a 3dsmax model in a bryce forum...