Subdivision modeler for creating 3D animations
Wings 3D is a tool specifically designed to import and modify models through subdivision - a polygonal modeling technique that allows very well-defined polygons.
The program itself does not include tools to create it's own from scratch. Basically, Wings 3D can import models created by other design environments (such as 3D Studio, Adobe Illustrator or LightWave) into polygonal meshes and then develop them through subdivision polygons. It also includes a series of tools that will help you allocate materials, textures and UV coordinates to your models, add lights to the scene and perform screenshots among other possibilities.
Note that if you're not familiar with 3D modelling and polygon designs, you'll find this program a complete mystery. Even for those well versed, it's a complex little program but fortunately, there's an extensive tutorial on the developer site that takes you from your initial import to your first modelling attempts.
A powerful program that will be of interest to serious designers using 3D Studio, Adobe products or Lightwave.
* Major rewrite of Tweak to integrate it into the Wings core. The new Tweak features improved performance, additional tools, and more flexibility. * Lots of new tools: o Plane Cut and Slice for cutting objects or face selections o Rotate Unconstrained for multi-axis rotations o Sculpt Mode lets you push, pull, inflate, pinch, and smooth your model o Face|Bridge now connects any two face regions o Body|Weld now manages neighbouring faces o View Along Nearest Axis (use 1 hotkey instead of 6) * Interface improvements: o Asian font support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean o Rollup windows into their titlebars o Right-Click menus now sport a Menu Toolbar o Folders and new icons for the Geometry Graph o Four color themes to choose from in the Edit menu o Save and load Preference Subsets from the File menu o Automatic menu clipping for long menus o Tweak Palette for selecting Tweak tools, magnets, and axis constraints o Fix to properly restore the maximized Wings layout on Windows * Many bugfixes and improvements
Changes
* Major rewrite of Tweak to integrate it into the Wings core. The new Tweak features improved performance, additional tools, and more flexibility. * Lots of new tools: o Plane Cut and Slice for cutting objects or face selections o Rotate Unconstrained for multi-axis rotations o Sculpt Mode lets you push, pull, inflate, pinch, and smooth your model o Face|Bridge now connects any two face regions o Body|Weld now manages neighbouring faces o View Along Nearest Axis (use 1 hotkey instead of 6) * Interface improvements: o Asian font support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean o Rollup windows into their titlebars o Right-Click menus now sport a Menu Toolbar o Folders and new icons for the Geometry Graph o Four color themes to choose from in the Edit menu o Save and load Preference Subsets from the File menu o Automatic menu clipping for long menus o Tweak Palette for selecting Tweak tools, magnets, and axis constraints o Fix to properly restore the maximized Wings layout on Windows * Many bugfixes and improvements
User reviews about Wings 3D
by Ali Hanafi Lakesmas
nice app, this app is verry helpfully to finis our job
thanks
by Anonymous
A joy to use..
To create a new model and get started:
1 - Right click empty space; select cube (or dozens of other primitives)
2 - Click things. Drag them. Follow menus and on-screen cues.
3 - Go to town.
It's puzzling why you gave Wings3D a 6, and Silo a 9 if you understood neither. If you had randomly clicked for a few minutes, you would have learned pretty much all you need to know to learn everything else in Wings3D - the interface is extremely simple without being obfuscated at all.Wings3D is probably the easiest 3D modeller without being totally useless for real modelling. There are some obscure tricks you might not discover on your own, which watching the workflow of others and tutorials will help with, but everything is laid out for you in menus, and all commands are summarized at the bottom of the screen by default. If you're in the process of using something like Move, this will be replaced by contextually appropriate information (like that holding shift/control/alt will constrain to units defined in the options).If you're used to a different camera system, Wings offers presets that can make it more like your favorite 3D modeller. You can assign hotkeys to any command in any menu (insert), and delete them again at will (delete). The interface visuals can be extensively customized. It's much more flexible than it may first appear, though that might be less obvious with non-standard window elements.I didn't like some of the more recent updates to the interface, which seem to try harder to make things 'simpler' that don't need to be - in particular, the selection mode often changes back to a universal mode that can get in the way of fine-detailed work when you need to be working on just vertices or edges, and it's a pain to reselect the mode you were working in every time you deselect all elements using the spacebar hotkey.Overall, though, after working with Wings3D, it's still very difficult to justify some of the hoops other modelling programs make you jump through, or the amount of memorization they make you do, just to get at a simple feature you don't use often but would occasionally benefit from. That is where Wings3D excels - it doesn't try to make things simple or hide more advanced features (much). It lets you make weird mistakes with your models - undo exists for a reason. Because it's so open, you're forced to experiment and step outside your comfort zone, trying new tools as you see them. And once you've learned the ropes, it just works likes you expect it to.
Pros:
Lets you focus on modelling, rather than finding workarounds in a 'streamlined' interface.Great community with extensive and free tutorials.Open, lightweight, and straight-forward.
Cons:
No animation support.
Doesn't handle higher-poly models well.
Some of the most useful features are hidden in the top window menu, where you're unlikely to look at first. More
by Anonymous
Easily the most powerful polygonal modeller out there.
It is pretty obvious Nick has no idea what he's talking about.Not only is it possible to create a model from scratch in Wings 3D: it is also fun as hell.This little piece of software is exceedingly powerful; it's the weapon of choice even for Maya and Max users.
Pros:
It's fun
* It's easy
* It's lightweight
* It's pretty customizable
* It's expandable through the use of plugins
Cons:
* Can be a bit unstable
* Doesn't handle high polycounts all that well (though it's not meant to, anyway) More
by Anonymous
Very easy to learn and create amazing models..
Contrary to what Nick said in his review you can create 3d models with Wings3d. It is also possible to import models from other programs in order to take advantage of Wings3d powerful modeling tools. The Modeling tools are accessed by using the right mouse button. Developers are currently working on upgrading the Tweak Tools to increase the Organic modeling power of Wings3d. After creating your model you can export it to various commonly used file types. Wings3d will run on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Pros:
Easy to Understand.
Allows you to create organic and mechanical models.
Imports from most 3d programs. Cons:
Rendering is harder to learn for Newbies. More