and should I be learning it?

Ho-k, so, I've been looking around the developers corner for some time now, checking out reccomended apps, discovering great walkthroughs, trying to figure out why EVONE doesn't display mask pict IDs <_< And then I found a freeware app called Blender. Its user interface is less than friendly, but it's really quite powerful. Anyway, my question is, how good is Blender at making ships? Since the main reason I'm looking at Blender is as an altertative to the limitations of Strata, I wanted to know if there are any other modellers out there who might be able to attest to Blenders strengths, or perhaps weaknesses, in the context of ship design.
Thank'ee much!

I'm no 3D whiz, but my initial impression of Blender was that it's useless without a multibutton mouse.

You basically summed it up in your post: ot is extremely powerful and can do many things when used well, but has THE most godawful interface. 'Useful' is an odd term for it - it depends on whether you look at the ease of use or the power. If the former, it sucks; if the latter, however, it is probably extremely useful once you get used to it.

It might be good for rendering Wings 3D models, but I can't be sure on that. I never looked at it for more than 30 seconds, and never found any rendering options.

Hmm, I like Blender's modeling better than wings3d, and it actually does have some really good rendering features. I got the impression that lots of people here use wings3d, but I found it to be rather limited in its modelling, and especially animation, features. Maybe I'm just missing something ? :huh:

I like blender a lot, I use it for most of my modeling now. I render in Strata because the blender rendering engine isn't great. After you get used to the interface it is plenty easy and fast. Not having to move the mouse to press the scale button and instead just pressing 'S' is a really time saving feature. What I don't like is the inability to select anything but points.

-Cent

Hamster2, on Oct 19 2004, 12:26 AM, said:

Hmm, I like Blender's modeling better than wings3d, and it actually does have some really good rendering features. I got the impression that lots of people here use wings3d, but I found it to be rather limited in its modelling, and especially animation, features. Maybe I'm just missing something ? :huh:
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Erm the problem with Wings animation features is that they don't exist. Never have. Wings is (at the moment) a modeller only. It doesn't even render. I think they plan to add these features over time, but at the moment it is strictly modelling only.

Wings is used extensively throughout the Strata community. Have a look at the StrataCafe Image Gallery. There are loads of things featuring Wings 3D there. Have a good look at Chris Tyler's stuff. He uses wings and strata to fantastic effect.

This post has been edited by Jules : 25 October 2004 - 08:52 AM