I have found that Wings3D is excellent for modelling and is extremely easy to use, however, putting textures on my models and rendering them is starting to be a pain (as Wings can only put solid-color textures on it's images and its rendering comes out fuzzy). Is there a good free renderer out there for OS X?

I've wondered about Blender, but it seems too complicated and I can never figure out how to apply the textures it creates nor how to create any advanced textures.

If anyone knows how to use Blender or where to find something better help would be appreciated.

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Cha0s
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Some people use POV ray in conjunction with Wings to do renders. Bryce or Carrara also work well if you're willing to spend some money. Blender doesn't seem so good at importing models, and Wings's exports are limited, so it would probably not be a good choice even if it were easier to use.

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Cosmicrat - Ruler of the universe.
Cosmic Rat - A rodent in space.
You decide...

Try UVmapper: (url="http://"http://www.uvmapper.com/")http://www.uvmapper.com/(/url)

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There are not many good FREE renderers out there so I think you will have to pay a bit of money. Apps with decent renders built in cost between Ł300-1000 (I am talking about Strata and Lightwave) Maya costs a lot and doesn't have a good built in renderer (though it does ship with Mental Ray now). Your best choice would be one of the cheap 3D apps though they may not offer as many options in the way of rendering.

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Pilky
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How would I get files from Wings3D to UVMapper?

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Cha0s
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UV Mapper needs them as .obj files, does Wings import/export as such?

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It does. I tried using UV mapper with wings this afternoon, and the model I tested seemed to import okay though I didn't get far beyond that. Still, UV mapper only solves half the problem.

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Cosmicrat - Ruler of the universe.
Cosmic Rat - A rodent in space.
You decide...

Quote

Originally posted by CosmicRat:
**It does. I tried using UV mapper with wings this afternoon, and the model I tested seemed to import okay though I didn't get far beyond that. Still, UV mapper only solves half the problem.

**

What's the other half?

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Rendering.

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Cosmicrat - Ruler of the universe.
Cosmic Rat - A rodent in space.
You decide...

I can't see how to use UV Mapper for rendering or Textures... I open it and get a blank screen. After opening my file I figured out how to "Map" it and get a 2D view of it. How do I make + add textures?

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Cha0s
(url="http://"http://www.world-of-cha0s.hostrocket.com")The Homepage of Cha0s(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by CosmicRat:
**Rendering.

**

Yeah, that'd be a problem if it doesn't come with a renderer. I've never needed a seperate renderer, so I can't help with that one.

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Quote

Originally posted by CI-Ia0s:
**I can't see how to use UV Mapper for rendering or Textures... I open it and get a blank screen. After opening my file I figured out how to "Map" it and get a 2D view of it. How do I make + add textures?

**

You need to make the texture in Photoshop

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In Photoshop 7.0, it's "Pattern Maker" under "Filter" at the top.

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-- Debra
Danillitphil Productions
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(This message has been edited by Debra (edited 01-10-2004).)

Actually, I discovered that there is a way to texture directly in Wings. It's called "snap image", and it gives you a great deal of flexibility. Here's how it works:

1. Go to File>Import Image. Choose the image you want as a texture. Wings is somewhat limited in the formats it can use, but TGA and JPG should work.
2. Go to Tools>Snap Image>Start Snap Mode and pick the image you want to use from the dialog box. It will appear as a semi transparent overlay on your screen.
3. Select the faces you want to apply the image to. If they are covered or obscured, use Select>Hide Unselected to make them visible. Rotate and zoom your view until you have the overlay lined up where you want to apply the image, then select RightMouse>Snap Image. When you deselect the faces, your image should be applied. You can apply the same image to multiple faces. When you are finished, go to Tools>Quit Snap Mode to remove the overlay.
5. If you export your object as an .obj file, wings will export your images with it. If you are using Bryce to render, you will have to turn down the ambiance and specularity values on each individual texture, but remarkably it preserves the mapping, something I wouldn't have expected from Bryce's lousy texture engine. Hope this helps.

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Cosmicrat - Ruler of the universe.
Cosmic Rat - A rodent in space.
You decide...

Thanks everyone!

Now I just need to find a renderer... :

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Cha0s
(url="http://"http://www.world-of-cha0s.hostrocket.com")The Homepage of Cha0s(/url)

Thanks, CosmicRat.

That UV portion of wings is greatly under documented in comparison to the other feaatures not to mention not iplemented with the same ease.

but good to know they have an alternate technique for texturing.

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Maxon's BodyPaint is a little bit on the expensive side, but it does have an excellent raytraced renderer. What you do is you model in another package, like Wings. You then export as obj and import the model into BodyPaint. There you can draw directly on the object, or you can draw your textures on a flat surface. When you are finished with the textures, render the result. One problem with BodyPaint (and Maxon's Cinema 4D) is that the designers are German, so the logic sometimes seems a little backward to English speakers (for instance, to do something to an object in the scene, you create an action item, then nest the object under the action item).

As for good free renderers, POV ray is a fairly good raytraced renderer, and 3Delight is a fairly good Renderman-style REYES renderer.

Are there any free or cheap renders that have lots of rendering options. I mean can they render raytracing, radiosity, scanline and toon rendering. I am just interested if there are any other programs (besides Strata) that can do all these in one app.

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Pilky
(url="http://"http://www.mcubedsw.com")M cubed homepage(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.coldstonerc.cjb.net")Coldstone Resource Centre(/url)
Cheesiest film line of all time "Flash I love you but we only have 14 hours to save the earth" from Flash Gorden

Grrr... It seems that the Export to POV Ray plugin for Wings doesn't work with the latest version (9.17/18). Now I have to wait for an update...

P.S. The texture application worked beautifully though, thanks!

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Cha0s
(url="http://"http://www.world-of-cha0s.hostrocket.com")The Homepage of Cha0s(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Pilky:
**Are there any free or cheap renders that have lots of rendering options. I mean can they render raytracing, radiosity, scanline and toon rendering. I am just interested if there are any other programs (besides Strata) that can do all these in one app.

**

Carrara can do these, they even have a $99 Carrara Basics that might be able to do most, if not all of these.

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