Making a Vehicle with Wings 3DThis tutorial will teach you the basics of modelling in Wings 3D and how to export it to Milkshape and/or blender!
Downloading + InstallingSo let's get started, first off if you do not have Wings 3D you can download it at
http://www.wings3d.com/Once it is downloaded and installed to your computer, you need to launch it. Once installed, launch it.
It should look something like this when you launch it;
Creating a basic shapeWe now need to create our model! So, to create the first shape for your model you right click anywhere on the grid and select your shape;
I'm going to select the cube for now.
Camera ControlsIf you are new to Wings you probably don't know about the camera controls,
To Move the camera around your model you push the middle mouse wheel down and move your mouse, left click to release.
To zoom in and out you scroll with your mouse wheel, Simple!
Selection ToolsNow for the selection tools, the most important thing about making a model in wings is the tools you use to make it! There are four selection modes; Here is an image of the tool modes:
The polygon selection tool is useful for making spikes on your model, Scaling or extruding;
The line selection tool is great for bevelling your model to make it seem a bit better in "Blocko" style,
The face selection tool; in my opinion, is the most important tool in Wings, it can select certain faces on a model and isn't a problem to use for beginner modellers.
Useful key-binds included with wings:CTRL + ALT + Z: Undo's your previous changes, I don't know why they didn't stick to good o'l CTRL + Z like other programs but it's just how they designed wings.
Space: De-Selects your selected vertices, very useful for fast modelling.
W: Toggle wire-frame on your model, great to see if you have any unneeded polygons.
Editing your modelNow that we know the basics, Let's started and edit our model!
First off let's click the Face selection tool,
Now we click a face we want to edit, It should now look like this:
Let's try extruding this face now, All you need to do to extrude is right click the face you want and click extrude, as shown here:
Now just select an axis to extrude to as shown here:
After you have selected the axis just move your mouse to the left or right to move the extruded face.
Let's say you wanted to scale this, or rotate it, you can do the same method of extruding but instead of clicking extrude you can click another function, Like scale uniform, Which scales the selected faces.
When you are done experimenting with these tools it's time to make a vehicle, Ill just create a basic one now.
The Exporting
Now we have got our vehicle made, It's time to export it and scale it to the right size!
Side-note: If you want differant textures for your vehicle create differant groups and assign them to your texture what is in the vehicles file.Since both Blender and Milkshape can import .obj wavefront files you can export the model to that.
ImportantBe sure to save your file first as a wings file in-case you make a mistake!
Want to preview some colours for your model?
Select "Window" and select "Palette", With this you can assign colors to your model, as seen here:
Side-Note #2:When you export this with colors they will not be assigned to your model when you import it.Back to exportingAll right back to exporting your model, when you have created your model just click "File" > "Export" > "Wavefront.obj" as seen here:
Now just select where to save the .obj file, make sure to make it easy to find when going into the next program though.
The ImportingAll right we're nearly done now!
We just find our model we saved and compare it to a blockhead and then scale it correctly.
Open up either Blender of Milkshape, Your preferred modelling program.
I'm going to show both sides so its fair for both Blender users and Milkshape users.
When your program is open,
Click file > Import > Wavefront.obj
Shown here for both programs:
Blender makes some import options pop up, Just leave them be and click import.
For Milkshape it doesn't make any import options pop up so don't be alarmed if no box comes up, It should come to this straight away:
For Blender it looks like this;
Blockhead Comparisons and scalingWe are at the near-end of the tutorial now, We just need to compare the size to a blockhead and to scale it!
First we need the blockhead file? But where to get?
Luckily for you, TheKhoz is so cool he gave us blockhead files Hooray! Be sure to thank him if you ever see him :)
Here is the page he posted for everyone:
http://forum.blockland.us/index.php?topic=119849.0His topic also includes Darkstar's Player rig for animating in blender so go check out that as well.
Here is the link to the .blend file:
http://download855.mediafire.com/2amn4i9d4o1g/mujhymtigmc/Player.blendHere is the link to the .ms3d file:
http://download275.mediafire.com/hz3r95snfhrg/enmdo3m4mdl/Player3.ms3dNow just import the Player into your file and edit your vehicle to be facing the right way as the blockhead, DO NOT rotate or scale the blockhead, Or the vehicle will not be properly working later on.
Blender Preview:
I hardly ever use blender so that's why it looks so crappy
Milkshape Preview:
JointingThe last part what finishes off my tutorial.
Joint names for vehicles
Front left tire = hub0
Front right tire = hub1
Rear left tire = hub2
Rear right tire = hub3
Driver = mount0
Passengers = mount1 etc.
Joint-names are from Big list of tutorials found here:
http://forum.blockland.us/index.php?topic=108156.0Really useful list for modding so if I were you I would check in there before you guys ask questions about making other things.
Do NOT, I repeat DO NOT Connect joints to each other, Deselect a joint before placing another on Milkshape like so:
Joints positioned:
Colour Code Image to show which joints are which:
Sorry I can't do a blender jointing one since I don't use blender much but thanks for reading this tutorial and I hope you have learned something!
Poll