WINGS3D Mini Tutorial How to create the skin between the spines by David Brinnen February 2005 HTML Version by Hans-Rudolf Wernli   «Subs» prompted the writing of this mini tutorial >

— Introduction —
Moving the Camera To move the camera in the X- and Y-direction, click on the centre mouse button and move the mouse around carefully. Just click the left mouse button to freeze the scene. To move the camera in the Z-axes, press the centre mouse button and move the mouse. If the button is released, the camera is in the X/Y move mode and you have to left click to freeze the scene.		Selecting and Deselecting When the mouse is near a selectable part of the object, that part becomes green. When clicking the left mouse button, that part becomes red, which means it is now selected. When clicking on a selected part, it becomes unselected. To deselect everything, hit the space bar on the keyboard.

		Let's go Start Wings and right click in the empty world. The menu shown at left opens. Select «Sphere».

		On the sphere, select a meridian from pole to pole. To do so, first select the triangle with the red edges on the menu list. Click on all line parts all the way from pole to pole. When done, right click to open the context menu and select Extrude, Normal. The option is active immediately after having selected it.

		Carefully move the mouse around until the «fin» has the required size. Click the mouse to freeze.

		Select the fully red triangle on the menu list. Since a part of the sphere is already selected, the whole object is now selected. Right click to bring up the context menu and select Smooth.

		Select the triangle with the red edges on the menu list. All lines are now selected (red) so you have to hit the space bar to deselect them all. Now you can individually select the lines on the «fin» as shown. Sometimes, a line seems to be non-selectable, it doesn't change the colour. This is a trick the displays resolution is playing on you. Just turn the camera a bit. The example shows an unselected line, which is in fact selected.

		Open from the menu bar Select, select Edge Loop and on the pop up again Edge Loop. This selects all lines around the sphere (the latitudes).

		Now right click to get the context menu and click on Bevel. An hourglass appears and, depending on the speed of the computer, after a few seconds, the red lines disappear.

		Carefully move the mouse now to make the lines thick. Then click on the mouse to freeze. Right click again to get the context menu, select Bump and move the mouse until the length of the spines is as you want them (see next picture).

		Select the fully red triangle from the menu bar, right click and Smooth the whole object and you're done.

		You can have a rendered view when selecting the grey, slightly blurred triangle at far left of the menu bar. You can save what you've done in Wings.

		Most probably, you want to use the object in Bryce. So selelect the full red triangle on the menu bar and click on the object to get it selected. Then, go to the File menu and Export Selected as Wavefront (.obj) file. You may also export to 3D Studio (.3ds). The first uses a bright white material, the second a grey one.

HTML Version by Horo - 13. February 2005.		The imported, rendered object in Bryce. Do not forget to smooth the object in Bryce.