Wings3D or Blender? Unwrapping?

[Nuin]

I have taken a look at possibly coming up with a few custom parts, so I wanted to try my hand at it (especially as I am quite versatile in Photoshop so textures will not be an issue). I have looked at Wings 3D and Blender so far (since they are free), so I will probably use one of the two.

I have gotten to UV unwrapping a donut/torus in Wings 3D with... unexpected results (shapes were either distorted or unorganized). I understand the concept, I just don't understand why it is coming out a mess.

What program will work better for KSP part building? Any tips, suggestions and comments very much appreciated. Thanks!

*edit* - I just realized I posted in the wrong section. Can a moderator please move this to the modeling section? Thanks!

Edited September 5, 2013 by Nuin

[Torminator]

I haven't heard of Wings3D, but Blender is pretty much the most well-known and commonly used 3d modelling software that you don't have to pay for. Personally, I find it far, far better than 3ds Max.

The advantage of this is that there is a wealth of information available. Countless tutorials, guides, forums, etc...

[Dispatcher]

I second Torminator's advice. Its rather easy to UV unwrap in Blender and if you don't like the smart unwrap results, you can select one or a few or a group of faces and generate parts of the map until you've got the islands the way you like. There are Blender tutorials available in these forums too (via links).

Edit: you'd find the links via the forum search engine. Ooops.

Edited September 6, 2013 by Dispatcher
Explaining how the links can be found.

[Torminator]

I've heard quite a few people who use 3ds/Maya for modelling, and then use Blender for unwrapping. Blender's UV tools are very, very good.

[Nuin]

I have just started playing with Blender and find it is a lot more versatile and user-friendly than Wings. Thanks!

[sirkut]

Go with Blender. It's awesome that it's free and it's easy to learn how to use it.

[Rareden]

I haven't heard of Wings3D, but Blender is pretty much the most well-known and commonly used 3d modelling software that you don't have to pay for. Personally, I find it far, far better than 3ds Max.

oooohohohhhh hheeell no you did not just say that.

I've heard quite a few people who use 3ds/Maya for modelling, and then use Blender for unwrapping. Blender's UV tools are very, very good.

only because they dont know how to use max's ones

[jedensuscg]

A little late, but I have to put my defense of Wings3D in. I started in wings before blender, and honestly wings is just so much simpler for learning. It can not do all the stuff blender can do, but wings takes a very minimalist approach, with most of the work your going to be doing accessed by right clicking and a drop down menu based on what your working on(faces, verts etc). You have far more real estate because you can do so much without having 3 different menu bars/tools bars around the screen.

I love wings. Though it is not full featured in terms of animation, texturing etc, you can get some fast, easy results.