Learning 3D Sculpting in Womp

Yes, you heard me. Womp! Womp 3D, aka Womp Alpha, is a free browser-based 3D sculpting program. Sounds amazing, right?

Think like a blender but easier and less hassle! If you are like me and have considered trying your hand at digitally based 3D art but were too intimidated to learn a whole new program (or don’t have the time to do so!), consider trying out Womp!

This post is a short and casual review based on my initial impression of this program (I have only been using it for about 2 weeks now). I am by NO MEANS an expert on either this program or 3D sculpting in general… But hey! I still have opinions to share!

Update! Watch my process video sculpting a dog in Womp 3D to get an idea of how this program works.

Why Womp is Great for 3D Sculpting

As mentioned, I am a beginner with digitally based 3D art. My only experience was learning how to sculpt 1 thing on the iPad app Nomad. Nomad is also a great program, but it costs about $20 CDN and has a learning curve and many limitations due to being on an iPad rather than a heavy-duty computer. I work predominantly in 2D art forms, both digital and traditional. Needless to say, I was very intimidated by the idea of 3D work.

I was skeptical when I first saw an ad on Instagram for Womp. It looked too good to be true. But many ads later, I finally decided to see for myself if Womp was a worthy option for someone like me.

Man, was I impressed. As I said before, I have only been using Womp for 2 weeks now, and I feel like such a pro! I have sculpted a variety of things, both simple and complicated. I haven’t been so inspired in a long time! Almost every free moment of mine has been spent on this website creating anything that comes to mind!

Here are some of the things I’ve created so far in Womp:

See more of my Womp projects here

The Community

I think my favourite part of Womp is not the program but the community attached to it. The website has a discord-styled chat system attached to it, with channels for all sorts of stuff. Having an issue making something? Ask the community, and they will help out right away! There are casual channels, too, for chatting about things other than Womp, such as art, memes and more!

When you are finished with a project, you can choose to publish it to your profile for other Womp members to see, like, and comment on! There is also a feature for users to “remix” your project (if you wish!) so you can see how others transform your projects. Plus, a feature I absolutely adore on Womp that I haven’t seen elsewhere is it’s copyrighting system.

Womp gives you four options to choose from when publishing your pieces. CC0, CC BY, CC BY-ND, or All Rights Reserves.

CC0 means anyone on Womp can remix your piece for whatever reasons they wish.

CC BY is the same, BUT you will ALWAYS get credit for your work on every remix made.

CC BY-ND means no one can remix/edit your piece in Womp, but they can download renders of your project and always get credit/

The staff of Womp are also really active members of the community and always so kind and helpful. They have helped me during my journey, giving me tips and tricks to improve my pieces. They are genuinely encouraging and have even supported me on my social media accounts when I share my works from Womp.

I am so happy to be part of such a vibrant and exciting community of creative people!

Challenges and Badges

Another cool feature of Womp is its challenges and badges. This is a genius feature that keeps members active and inspired. The staff comes up with a daily prompt for creators. If you publish a project following this daily prompt, you will get a shout-out in the chat, and your work will be included in a recap of the daily projects (so cool!). You will also receive a “Daily Prompts” badge on your profile. They also occasionally host longer-term challenges over multiple days following a bigger theme, which come with their own custom badge + ranks.

There are many different badges you can get – although there is no list of all those badges anywhere, you can get badges for posting frequently, chatting frequently, getting “staff picks” on your projects (a high honour!) and many other obscure reasons. It is a lot of fun trying to collect tons of different badges!

Okay, Let’s be real...

I could go on and on about the million reasons why I love Womp, but I should go over the few reasons why one might not jump into Womp…

First off, as great as Womp is, it has limitations. There is a reason why programs like Blender can be overwhelming: They have endless possibilities for creation. Some of the biggest things I feel hold Womp back from being perfect include…

How the program works

This has both pros and cons. Everything is hosted on the company’s servers and “live-streamed” to your device. When you are using the program, there is no way to notice that this is how it works—what I mean is that you wouldn’t know the difference.

Now, why is this a con? Because it comes with its own buggy-ness due to being streamed. Often, I find rendering can get weird and wonky when I work on more in-depth projects, and it can be frustrating trying to fix quality issues. It is a matter of getting used to the program and its weaknesses.

Currently, there are no real animation capabilities.

You can’t animate in Womp, which is fine if you have no interest in animation. You can, however, export your project as an “animation” where you can move a camera around to show off your project (Example shown below).

There is also a built-in recording feature, so you can manually move objects around to create an animation of some sort. You have to be really creative to “Animate” your creations. I do say currently, though. The Womp is still a very new program, and the staff is constantly expanding its abilities daily, meaning one day in the future, better animation options may become a reality!

It is really easy to export your creation and import it into other programs like Blender though, so if you know how to animate in another program, you can do the sculpting in Womp and animating elsewhere!

Here is a video from Womp showing how you can creatively animate:

Material Options are limited

With the base free version of Womp, you get access to a LOT of material options. You can customize an object’s transparency, shinyness, metal qualities, etc… However, all the best material options are only accessible in the Pro version. The Pro version is currently $10 CDN a month, which isn’t a lot of money, especially if you use the program. But I find a lot of my creations end up looking like the same super clean and “Cutesy” effect. It’s harder when trying to make realistic and messy objects without access to a pro. I’m not really complaining, though, because this company gives users SO MUCH for free, so having some extra goodies for pro users seems fair overall.

Let’s Summarize

Enough with my yapping! If you spend time reading my “Con” list, you will see that Womp doesn’t have many cons. Of course, if you are a professional 3D modeller and animator, Womp 3D will not be your program of choice. However, I think Womp makes 3D sculpting accessible and feasible for many people. You don’t have to be an expert to create good quality stuff, and with the overall user interface, it is a lot of fun. So, even for those professionals, maybe using Womp as a way to enjoy 3D sculpting as an easygoing and passive activity is an option, too.

Pros:

It is Free
It is beginner-friendly
You don’t need expensive equipment to use it as it is browser-based
Access to lots of materials and tools in the free version
The community is fun and friendly
It is genuinely a lot of fun to use
Easy to export images, videos, 3D printing files, and 3D files for other programs.

Cons:

It has limited capabilities for industry-level 3D sculpting
As it is newer, it can still be glitchy and buggy
There is still a learning curve – albeit a lot shorter than other programs
Some material capabilities are only accessible with the paid pro version
It is HIGHLY addictive! I am not kidding. You may never see your family and friends or sleep ever again!!!

Overall, Womp is a lot of fun for industry professionals and beginners. Even if you don’t fall in love with 3D sculpting, you will become part of a vibrant and kind community of creative thinkers and artists!

Thank you!

Oh, you’re still here? Wow! Thank you for reading this far! Your support is highly appreciated <3

Consider checking out my other posts and art on my website here.