Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Simple Vehicle: Wheel
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Contents |
[edit] Techniques
You should already know how to:
- Make a mesh
- Navigate the viewport
- Extrusion
- Create, edit materials
This section will recap and introduce:
- Forming faces
- Subsurfing
- Merging vertices
- Object naming
[edit] Pre-constructed
For our premise, envision jeep tires. They're not too sleek but rather rugged for all kinds of terrain. We need a tire that can handle any obstacle in its way.
If you want to skip making a tire from scratch, take an existing model you can find the tires at :"http://www.e2-productions.com/bmr" released under the Blender Artistic License.
Choose one, reduce the hole and enlarge the bump.
do not click it the link above, it'll upload viruses
[edit] Model from Scratch
Start with the viewport in XZ coordinates (NUM1). Add a cylinder (SPACE > Add > Mesh > Cylinder) use 32 vertices, set the radius to 4, depth to 3, and un-click the "Cap Ends" button.
--MSK61 (talk) 12:08, 5 May 2008 (UTC)Don't forget to delete the default cube. Simply select the cube in the object mode and press XKey and confirm deleting the cube. (I think these details are no longer necessary since the reader is supposed to start the tutorial from the beginning).
I am using Blender Version 2.47. I Start with Num1 XZ axis, but my Cylinder is Lying down and the Y axis goes through the Cylinder Walls, same thing in all positions Num7 and Num3.
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- If you add an empty mesh and then go into edit mode, the cylinder will be aligned properly (248.1)
Change to NUM7 view and make sure you are in Edit Mode. With all the vertices selected, extrude EKEY the individual faces into the circle (Make sure to select INDIVIDUAL FACES not Region). Hold SHIFT CTRL while extruding the faces until the sides come in -1.200 units, or just type in -1.2 and hit enter (in older versions of blender hit NKEY first)
To input a number, simply type in the numbers with your numpad (It needs to be the numpad, as the numbers on the top of the keyboard are treated differently), to make it negative, simply put a dash in front of it.
Note: I'm not sure if this is possible in older versions, but if at any time when typing in an exact number, if you have already typed the number and decide you want it negative, hit NUM-. This will reverse the polarity of the number, even if typed in the middle of the number. This also works if you want to make a negative number positive.
Rotate around the model and you'll notice the outside of the tire doesn't yet exist. Let's remedy this. Go back to NUM1 view.
(A Noob: Note that this looks exactly like a fan rotor or a paddle wheel, or even a car air filter. Something to remember if you ever need to model one.)
- Tiltlesceen's Comment
Just be careful at this point, it you look closely you can see that at the inside of the tyre there are multiple overlapping faces. Now this won't be a huge problem for this tutorial but when you come to make your own work and if you leave the mesh like this you will have problems. It might be worth merging the verticies on the inside rim of the tyre. Also consider removing any unnecessary internal geometry (faces inside the tyre that aren't needed and won't be seen) as this will increase file size and render times.
Invert selection (SPACE > Select > Inverse)
Press FKEY to create the missing faces
Select auto
(A Noob: I'm using Blender 2.45, and using the F key and selecting auto doesn't do anything. A little help?)
(another Noob: I'm also using Blender 2.45 and I don't even need to follow this step, as my tire already has an outside. I'm guessing you're encountering the same)
(THE Noob: I'm using Blender 2.46, and i just skipped the SPACEBAR bit, and selected everything with AKEY and pressed F to fill in the missing parts, works fine.
NOTE: In Blender 2.42a pressing F gives a menu with Make and Clear options. Choosing Make says "No faces selected to make FGon". How do I make the faces? Answer: I'm using Blender 2.44 and pressing F gives a menu where you can choose Auto.
(Yet another Noob: I'm using 2.37. Couldn't find any way to use Fkey globally. Deselected all, then selected outer vertices in sets of four, then pressed Fkey to get a face. Repeated many times to complete. Does someone have a better idea for the older versions? )
(Another Noob: In 2.42a the tire looks terrible if one manually selects the outside vertices and then makes faces with F and subsurfs. Better to make a tube, not a cylinder, a tube with 16 vertices, extrude outward, subsurf it, duplicated it with Shift-D and then rotate that a little along the Y axis to fill in the gaps. Looks better. And it's a much faster procedure too!)
(Noob Asking: Is there an easy way to eliminate the double vertexes and the hidden geometry or does it has to be one by one?? )
Now its time to make the tire look like a rugged tire. Apply a subsurf of level 1 or 2 to the mesh. The tire will now look like a bead necklace. [Edit:] If not, remove doubles.) A little creative use of creases will restore our tire.
Turn off the Limit Selection to Visible. Enter select edges mode and bring up the circle selection tool (AKEY to unselect all, then BKEY twice). Use the scroll wheel to change the circle selection size to be in the center of the tire, between the inside and outside edges. This will select all of the inside edges, as well as the triangles on the side of the tire, as in the picture below. Crease these edges to 1.000 (SHIFT EKEY).
(noob note: DO NOT turn the 'limit-selection' tool on for the above selection.)
- Titlescreen says
You could also consider selecting the outside faces on the tyre (the bit that will touch the road) and subdividing them once. Then you can selected a "left face" go down one and select a "right face" etc until you have gone round the wheel. You should have a checkerboard selection on the tyre. Then press E to extrude > Individual faces and pull them out a bit. now press SHIFT + E to crease the edges and you will have a thick and chunky tyre tread.
The tire is almost done. Let's add a simple hubcap to it. In NUM1 view, add a tube mesh (32 vertices) and scale it up a bit to make it easier to work with. Again, if you are using Blender 2.43[edit:2.44], add a cylinder and make sure the "Cap Ends" button is turned off. (noob note: Scale it to about 1.7,I think) (noob note: Scale is closer to 1.9) (Note: If you are using Blender version 2.43 it IS NOT necessary to add a cylinder.) (noob note: Change back to vertices select mode Ctrl+Tab>vertices) (noob: How do you add a tube?)
Set the view to NUM3 and pull the tube out of the tire along the Y-axis. Reduce the length of the hubcap to about 0.5 unit. Select the left half of the hubcap vertices and return to the NUM1 view.
Noob: How do I do this?
Another Noob: That depends. Are you talking about how to select the left half of the vertices, or how to reduce the length of the cylinder, or is it the whole thing?
Noob: If you select the whole hubcap-to-be and scale it along the axis you want to shorten it by, it will work. I scaled it to about .2. If you have lines where it used to be, select the edges you want to get rid of (circle select [B,B]), and erase them (X, Vertices). That should work. If it doesn't, then it is my error.
Scale these vertices and pull them inward. Keep the vertices selected.
Use extrusion (Only Edges) and then press ESC. This will duplicate the vertices and place them at zero, which in this case happen not to be on top of each other.
We'll merge these vertices together to create a flat surface. ALT MKEY will bring up the merge window. Merge the vertices at center. Blender will reduce the 32 vertices to 1. Keep the 1 remaining vertex selected, enter NUM3 view, and pull it along Y into the hubcap.
The final mesh editing is to select all of the hubcap vertices (easiest in the side view), scale up to slightly larger than the hole of the tire, and move back into the tire along Y. (Noob Note: Hold the cursor over the hubcap and press LKEY to select all vertices easily)
The last thing to do is to rename the wheel so we can find it easier later. Enter Object mode and select the wheel only. In the Link and Materials subwindow in Editing (F9) you'll see the Active Object name box. It should read OB:Tube in the grey box. This name was created because we started with a tube mesh. Click on the button and rename the object to something like 'wheel'. Save your file where you'll find it later and continue to the next step.
Noob: I cant seem to select just the wheel in object mode. Once I've moved the hubcab into the wheel they are both selected as one...
Noob Answer: Split objects in edit mode with P (seParate) or join objects with CTRL+JKEY in object mode (can cause side effects). Don't forget to apply the subsurf modifier before joining the hubcab and the wheel.
Resulting jeep tire:
[edit] Optional
Change the materials to make it look like a tire. One object can have multiple colors/textures. Refer to the materials section for an explanation on how to do that, or to the Blender manual: Multiple Materials
