Bicycle Wheel Modeling Tutorial in Blender 2.91

hi welcome to my channel and today i'm going to show you how to model a bicycle wheel using blender 2.9 so this is a update to a previous video that i've done in 2018 so due to popular requests i'm now going to redo this tutorial in blender 2.9 so let's get started okay first which we start a new scene and i'm going to get rid of the original cube and we're going to create a cylinder okay press shift a and then create a cylinder and under the add cylinder properties you want to reduce the number of sides to 8 because the eventual spoke is going to be very small anyway so we are not going to need so many details so with the cylinder created you want to go to edit mode so select the cylinder press tab to go to edit mode and then we want to extrude to form the the revert head so press number three on your top number keyboard rows to select the phase selection mode or you can choose any of these buttons one is vertices two is edge and three is face so go and click on the top face and press e to extrude right so once you've extruded you can extrude uh you can see that the size of faces a new size of faces are now created so now we want to select this ring of faces or the face loop and extrude out the form the rivet head so holding down to the alt key and left mouse click you can now select the face loop now if you select the wrong edge you will go down this way instead so make sure you're at the correct edge location when you place your cursor okay right about here then alt left mouse click to select the face loop next you want to extrude outwards to form the rivet head now you can use the extrude option here but i prefer to use alt e and then extrude along normal extrude faces along normals so as i move my cursor upwards you can now see the rivet head is now being formed next you want to also form the uh the bottom of the spoke the main spoke body so i'm going to select the bottom face then i'm just going to press g followed by z just to extend the length a little bit longer now i'm going to change my view to the front view i'm going to press the tilde key which is the wavy button next to the your top number row in your keyboard so click press press it and then you will have this pi menu then i can choose the front view all right like so and then while the face is still being selected again just press g followed by z and then if you hold down the control you can actually snap it along the grid the grid uh grid slots here so i'm going to just maybe extrude right about here i think that's good enough for me and next i want to position the cursor at the corner here so that i can extrude out the bend of the spoke so holding down to your shift key right mouse click on the corner here to position the cursor here then press shift s to bring up the snap menu and choose the option cursor to grid this will position it more precisely at the crosshairs here next we want to extrude out the bend so you can use the spin tool okay i find the spin tool is a bit tricky to use i prefer to use this method alt e and then choose spin instead and then we're gonna have it extrude out 90 degrees but instead of extruding this way i'm going to extrude it negative 90 degrees so we can click on the numbers here and type minus 90 degrees and we don't really need so many segments here because after all this is a very small object uh we are going to reduce it down to maybe four segments so we have a nice band like that so with the faces still selected you can press uh e to extrude and then you can extrude the rest of the spoke so it can extrude it again then when you release right you will have to press g followed by x to continue to move the selected face outwards so now we have a single spoke created okay we can set it aside and then bring in our image reference so remember this is uh one spoke for the top lacing all right so the wheel that we're going to be creating will be a 32 spoke wheel so first we need to create another spoke so that it is actually pointing downwards instead so right now i noticed that the uh i need a little bit more of the the body for the spoke so i'm going to go to edit mode then press one and right now i'm in shaded mode okay so i want to go into x-ray mode so that i can select the vertices behind so press alt z to go to x-ray mode then you can drag and select these vertices and then press g followed by z and then just going to increase the height a little bit you can hold down the control again to snap it to the grid right and i think this book looks about right i'm going to rename this book i'm going to call it spoke in the outliner just double click on the cylinder name and then type spoke underscore 0 2. sorry 0 1 okay and then we have a single spoke created next we want to duplicate another spoke uh so that this spoke right will form the underside of the uh the tires okay so now before we do that um we're just gonna focus on this spoke first so g followed by x i'm gonna move it aside all right and then i'm gonna reset the position on my cursor so press shift c so bring it back to the original location and i'm going to use my number pad uh on my keyboard to change the view okay press 7 in my number pad and then now on i want to bring in the image reference so press shift a create an empty with an image okay and then for the empty image the size i'm going to increase it to maybe uh 100 units and then i'm going to bring in the image by clicking here open and then i'm going to go to the folder containing my image reference so i found this image reference on the internet and it is it's not very sharp but i think it is it provides enough detail for me to create the uh the the bicycle spoke lacing so now you notice that it is not precisely lined up with the center so i need to adjust the offset you can zoom in closer and then adjust the offset you can hold down to the shift key to adjust until you get a fine adjustment to the center and right now the image is uh very opaque you want to turn on transparency and bring down the opacity a little bit and notice one the spokes are not really lined up with the with our grid grid system so with the empty selected you press r to rotate until the spokes okay you can see two of the spokes here now line up okay with the uh image reference okay so once that is done we can move this image reference down all right i'm going to go to the side view or front view i'm going to press g followed by z to bring the image reference down and then that's where i'm going to lock the image reference i'm going to click on this filter but button here and then turn on selection option and then disable the selection so i will not accidentally select and move the reference so now go to the top view again i'm going to press 7 in my number pad i'm going to select my cylinder press g followed by x since i'm moving it along the x axis and then i'm going to scale it down just press s to scale it down until it is about the size of the reference here okay and then position it roughly around the position of the reference okay so with that done the next thing i want to do is to create a all right create an empty so that i can create uh duplicates of this around here so i want to create another tab empty shift a i'm going to create a empty just a plain axis empty will do and let's see how big this empty is okay to help me see both the orthographic view and the perspective view i'm going to split my view into two right mouse click just move your cursor here right mouse click and vertical split so this view here i'm just going to reposition it so i can see my empty here and then my uh bicycle spoke over here i'm going to press alt z so that i can turn off the x-ray so i can see a little bit clearer so i'm gonna apply the array modifier onto my spoke so go over and apply an array modifier and we're gonna create eight spokes okay and i'm gonna use reduce the factor to zero relative offset and then i'm gonna use a object offset and in this case i'm gonna use my second empty just click here on the md box and choose the second empty as my reference okay notice something when i uh choose the empty suddenly the size of the spoke jumps up the reason is because we need to do another step to prevent this from happening so let me just temporarily disable object offset you need to apply uh the scale okay we need to apply the scale of the spoke so that the pivot point also jumps to the origin so with the spoke selected uh applying the scale is also similar to maya of freezing the scale so press ctrl a to apply and then i want to choose all transforms so right now everything has been reset to one and also um the pivot point has been shifted to the center so now with the object selected i'm going to turn on my object offset again and this time you should see nothing happening could be all the eight all the eight copies should be stacked on top of this uh original piece here next you want to select the empty and then you want to rotate now watch what happens when i rotate the mt in the z axis so if i in this case right now i'm looking at the top axis down which is a z axis if i press r and rotate i'm actually rotating at the z axis so you can see the spokes are being created as i rotate so when i rotate i want to rotate about 45 degrees because that will evenly distribute all the eight spokes around the circle like that so now i have created the spokes that are looking uh what they call it they are pointing upwards okay next i want to extend the spokes a little bit so that it follows the length of the bicycle wheel so go ahead and select the original spoke and then go to edit mode by pressing tab then select the n vertices then just press g followed by x then bring it all the way until it touches the rim okay because at the end of the room you'll notice that there is a bolt in order to tighten the spoke so i'm going to create that bolt onto the spoke so i'm going to insert an edge loop ctrl r insert an edge loop and slide it down until it sticks out slightly like so okay maybe you can see it better in 3d view like that then i'm going to select the faces that runs around here right now i'm in vertex mode so press 3 to go to face selection mode hold down to your alt key and then left mouse click to select the loop around the faces then i'm going to press alt e and then extrude faces along normals to just create that bolt over there okay so now i've we created our first set of uh of spokes now we want to create the other set of spokes that is in reverse okay so how do we do that very simple just go to the front view and we are going to select the spoke and the empty both at the same time then we're going to press shift d to duplicate right when you press shift d and you move your cursor you'll follow the cursor now we want this to snap back so you just right mouse click so the duplicate now snaps back and you notice on the outliner we have two sets of duplicates now then or rather we have the extra set of spokes now next thing you want to do is you want to rotate so press r and then press 180 degrees in your front view all right so now we have another set of spokes that is rotated 180 degrees now we want to go back to our top view and with everything still selected we want to rotate it so that they offset or rotate about let's see how many degrees here uh maybe about 20 20 degrees okay rotate 20 degrees so that they're about they are distributed evenly but actually not now that look at it is still a little bit off i think maybe add a couple more degrees 22 degrees okay you can eyeball this okay so now our spokes are kind of evenly distributed but you know notice that the lacing pattern is still not matching okay so that's where we are going to do some changes to the original spoke so you can take the original spoke set then go and grab the vertices go in edit mode okay press tab then go and grab the vertices at the end go to press one and select the vertices at the end and then you can start to move the vertices until it matches the lacing pattern but if you do that okay let's see what happens you're gonna distort the shape of your spoke so a better alternative would actually be to rotate the entire spoke but if i were to rotate the entire spoke what happens if i press a and rotate it gets distorted in this weird manner so there's a trick around that we want to shift the cursor here and we want to use the cursor as the rotation pivot point so i'm going to go to face selection mode and select the top face here press shift s cursor to selection and then we're going to enable rotate along the 3d cursor over here and then this time we can select all the spokes and then we can rotate and now it will rotate nicely according to the lacing pattern so i'm going to follow the reference of what i see over here and then the next wheel on the next book i'm going to do the same i'm going to select the next book next book set and then i'm going to change the position of my cursor point for this i need to go to the bottom here i go to edit point edit mode then face selection mode okay i need to go to the original where's the original spoke which is this one yeah so select the original face which is the bottom face here then shift s cursor to selected then go back to my top view again okay and then select all the all the faces okay and then you start to rotate to form the lacing okay for this lacing we can go the other way maybe this one like so okay so you can see it's now lined up with the reference okay so now we have one set of uh one side of the bicycle laced up so now what we need to do is just to duplicate and then uh flip it around so the the the key here is for the lacing to work you have to evenly distribute one side first like this so let's go and check and double confirm that we did it correctly first i need to select the other set here just rotate make sure that they're correct and then the other set okay this one is correct already so now uh i think the the lacing for this these two is is done properly next we want to select the ends of the uh of the spokes and then move it down so drag a box and select the faces at the end of the spoke and then you just press g followed by z and then move it down okay for this method you'll notice that the the spot will be slightly distorted so you need to change your view like to the side view and then manually rotate this i need to go change the global this is correct and then just manually rotate it until it is lined up with the spoke like that now we do it to the other spoke select the other spoke select all the faces at the end press g followed by z until they form the same angle and the same thing we just want to rotate it until they roughly form the same angle like so okay so now if i go to perspective view now we have one set of the spokes created for one side right so you can see now we have one set of the spokes created next we want to select all these duplicates select these two sets of spokes duplicate them and then flip them to the other side so very simple just go to the side view it makes it to make selection a little bit easier i'm going to hide my camera and my light for now so i will not accidentally select them so make sure you're in object mode and then just drag and select both these sets then press shift d then press z to bring them downwards then press r press 180 degrees press g followed by z and then bring it down until you have the tips right all line up with the spokes now go over to the top view by pressing seven and then press r to rotate until they are evenly spaced again using the reference you can use the reference to try to line it up okay and then now with both of the two spokes created you can temporarily hide your uh hide your reference and then you can see the lacing looks pretty good all right all the spokes are lined up pretty alright okay so maybe the spokes needs to be a bit adjusted a little bit okay you gotta go individually you wanna make sure that these uh actually look pretty okay all right they are quite perpendicular to the rim of the tires so i'm gonna leave it at that all right so the next thing is you want to create the hub okay so how do you go about doing that so the hub is just essentially a cylinder so i'm going to create a cylinder shift a and go ahead and create make sure in object mode okay shift c press shift c to bring the cursor back to the center shift a to create a cylinder this time we want a 32 side cylinder and then we're going to increase the radius until it covers uh all the vertices or rather all the spokes and then i'm gonna move this cylinder this flat cylinder downwards slightly okay i'm going to scale it down s followed by shift z okay maybe i just want to create the center hub first then um i'm going to split this cylinder in edit mode ctrl r insert the h loop to split into half so in edit mode i'm going to select the center face and then i'm going to press g followed by z to bring it up first right about here if i go to the front view you can see that now it is lined up to the top part of the vertice uh the rivets river head of the spokes okay and then i'm going to press ctrl r and then insert one more edge loop just if you look closely just below the bottom part of the rivet head so now i have these row of faces that i can extrude out to form the hub okay so go into phase selection mode and then select this edge group press alt e extrude faces along normals and then just extrude outwards until we overlap the wheels like that okay so i can reduce the thickness a little bit more um so i'm going to select this face i'm going to show you a trick how to increase selection control number pad plus number pad plus number pad plus okay so what i'm doing is i'm selecting okay i'm gonna show you one more time select the central face control number pad plus plus plus control number play plus a few times so only these faces are selected because i want to scale them down in the z-axis like so because you can see some of the spokes are cutting into this okay it can cut a little bit but not not so much and i think i can move gz move these groove faces down a little bit more and then we have this piece done for this section here now i'm going to select the central face extrude it out uh scale it up a little bit s to scale it up then press e to extrude inward slightly then press s to scale it in just to create this heart pattern here okay so i'm going to duplicate the uh the other side so i'm going to use my mirror tool so to mirror this i'm going to apply a mirror modifier now before i do that i'm going to get rid of these bottom faces so select the bottom face control number pad plus then press x delete away the faces and then i'm going to apply a mirror but i'm going to mirror along the um the z-axis all right so now i have the other set created okay notice that it's not long enough so that's not a problem we have to just uh extend okay apply the mirror first apply the mirror in object mode okay and then go to edit mode then go to alt z to go to the x-ray mode then go to vertex mode and select all the vertices here go to the side view press g followed by z and then just bring it down until you line up with the bottom side here okay so now we have that hub done we want to create the rim of the tires so there are many ways you can do that but the fastest and easiest way it would be to create a donut or torus so now i want to center the pivot of this object first so right mouse click go to set origin original geometry now the pivot point is here then shift s cursor to selected so now the cursor is here so whatever i create uh you'll be based on the cursor location all right so shift a go ahead and create a torus and then we're going to increase the number of segments okay 48 is fine but i'm going to increase the radius make it a little bit bigger and then the size the minor radius and just make it a little bit bigger until you get the uh the shape of the tire okay and then maybe adjust the radius a little bit some more i'm going to go to the top view and then adjust the major radius until it just sticks out from the wheel like that okay so you can see from this we can create the rim okay so i'm going to call this the rim this is not the tire this will be the rim tire rim and then i'm going to go to edit mode and i'm going to delete away the faces starting from go to face selection mode and then i'm just going to use the uh i'm going to use the edge selection tool go to 2 to go to edge section 2 alt a to deselect i'm going to select the central edge of this torus then i'm going to use the increase selection tool control number pad plus gradually increase until i get roughly to where i think the rim is going to be all right and then i'm going to apply a a scale okay i'm just gonna scale this up a little bit i'm gonna kill two birds with one stone i'm gonna create both the tie and rim at the same time so i'm gonna scale it along the z axis just now before i do that i need to separate that separate this pieces so to separate them you just press p and then you can say uh separate by selection so right now i have the rim created separated from the torus then i'm going to press s followed by z to scale it up ever so slightly okay and then with uh with this separated now i can right mouse click and then i can shade it smooth and also i can apply a solidify modifier so when you apply a solidify you sort of give it a thickness you can see the thickness right about there now so you can adjust the thickness if you want you can make it thicker or not so thick and just to give it rough rough thickness like that and as for the tire okay i will rename this i'm going to call this the tire now and then i'll call this tire rim also going to shake this smooth and i'm going to sort of like inflate the tire a little bit so it uh it covers the gap of this rim so go to edit mode i'm going to select the inner edges by pressing alt left mouse click and then bottom one as well alt shift and left mouse click if you go to wireframe mode you can see a little bit clearly you want to select the rims of this tire like so so i'm just going to scale them inwards so that it goes inside the tire and then i'm going to shift ctrl i to go to uh invert select okay let me just undo that a bit because i do not want to select the edges like that let me undo that i want to change it to uh face selection no let's go back to edge again okay if you mess up you can press ctrl z then on second thought i think uh yeah i think i will or press if you press ctrl i you're inverse selecting the edges so i inverse select the reason is because i want to sort like scale this outwards a little bit in the z axis so i'm going to scale it uniformly a little bit first okay but it's actually pulling along the edge which is not what i want okay so actually i wanted to select these faces here not not this one over here so i'm going to use another method i'm going to select uh the ring loop around here then press ctrl number pad plus ctrl number pad plus yeah this is the group that i want to select so i wanted to scale them up ever so slightly then scale them along the z axis so that i can inflate the tire ever so slightly so now if i go to shaded mode you can see now that my my tires right have covered up the rims okay so your tire is more or less done so you can now apply some shading to it i'm gonna go and create some metallic look to it okay so let's give it some metallic shine and then maybe i'll apply a soft brown material to it okay let's go to shading and see what it looks like okay the quickest way right uh would be if you enable a material library and then you can pick materials and then you can apply it straight away here so right now i'm just going to create some metallic materials and then reduce the roughness just a preview of what it will look like okay so for the rest of these objects i will apply the same material that i've created as well for the spokes okay right now you'll notice that if i want to apply the material i have to do it one by one okay which is kind of uh troublesome so there is actually a plug-in in blender you can enable the add-on all right so if you go to add-ons and you type material there's this thing called the material utilities you can also turn on material library which you can actually bring in a pre-loaded set of materials so with the utilities done you can shift select multiple objects then you can right mouse click material utilities assigned by material and then just apply the material okay okay then there's a another cool add-on which you can download and install for free i might as well show you guys now which is the uh tbr materials uh did i install this one okay no so i did not install it here so let me just install it uh let me just go to look for my plugins there is a pbr master which you can download okay bbr materials master or pvr materials i'll install this add-on and enable it okay just google for this this is a free add-on you can download and install and you give you a lot of metallic pbr materials and a non-metallic material so i think this is a much better option for me if i want to apply uh metallic materials or non-metallic materials so i'm going to go to metal and i'm going to choose a nice shiny material like aluminum okay so now every everything is nice and shiny and then for the tire here i'm gonna use a dielectric and then maybe use a carbon or rubber okay they have rubber setting so there you go so you you have a nice looking tire uh created using blender 2.9 so i hope this uh video tutorial is helpful okay so if i'm going a bit fast okay you can just slow down or rewind and then watch how i do everything again now if your object looks a bit like faceted you can just right mouse click and then apply a shade smooth which is what i'm going to do right now i'm going to apply a shade smooth to all the objects so including this rim here so if you apply a shade smooth and it starts to look like this you can go over to the object properties under normals and then turn it uh turn on the auto smooth so you'll fix some of the problems here now you can also adjust the angle so that you only apply uh the smooth right to the really really curved areas so you get this detail to pop out okay so this is basically the uh bicycle tire tutorial let me just save this file first i'll call this higher tutorial and then i can show you what you can do with this with what you can do so this is a bicycle model that i'm working on okay still work in progress so the tires you can see uh created using this method so i hope this tutorial is helpful to everyone and if you like it give it a thumbs up and if you like my channel just subscribe and then i'll come up with more video tutorials and thank you for watching

Channel: weeliano

Views: 2,149

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Id: xB-hlZVl1dk

Length: 34min 53sec (2093 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 01 2021