Hey this is Chris Plush from CGmasters.net, and this is a free chapter from my upcoming course on mastering car
creation in blender. We'll be creating a Corvette Stingray from start to finish,
and you can check out more info on that at the link in the description. In this
chapter we'll be modeling the tire for the Corvette. So grab the starting blend
file in the description. It contains the blueprints you'll need already loaded in,
plus the Corvette's rim to put the tire on. So when you open up the blend file, one
thing you'll need to do, is go to the editing tab in the user preferences and
switch the option to align to view instead of world. This aligns any object
we add in to the view that we're in. And this is definitely helpful for following
along with this tutorial. Alright so without further ado, let's get
this chapter rolling. In this chapter we're gonna work on the tires. So let me
press the N key for the right side toolbar. And the first thing we'll do is
load in a reference image for the treads. So let me press numpad 1 for front view, and
then numpad 5 foot for orthographic view. And let's go down to our background
images, and I'll re enable them, and let me minimize every one, and then I'll click
on add image, and then click on open. Let's go to our references folder and
we'll load in, where's it at, tire treads. So here's what we'll be tracing to get
the shape of the treads going. But I'm gonna shrink this down, and kind of move
it into place the best I can, compare it to the blueprints in the
background. So let me go down to the size option here, I'll just turn that down
really far, and I'll zoom in. And let me play with the X-Value, I'll get it to the
right side of the tire. Well actually, you know what? We should do this in side view,
because I can't tell where the top of the tire is here. So let me press
numpad 3 for side view. And where's it at? All right let's match it up to the
back tire first. So let's just play with the X-Value, get it right in the middle,
hold Shift if you need to for smaller movements, and I'll move it up on the
Y-Axis as well. And let's see if that matches up. So looks like we need to make it a
little bit bigger. Let's go with a size of 0.72, 0.72 actually looks pretty good,
maybe a touch bigger, 0.725. And let's turn the Y value down to 0.3, is that
gonna center it, yep that looks good. So I'm going with a Y-Value of 0.3,
and a size value of 0.725, it should work exactly the same in your
blender as well. So let me press numpad 1 for front view now. And I think it's
in a good position right here, I don't want to work on top of the rim over
there. So we'll just work over here on the side. Then once we draw the treads and
get things moving like that, we can move things onto the rim. So let me pres N
to get rid of right side toolbar, and I'll left-click around the center of the
tire right there to place the cursor, now let's press Shift + A, and add in a mesh
plane, and start tracing things. So let me Tab into edit mode, with all the vertices
selected I'll press X, and I'll choose edge collapse, so we're left with just
one vertex. And let me make sure that's the center of the tire, yeah. I just want to
make sure our shape that we draw is as least skewed as possible. So let's start
over here, I'll place the cursor at the corner of the round pocket there, and
I'll press E to extrude it, and then again I'll extrude it down, and extrude over
to that corner. So 2 for the corners, and then 2 for the middle of the
pocket, and I'll just center that. Now let me select both of these vertices, and I'll press
E to extrude it to the right a little bit like that, and E again, we'll extrude
it down here, and I'll press E and extrude it all the way down here. Now let's do
something about the curvature right here. Let me select these 2 vertices, I'll press G,
I'll move them down and to the left like that. I could have added extra vertices,
but I'm trying to use as few vertices as possible. Since there's so many treads,
there's so much detail, we're gonna end up with a lot of geometry no matter what
we do. So I'm just trying to limit that as much as possible by being very
efficient with my use of vertices right here. So let me select these 2 vertices
now, and I'll make them align with each other vertically. So I'll press S, and
then X, hold Ctrl, and scale to zero, so they'll form a perfectly straight line
going up and down, and now I'll press E to extrude them, and then immediately press
S and scale them away from each other, to the middle of those treads right there,
to meet up with those lines. Now it's important that we scale them away from
each other proportionately like that. Because in the end, when we make one set
of treads, we'll be duplicating this on top of each other, and I want to make
sure that they're going to align, *clears throat* that they're going to align with each
other perfectly. So let me delete those, and I'll select these 4 vertices now,
and I'll press Shift and D, and I'll move it over to this channel, I'll do it again
for the end of that channel, and I'll do that for each of these. All right so
that's what we got so far. Now it's important to note that the distance
between these 2 vertices is the same as those 2, and so on up the line.
That's important because if we have a mismatch like that, and I select all the
vertices, and I duplicate these treads to create copies of them to wrap around the
tire, you can see that all the other vertices align with each other perfectly,
but we have a gap right there. So it's important to really pay attention to how
you're aligning your vertices as you're creating this one slice of tread. And
that's our plan too. We're gonna create one slice of tread right here, and then we're
gonna use the array modifier to create a duplicate, and then we're gonna wrap it
around in a circle to actually form the tire. So let me undo the change I made
down there. And we're good to go though, because we just duplicated these
vertices all the way across, so we know they all have the same height basically.
So now let's continue drawing the tread shapes.
So this tread right here actually gets smaller as it goes down to the point
right there. So let me select that, I'll press G, and then Z, and move down a little
bit, and that's probably in a good spot, and we'll move this down as well, and I'll
move that, this one, up a little bit. Now let me select those 2 vertices and
press F, and I'll select those 2 and press F. Alright let me move this one
down on the Z-Axis, and that one up a little bit, and I'll take these 2
vertices, press E, and extrude it up to about the center, and then extrude it all the
way up to there, now I'll take those 2, press E, and extrude it up to the top,
then press S to scale it down, then press F. Let's move them up a little bit. And
how we looking? Alright that's looking pretty good so far. Let me take these
4 vertices right there, press Shift and D, and duplicate them, and I'll move them
over to this pocket here, then just rotate them, and scale them into place. And let me move that vertex down a little
bit on the Z-Axis, and this one up, then I'll select those 2 vertices and press
F, and then those 2, press F. How's that looking? That's looking good. All right we
just got to do this over here, but we can actually just duplicate what we made
over here. So let me select all those vertices, I'll press Shift and D, and move
it over there, and press R to rotate, and we'll get that in place. Now I can't tell
if it's actually smaller over there, or if its perspective. I don't think it's
smaller. No, I think we're good. Let me rotate that into place like that, and let's get
these vertices into place over here, Then I'll select those 2 and press F, and
then those 2 and press F. All right still looking a little strange over here. Let me move those vertices down, and I'll move these up a little bit.
All right that's looking good. Now let's face up the areas surrounding the shapes.
So let me select the top vertex there and the bottom one. It's important that we
extrude these down, in order to make sure that everything remains aligned with
each other later on, when we duplicate the trends. So I'll press E, and I'll
extrude it down to right there, to line up with these vertices, I'll extrude it
again down to there, and then one more time over there. Now let me select those
2 vertices, and press F down the line, then I'll select those 2, and do the
same thing. Now we need some more vertices over here. So I'll select the
top and bottom vertex again, press E, and extrude it to the left, and drop it there.
Now I can create a face there, and a face there. Then I'll select the 4 end
vertices, press E, and then Y, or X I should say, and I'll drop it there. Then
I'll press S, and then X, hold Ctrl, and scale it to zero so it's nice and flat.
And let's flatten out some of these edges as well, like this one. I'll select
those 2 vertices, press G twice and slide it to the right. It's important
that you move them both together. Because again, for alignment purposes, if one of
them was off-center like that, and we duplicate the tread and move it down, you can
see it's off-center down there, and they're not gonna connect. So let me undo
that, and I'll leave those vertices as is, and everything else is good to go. Now
let's move down here, and I'll take these 2 vertices and press F, and those 2
as well. And right here we'll do the same thing we did down on the left side.
I'll take these 2 vertices, press E to extrude it for the middle vertices, and
then up again, and up one more time. Now I'll select those 2 vertices, press F all
the way up to there, and the same thing down here. It gets a little bit weird
right there, but we'll fix that later. Actually, let's do it now. Let's select
that vertex, press G twice and slide it down, just to separate them a little bit, and
I'll take that, and move it down a little bit, to kind of reestablish that round
shape, and it looks a little bit better. So let me select all 4 of these
vertices now, I'll press E and extrude it up and to the right, to the edge of the
tread right there, then I'll press S, and then X, hold Ctrl, and scale it to zero.
Let's move that into place a little bit better. And now let's go on over here, and
I'll select those 2 vertices, press E, and extrude them down to right there, and
then one more time. And yeah, let's take these 2 vertices now and press F twice,
and those 2. And now we'll take these 4 vertices, and do the same thing we
did on the other one, we'll just extrude it to the edge of the tread, I'll press S,
and then X, hold Ctrl, and scale it to zero, and make sure that's right up against
the edge of the tread like that. Alright and up here, we actually did that
on the other side already. So here's what I'll do, I'll take all these vertices,
press Shift and D, move them over here, then I'll press R, and hold Ctrl, and just
rotate it like that. We're basically just gonna replace the vertices we already
added in there. So let me press H to hide them, I'll select those vertices, press X,
and erase them, then press Alt + H to bring this back, and I'll select these
4 vertices and press F, and then those 4 and press F. All right, how we
looking? Now because this is gonna be wrapping around in a circle, I want to
make sure that the edges going vertical have all the vertices spaced out. For
example, these 2 here are too close together. If we wrap that around to the
circle, the inconsistency in the spacing is just gonna create some flat spots, or
some ridges. So what we'll do is just take those 2 vertices, and press S, and
scale them up until everything there is, is pretty much spaced out evenly. And
we'll do the same thing right here. Let me just move that down and I'll move that up.
And there, I'll space them apart, make sure they're centered, and right
here on the end too. Alright so they're spaced out evenly, so they should wrap
around pretty nicely around in a circle. Now what we're gonna do is face up the
inside of these treads, and then we're gonna inset the faces to start forming
the bevel we see around the rim of the treads. So let me select those 2
vertices, then I'll press F all the way down to there, then I'll select these
4 and press F, and then I'll hold Alt, right click on that edge loop, then hold
Alt and Shift, right click on that one, and then press W and choose bridge edge
loops. Now I'll do this for each tread down the line. Now once we're finished with that, what
we're going to do is select all the faces on the inside of the treads, and
then we'll inset them. So let me switch over to face select mode. And I'll just
go through and select all the faces in the middle of the treads. Once you have all them selected, let's
zoom into one of the treads, and then I'll press the I key to inset the faces,
and we'll match it up with the bevel we see in the reference photo. Let me just make sure everything looks good down the line, and that looks fine. Let's press the T key, and let's
make sure that we disable boundary, so that it doesn't inset the faces at the
top and the bottom. All right, now let me rotate the view, and I'm gonna push these
back on the Y-Axis to actually form the bevel. Now you can figure out how deep
the tire treads are by going to any tire site, it'll tell you the depth of the
treads, it's usually in 32nds. And these particular tires I think were 9/32nds which was about .008 meters, something along
those lines. So that's what we're gonna go with. So let me push these in a
little bit, and then I'll extrude it in the rest of the way. So I'll press G, and
then Y, and I'll hold Shift for small movements, and I'll move that in .001, now I'll press E, and then Y, and extrude it all the way back, and
I'll hold Shift, and push that back to .007, so that'll be a
total of .008. And we have faces on the ends there now. So
let me select those, and I'll erase them. So let's press X and erase the faces. Now
press A to select everything, and press Ctrl + N to recalculate the normals, and
let me Tab out, and check it out, it's looking pretty good, let me tab back in
and let me switch back to vertex select mode. And what are we gonna do now? Now I want to add a subsurf modifier, but I don't want to add extra container loops
everywhere, so I'm gonna use a bevel modifier for that. Let me get out of full
screen, and let's start off with the bevel modifier. And I'll change the limit
method to weight, we're gonna need to specify which angles, or yeah which edges,
we want to be beveled. And let me switch over to edge select mode in the header
there. And let's see what we're gonna do. So let's just go ahead and select all of
the edges that we want to be beveled. So I'll hold Alt and Shift, and I'll
right-click on all of these edges, including the ones on the bottom and
around the top. And let's get these corner ones there as
well. Once we have all of those selected, I'll
press the N key for the right side toolbar, scroll up to the top, and under
edges, edges data, I'll increase the mean bevel weight to 1. And let me increase
the bevel segments to 2, and I think I'll decrease the bevel width. So let me zoom
in on one of the corners, now let's turn bevel with down to 0 to just start over,
then I'll hold Shift for small movements, click on it, and drag it to the right a
little bit like that, so I think I'll drop that around, let's go with .0004. And let me press T, and I'll choose smooth shading for everything, and see
how it looks. So I think it might still be a little bit too soft, so I'll go with
0.0003. All right let's just double check everything, make
sure it looks good, make sure we didn't miss any edges. And all right, so far so
good. Now let's toss in a subsurface modifier,
and see how things look. So I'll add in subsurf, and I'll crank that up to level
2, just to preview it. Looks like we got a problem at the corners down there. So
here's what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna select that edge, and that one, now let's
increase the mean bevel weight of that to 1, so it bevels there, and that'll
actually fix those corners. However, it does give us some tighter geometry there,
which might lead to some noticeable creases once we actually bend this
around. But let's just do that for all the edges first, and then we'll figure
out what to do. So let me select all the edges around those issues, and I'll
increase the mean bevel weight to one, and that'll fix all those corners. Let me
go into front view. Now let me take a look at the treads here, you can see that
they actually looked like they might be a little rounded on the inside. In fact,
right here, we actually see a hint of a hard edge right there, before it goes
into that channel. So here's what we're gonna do. Let me Tab back in and let me full
screen this. I'm gonna press Ctrl R to add a vertical loop cut in between each
one of the channels. So I'll left click there, and then right click, and I'll add a
loop cut there as well, there, and there. Now I'm going to select all of those,
I'll rotate the view a little bit, and I'll press G, and then Y, and move it down to
kind of form that rounded inner pocket. So you can see we have some hard edges
there, but it looks intentional now. No one's gonna know that we were just kind
of hiding congested geometry. And it actually looks pretty cool, extra little
detail like that. Alright so that takes care of that, and things are looking
pretty good. Now let me zoom out and we'll center this over the rim. So I'll
just press G, and then X, and move it over there. And get that centered with the rim
so that an equal amount is sticking out on both sides. Let me press numpad 3 for
side view, I'll Tab into edit mode, and I'll select all the vertices, then press G, and
then Y, and move it all the way over here, to the edge of the treads. Now let me
switch back to vertex select mode, and we can get rid of the reference image for
now I think. So let me scroll down to the bottom here, and turn off visibility for
the tire treads, and I'll minimize that. Let me Tab out of edit mode, and what I
want to do now is create the general shape of the tire in order to use that
as a guide to bend the treads around. So let me select the rim, press Shift + S,
and choose cursor to selected, to place the cursor in the middle of it, and then
I'll press Shift + A for from view, and add in a mesh circle, then I'll press
T, and let's go with 32 vertices for that, I'll Tab into edit mode, and press S to
scale it down, and let's press G, and move that into place down here. Now I'm gonna
take the widest point here, and try and fit it within the rims of the rim I
guess you could say. So I'll press S to scale it up, and get that right in the
center, as best as you can, I'll press G, and Z, and move it up to
right there, right at that platform right there. And alright, that's a good start.
Now let me press Shift + Space to get out of fullscreen. And let me pull over our
reference image over here, let me click on open, and I'll open up one of the back
perspectives maybe. I just need a good clear shot of what these tires look like.
So right there from inside the rim, you can see it juts out at an angle, sharp
angle, and then it goes up while curving in slightly, and then we have a soft
curve right there, and then it's it's a real gentle curve at the top. I don't
think it's flat. So alright, let's do our best
to try and match that. Let me slide this over and leave a hint to that visible,
and it's get started. So first I'll delete the top half here. So I'll select
all those vertices, press X and erase them, and let me select these 2, I'll
press E, and then Z, and extrude that up a little bit, then I'll select those 2
right below it, press G, and then Z, and move it down right to the edge of the
rim there. This is where it's gonna start, this is where it's gonna start fanning
outward. So let me select these 2 vertices. And how far away does that go
up? Let me press G and Z, and move it about that far away from the rim, and I'll
press S, and scale it up, we'll see how that looks. And how far away from the rim
is that? It's definitely not level with the rim, it's definitely sticking out a
little bit. So I think right about there should do. Maybe a little bit more mellow.
Now let me select, let me select all these vertices, I'll press S, and then Z,
squash it down until it's almost flat, but leave a very gentle curve like that,
and press G, and Z, move it up onto the red line, which is going to be our ground.
And now we just need to add some extra vertices over here, and kind of give it a
gentle slope, and then make it rounder on the corner here. Let me actually delete the
left half now. So where's the center? This one right there. So I'll select all the
vertices to the left of that, press X, and erase those vertices. Let's add some
vertices over here and start shaping this better. So I'll press Ctrl + R
through there, I'll scroll up until I have, let's go with 4 cuts, then left
click. Let me just take these vertices, and I'll round off the edge over here,
and then I'll straighten out the line right here. In order to make this
straighter let me select those 2, press X, and I'll dissolve them. We didn't need
that many. So let me straighten this out a little bit more, that's just more of a
gentle slope upward. So that's looking pretty good I think.
Let me just soften out, or soften up the curve down here. In fact, let me take all
these vertices, press S, and then Z, scale it down a little bit. I think that was a
little bit too curvy. Now I'll press G and Z, and move that down over the red line
again. All right let me soften that up more now. And I think that looks good. So
let's add in a subsurf modifier now and see how things are.
So I'll add in subsurf, and I'll crank that up to level 2. Nnd now we need to
add some extra edge loops in, or some extra vertices in I should say, and
sharpen up the details. So let me start up here, I press Ctrl + R right in there, and
left-click, and press G twice, and sharpen up that corner up there.
Add another one in, and we'll sharpen up this corner, and we'll add one on both
sides of that, so it's a nice sharp point like in the reference. All right how's
that looking compared to the reference photo? It's kind of hard to tell, but I
think we're on the right track. Let me just move that out a little bit more. And I'll
soften this up. I think that looks pretty decent. We can always change this later
as well. Let me just, the curvature is going a little bit too far up here, I
want this to be a little bit flatter, I think. So let me press Ctrl + R through there,
left click, and I'll press G twice, and slide it up just a little bit. Just to
flatten this area, area out a tiny bit more. Alright I think that looks decent,
so let's flip that over to the other side now. Let me select the middle vertex.
Actually, let me press A twice to select everything, then hold Shift, deselect the
middle, and reselect it, and we'll change the pivot point to active element. And
then we'll mirror this to the other side. So I'll press Shift and D, then press S,
and then press X, hold Ctrl, and scale to negative one. Now I can select the middle
2 vertices, press W, and merge them at the center. Or actually, I could have just
chosen remove doubles. All right so how's that looking for the tire shape? I
think that's pretty good. Now before we've been the treads around
this shape, let's make sure that this actually looks like a good tire. So let
me Tab in, I'll press A twice to select everything, and then numpad 3 for side
view. Let's spin this around the cursor, which should still be in the middle of
the rim. If it's not, you can select the rim, press Shift + S, and choose cursor to
selected. And with all these vertices selected, I'll press Alt + R to spin it
around the cursor. Let me go in a shaded view. Now I'll select all the vertices and
press Ctrl + N to recalculate the normals. And let me Tab out and see what
we got. So this looks like it might be sticking out a little bit too far. No,
actually it looks pretty accurate compared to the rest of the tire, so I'm gonna
leave that as is. But this definitely needs to be smoothed out, right there on
the corner. So let me Tab back in, I'll press control + Z to
undo everything, and let's take a look at the top here, now let's try and reshape
this. So let me select those 3 vertices, and I'll press X, and dissolve
them. Now I'll just space these out and get more of a mellow curve there, like
that. And bring that down a little bit. I think that's gonna end up looking better.
By comparison to the left side there, it's definitely a lot smoother, so I
think that's gonna work out. We're gonna need to flip this to the other side when
we're actually finished. Alright let's try and spin that. So I'll select all the
vertices again, and in side view I'll press Alt + R, select all the vertices,
and press Ctrl + N, and take a look. Alright, that looks better. I'll go with
that. So let me press Ctrl + Z to undo everything,
and let me select all the vertices on the left side, and delete them, then I'll
press A to select everything, and again we'll deselect the middle one, and
reselect it, so it's the active selection, and our pivot point should still be
active element, so then I'll press Shift + D to duplicate, then press S, and then X,
hold Ctrl and scale to negative 1, let's press A twice to select everything, press
W, and choose remove doubles. Alright, let's spin that around in a circle, I
just want to see the full thing. So I'll select all the vertices, and in side view
I'll press Alt + R, and press T, and change the angle to 360 degrees, and
let's increase the number of steps really high. Let me select all the
vertices, and press Ctrl + N, I'll tab out, press T, and choose smooth shading.
Alright, that's a tire. I cannot wait to get those treads spun around that, it's
gonna look so sweet! Let me Tab back in now and press Ctrl + Z to undo all of
that. Now let me Tab out of edit mode. And what are we gonna do is increase the subsurf level, because I want to convert this to a curve with really high
resolution. But right now you can see it's kind of faceted. So what I'll do is
just increase the view levels to 5, and then I'll press Alt + C, and convert this
to a curve from mesh. That should maintain a nice
high-resolution curve there for us. And now we can actually use this for the
curved modifier, and actually have our tread bend around it. So the first thing
I'll do is make sure that our origin point is the same on our tread as it is
on the curve. So let me select the curve, press Shift + S, and choose cursor to
selected, then I'll select the tread, press T, and from the set origin menu,
choose origin to 3d cursor. Now let's enter the geometry over the cursor as
well. So I'll go to set origin, and then choose geometry to origin. It's important
that we have the geometry where the origin is, because the origin is what
follows this path around the curve. So with our geometry right there, that means
the geometry is going to perfectly follow that curve as well. Now let's go
over to the modifiers and add in a curve modifier, then click on the
eyedropper, and then click on the curve object. And you can see it's trying to
follow the path, but it's not quite oriented correctly. So let me click on
these until I find the right orientation. So it looks like for me it's a negative
X. Now we just need to center this on the curve. So to center this, I'm just gonna
eye it up. So let me press numpad one for front view, and I'll fullscreen this, let
me zoom in. Now I'll press G and then X, and move it whatever direction you need
to, to get that centered like that. Now to see if they're actually even, I'll press
the B key for a ruler, and it looks like this, the right sides a little bit lower.
So I'll move that just a touch higher, I'll press B again, and see if they line
up, and that's good to go. Now judging by the reference pictures, the channels get
more shallow toward the end there. So let's mellow that out. Let me press
forward slash from the numpad to go into local view, I'll Tab in edit mode, and
press numpad 7 for top view, let me zoom in, I'll press A to deselect everything,
and make sure limit selection to visible is turned off, so we can stay in shaded
view, I'll press B, left click and drag over those, and these as well, then I'll
press G, and then Z, and move it down. Well actually, in this case it's G and then Y.
Move it down to about right there, then I'll press B, and middle click and drag
over those vertices to deselect them, and let me zoom in down here, I'll press G,
and then Y, move that down more, and I'll deselect those, but
leave the ends selected. And the same thing on the other side. Now I'll press G,
and Y, move them down even more. And let me Tab out, and let's see how that looks.
And that looks awesome. Let me double check to make sure they shouldn't be
more shallow. So let me press N, and I'll turn visibility of the tire treads back
on. Let me zoom in and see how they look. So definitely looks like it
might be a little bit more shallow on there than on mine. So let me turn
that back off, I'll Tab back in, and let's make that a little bit more shallow. Alright that looks good. Now let me press
forward slash on the numpad to go back to global view, and I'll press numpad 1
for front view. You can see it's a little bit below the ground, and it's not quite
lying on the line we drew for it. So let me Tab into edit mode for it, I'll press
A twice to select everything, let me get out of full screen, and let me enable this
option here to see the modifier in edit mode, that way I know which way to move
it. So let me press G, and then Z. That's not going anywhere.
G and then X, nope. So it must be G and then Y. Let me press numpad 3 for side
view so I can more easily move it on the Y-Axis, and I'll zoom in, and press G, and
then Y, I'll move it like that until it's seated on the green line there. And just
double check in front view, and everything looks good,
cool. Let me Tab out, I'm going to select that, and also our curve here, and I"ll press forward
slash on the numpad to go into local view, and just get away from everything
else that's kind of obstructing my view. And now we need to create the side walls
here. So let me Tab back in. What we need to do is take the outer lying edge loops,
extrude them, and scale them away from each other so we have more geometry over
here. So let me hold Alt, and select that, hold Alt and Shift, and I'll select that,
and let me zoom in as much as I can, then I'll press E to extrude, then press S ,and
then X, to scale away from each other. Let me go down here, and let's see where
that's extruding up to. All right so we're almost where we need to be.
I'm gonna extrude that, or scale it actually, until it meets up with that point there.
So let me press S and then X, scale it away from each other,
until it hits that bend right there. And let me zoom out, I'll press E, and then S,
and then X, and scale it again, until it gets to the next bend right there. And
we'll do that one more time. Press E, S, and then X, and extrude all the way up like
that. All right. We're going to apply the modifier I think, and then edit this
manually. Because there's a couple of extra details I want to add in. But I'm
just generally getting edge loops where they need to be, to just help us with
that process later on. Let me press Shift and Space to get out a full screen. And
what I want to do is apply the curved modifier, but right now the curved
modifier is actually bending the subsurface geometry, which is why we have
such a smooth curve. Let me see what it looks like above the subsurf modifier. So
I'll click on the up arrow for that, to move it above subsurf, and now it's just
bending the base mesh vertices. But you can see, because we don't have as many
base mesh, base mesh vertices as subsurf geometry, that it's not capturing that
curve quite as well. So what we'll do is just add a couple of extra edge loops in
there, to make sure we retain that curvature when we apply the curved
modifier. So let me go up here, and I'll press Ctrl R right through there,
left click, and then right click, and I'll do it right there as well. And in order to
retain the curvature of this. What I'll do is press G, and press the up arrow a
few times, and it just restores the curve there. I'll do the same exact thing to
the other side. I'll press ctrl + R through there, and then there, and I'll
move these down. Now I'm adding it to those areas, because those are the ends,
those are by the most curved part of this. So let me Tab out and let's see how
that looks. So now it's capturing the curve much
better. Now we can actually safely apply the curved modifier and we retain the
roundness there. Now I can go over to the curved modifier and click on apply. And
now let's Tab in. And we have some restructuring to do over here, to get
that curvature back. So let's start up at the top here, I'll press ctrl + R through
there, left-click, and drag that new edge loop down to that corner to tighten it,
I'll add an edge loop here as well, drag it to that corner, and let's start
rounding things off here. So I'll press Ctrl + R through the middle, left click,
and then right click, and press G, and move it right over the line there. And we'll
add an edge loop there. And let's see. We need to tighten up this
edge right there. So let me press Ctrl + R through there, left click, and drag it
up. Alright how's that looking so far? It's looking pretty good.
Let me fullscreen this. And it looks like we might have a bit of a crease right
here, because of the geometry being more congested there. So what can we do about
that? Let me select these 2 vertices, I'll press G twice, slide it down a little
bit, just to spread things out, and I'll add an extra edge loop through here, let
me press Ctrl + R through there, left click, and then right click, and let me go into front view, I'll press G, and I'll move it over to match with the curve
there. And that should definitely help. Is that perfect? That looks perfect
enough. I can't really see any problems with it. Alright that'll do then. Alright
now we're going to create a curve circle to use for an array modifier to make sure we have enough treads to actually spin around the tire. So let me press numpad 3 for side view. And with
the tread object selected, I'll press Shift + S, and choose cursor to selected.
Now let me press Shift + Space to get out of full screen, and I'll press Shift
+ A, and add in a curve circle. Let's Tab in, and then press S to scale
it down to be the diameter of the tire. And right now you can see it's pretty
low resolution. So let me go over to our curve options over here, and I'll
increase the top preview to something pretty high, like 200. And that looks nice
and smooth to me. Now the circle is going to be where the tread surface is
wrapping around. So let's make sure that the circle is actually seated on the
tread surface. So I'm gonna zoom in down here, and I'll press S to scale this away,
or to scale it up, and meet that line up with the bottom of the tread, just like
that. All right now let's select the tread, and we'll go over to the modifiers.
Let me slide this over more. And let's, for right now we'll delete the subsurf
modifier, and let's add in an array modifier.
Let's turn the X relative offset down to zero, and the Z offset to one. So now it's
going to duplicate it for us in the right direction. But we need as many as
can fit around this curve right there. So what we'll do is change the fit type
to fit curve. And click on the eyedropper, and then click on the curve.
Now we have as many as we need to wrap around there, but as you can see they're
too spaced out. So let me zoom in. And let's decrease this offset to 0.4? No, there's
still an overlap there. Ao let me zoom in real close, and let's change this to 0.41, that's a little bit too much, 0.4096, and there we go. But you can see
they're still separated a teeny tiny bit, but we can merge them together by
enabling the merge option right there. And a merge distance of .01 might
actually be too much sometimes. You might run the risk of joining close
vertices like that together. For example, if that was a little bit
higher, they would all start merging, and you'd end up with a mess. So let's change
that to point .005 just in case. That's so plenty for what we need
for, but it's not gonna get us in any trouble. All right now we need to wrap
this around in a circle. Now there's a couple ways of doing this. We're gonna go
with using the simple deform modifier, to just bend this around. So basically we
just use this curve to, to define the array modifier, and get enough treads to
actually wrap around that curve. But now we'll use a simple deform modifier to
actually bend it in a circle. So now let's go over to the modifiers, and we'll
add in that simple deform modifier. And let's change the type to bend, but you
can see it's bending in the wrong direction, so we're going to add an empty
in to use as the axis to bend around. So make sure your cursor is centered in the
middle of this circle, and I'll press Shift an A, and add in an empty, now let's
press G, and then Z, and move that down to the bottom, and I'll zoom in real close,
and press G, and Z, move it right there where the bottom of the curve circle is.
This is the point that it's going to start bending around. And since
everything is going to the left, we want it to bend around this point here, so it
wraps perfectly around our tire. So with the tread selected now, click on the
eyedropper for the axis origin field, and then click on the empty. And you can see
it's bending around in the correct direction now. So now let's increase the
angle to 360 degrees, it wraps it almost all the way around for us. The limit to
dragging the value in that field is 360, but we can actually type something
higher. So let's type in 368, and it almost does it. Let's go with
368.5. All right, how about 368.65, that should do it. That's close enough, if
you want, you can be more precise. Let's go with 368.648 and there we go. Okay, now they actually don't merge
together. There are ways to get this to merge together without having to apply
all these modifiers. And if you're interested in a technique like that, you
can email me, and I'll go over it with you. But for this case, this is the easier
way to do it, and we need to apply these modifiers anyway in order to UV unwrap
this, so we can more easily texture the sidewall. All right let's see how that
matches up to our curve circle. So I'll go into side view, select wherever that
circle is, there it is. And you can see our treads are a little bit higher than
they should be. So what we can do is just move the empty down, so it changes the
pivot point where it bends. So I'll select the empty, press G, and then Z, move
it down until it's inside that circle. Now let's zoom in real close, I'll press
G, and then Z, and move it up right into place like that. Now I'll select the
circle, and it should fit perfectly within the circle, all the way around, and
it does. Alright cool. Now let me select the tire, and I'll
press forward slash on the numpad to go into local view, or to go back to global
view I mean. And let's check out how it fits on the rim, looks perfect. Let's
swing around the back. So I'm, I think I'll add a couple of extra edge loops
back here. Because as you can see, we don't have much detail. I wanted to save
on some faces by not adding edge loops in, but this might actually be visible if
we have low views of the car. So let me Tab in, I'll press Ctrl + R
through there to add a loop cut, left click and drag it to the top, and I'll
add one right here as well. Alright cool. Now at this point, before
applying the modifiers, I would advise saving a new blend file. Just as a backup,
you know, just in case you end up wanting to make some changes down the line. And
now with the tire selected, I'll apply the bevel modifier, apply array, and apply
the simple deform modifier. So this is one full mesh now. And let's take care of
that seam that we saw earlier on. Here it is right there. So well Tab in,
and with all the vertices selected, I'll press W, and choose remove doubles. And it
should remove 109 vertices. All right cool. And now let's add in a subsurf
modifier for this. I'll keep it on a render level of 1, and I'll turn off
visibility for the subsurf modifier in the viewport so things still are nice
and fast. And now while we're at it, you can see that it's overlapping the rim a
little bit. So I'll Tab in, hold Alt, and right-click on that edge loop there, then
just simply press G twice, and slide it into the rim like that. And it's probably
happening in the back as well, right? No, it looks like we're clear on the back. All right that's gonna do it for this
free chapter. In the course, we'll also be using a lattice to deform the bottoms of
the tires, to give them a weighted look. But that's going to do it for this video.
So keep an eye out for my upcoming course. It will be out this month. And
check the links in the description for more info. So until the next video, I'll
see you around.
Thanks you very much for this Video and how your workflow works.