Model a High-Poly Car Wheel in 3ds Max – Day 1
Tutorial Details
- Program: 3ds Max
- Difficulty: Intermediate
- Completion Time: 22 minutes
The wheels are an often overlooked, but extremely important element in perfecting the look of any car, and the many techniques and tools needed to properly build them can be applied to nearly any hard surface modeling project. In this intermediate/ advanced level video tutorial, you will learn how to model a detailed high-poly car wheel from blueprints.
This tutorial is Day 1 in a series – Go to Day 2
One this, the first day of the series, we will will create the rim for the wheel. First, we will study a tried and true method of setting up a blueprint, and learn to make an animated x-ray material. Then, we will jump into modeling, where you will learn a wide variety of tools and techniques, both low and high, to complete the final sub-d model.
You can download the Rim blueprint image here: http://d2d04grx5ahzvh.cloudfront.net/062_Max_CarRim/Rim_Blueprint.jpg
Final Effect Preview
Video 1
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Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.
Video 2
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Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.
This tutorial is Day 1 in a series – Go to Day 2
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hmmm…does it look familiar
http://www.3dvalley.com/tutorials/modeling-a-car-rim-in-3d-studio-max
It’s not the same as the one from 3d valley. Spokes are less and the Rim is from the 2009/2010 Camaro.
I already found this tutorial a couple of weeks ago, and I thought it was well explained, and the outcome was good enough for use in game!
Great tut, Ben! Thanx!
Thanks Nick, Glad you liked it
The Rim design is not the same. And they workflow isn’t even close to that one from 3dvalley.
aite…just wamted to make sure b4 downloading it
Yeah, it’s a completely different rim and workflow
Nice details…thankssss
Thanks Marley, appreciate it
where the spokes join the rim could be better, they would join with a curve instead of intersecting
You could join the spokes to the rim. I’ve done that on other rims I’ve modeled. In this particular case I decided against it because it really wasn’t necessary. It would have raised the poly count even higher and the final result would have pretty much looked the same. It really depends on the rim’s design, whether you’ll have to have a continuous mesh or not.
Why even bother trying to make $150 on someone else’s work?
This is just cheesing up the community here. Workflow or not… there are soooo many tuts for rims online. Why bother? Oh yeah.. the economy sucks and you needed $150 for 2hrs work.
could you be more harsh?
If you don’t like it don’t watch it dick.
John Doe – I Couldn’t agree more!
JNothing – I’m not sure how I’m exactly making money off of someone else’s work. The techniques used are my own, and ones that I have developed over years of modeling. As far as a money grab. I’ve been putting out tutorials for the last five years, all of which are free. I’ve never made any money off of them, I simply released them in an attempt to help people out. This is the first tut I’ve ever been paid for. You’re naive to think that this tutorial took me only two hours. I spent a lot of time on it, and I believe the techniques are solid and can be applied to almost any other hard surface model.
If there are soooo many rim tuts out there, then why did you bother to watch it. Did you even watch it? or did you just feel the need to post a useless comment because you have nothing better to do. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. Simple as that.
i can feel what did you feel ben you are right , if there is hendred of car rim tut you can simbit your tut wich contain your methods and your techniques.
seriously … it’s comments like those and guys like you who bring negativity to the Creative community. Be more positive dude! There is enough negativity in the world as it it … yours is DEFINITELY NOT REQUIRED.
Nice tut Ben. Mucho apprecaido!
If anyone wants the blueprint image to use. You can find it here:
http://www.bentateonline.com/Images/Rim_Blueprint.jpg
@JNothing – These types of comments are destructive and inappropriate. As mentioned already, it doesn’t matter if there are a hundred “Rim” tutorials out there, Ben put together an extremely well explained tutorial, that uses a workflow and techniques that are unique to his methods. After all, the important thing in a tutorial its the workflow and techniques and not the subject matter.
nice!
well done.
Man! you Camaro looks terrific >
So what’s next?
Are u gonna record a tutorial modeling the car?????
LOL
That would be fantastic .
Thanks a lot
Thanks man!
Doing the full Camaro might be a little too long for a tutorial. LOL, That model took me probably 40-50 hours to finish! That being said, there might just be a tire modeling tut in the works:)
This Tuts is really nice, great job Ben u are great dont mind what anybody says get on with your great tuts.
Thanks a lot Nick, appreciate it!
Will there be a tutorial of modeing the Tire?
Would be nice.
Matthias.
Yes, the tire tutorial’s in the works and should be coming soon!
Nice details…thankssss
Very good tut! You explain everything very clearly. Your portfolio is quite amazing also. Thank you very much.
Thanks a lot!!
reupload the videos please
Hi Ben great work thank you
Can i ask you about the final effect preview?
How did you made model of rim to look like in blender i mean the colors
Have you used some special shader for it? or it is just blue material color and light effect
The final effect preview above is actually just a screen cap from the perspective view in Max. I first applied a black color to all the objects, then assigned a standard material with the diffuse color set to a light grey. Then turn on ‘edged faces’ in the viewport by pressing F4. I have one vray plane light on each side of the rim, one has a mid blue color and other has a light orange color. I also have two omni lights in front of the rim. Both have a dark blue color with a low multiplier. Finally I have a large plane drawn out behind the rim with a dark grey shader applied to it…. I hope that makes sense! LOL
Thank you Ben :)
>I hope that makes sense! LOL
yes it make sens because it look very nice, more professional :)
Thanks again
Hi Ben. I tried to apply the blueprint to the plane and it turned out like this http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/8949/71169835.jpg
The lines aren’t shown clearly at all. Ive never had this problem before. I’m not sure what’s going on there : /. Do you know what could be causing that?
Thx in advance!
Hey Phuong. It looks to me like Max’s display driver bitmap resolution is set to a low amount. Try changing the resolution by going to: Customize>Preferences>Viewport>Display Driver and change the ‘Background Texture Size’ and “Download Texture Size’ to the highest levels available, also check both boxes for ‘ Match Bitmap Size as Closely as Possible”. Then restart Max and reload the blueprint image into the material editor and re-apply it to the plane.
I took a screen cap so you can see what mine looks like.
Screen Shot
http://www.bentateonline.com/Images/Adjust_Bitmap_Res.jpg
Other then that, I can’t really think of any other suggestions, I haven’t had that problem before myself.
Hope this helps,
Ben
Wow thanks for the fast reply. I tried what you said and it’s working now. I would never have figured that out myself.
Thank you so very much for this awesome tut and the time you spent to answer my question in such details XD. You’re great! Just can’t thank you enough XD
hi
i have downloaded this tutorial but when i open the file my monitor
turns into black color screen.. only i can listen voice.. not video
what can i do?
my monitor screen resolution is 1280X1024
Hi Ben I’m a second year college student. During my first year all we did in my 3ds class was a movie of a bouncing ball. What a ripped off.
Thank god we have a new teacher 100 times better than our previous one.
We are now doing modeling toys, and the toy I picked was a super bike. I’ve been looking a lot of tutorial online and tonight I’m so lucky to find your. I find this is the best tut I’ve come accross so far that. A great tutorial that I can apply to my model. This tut is very clear with shortcut and explaination. From this tutorial that you put up, teaches me more that my first teacher for the whole term. I like your spirit of helping others thanks a lot Ben
Cheers
Hey Henri,
LOL, that really sucks about the bouncing ball:) But I’m glad to hear that you have a new teacher and that this tut will help you out on your super bike project. Thanks so much for your great comments. I really appreciate it!
I am downloading this tut.From the preview image ,i can see the edges are not in flow.I mean that the star shaped piece is not attached with the cylinder.Most of the rim i came across be in a single piece with all those spokes.Will it be ok to do so for animating???thx
Hey Max,
Yes, you should be able to animate it with no problems. After you have modeled the spokes and rim, you can attach them together as one object. (Delete the turbosmooth from each piece first before attaching them, then re-apply it). If you would rather not attach them, you can also group them or link them together. You’d probably have to do this anyway, so the tire and lug nuts will rotate along with the rim when animated.
thx ben….
great work! I’ve seen you how u make thing very easy in other tuts and I knew that this one will be great too ^^
Thanks a million :)
You do a looptiloop and pull, and your shoes are lookin’ cool.
Thanks Ben!
Really nice and easy to understand tut…. I learned a lot of stuff that i never really had a grasp on before… ring for one…
Nice work, good karma coming your way for helping others w/o charging. I am trying to model a product that is to be molded from one piece of plastic and it goes into itself and back out again… making me totally crazy. With this new knowledge perhaps it will work now… hard to say… I will try tho!
///MindsEye
A great help!
This is how all tutorials ought to be, detailed explainations for the rookies and inspiring unique techniques for advanced users.
Keep up the good work.
excelente…. awesome tut bro…greetings from mexico
hey ben, i really found this tutorial very interesting, and very detailed, but i need ur help in something, i am facing a problem when i want to model a car, the problem is setting the blueprints, when i put the blueprints in max, and start working on the car, after switching from the top view to the front view or side, the vertex that i worked on in the top view are not in the same place that i want them to be when i work in the front view…..
so all i want from you is to explain to me how do u set the blueprints in the correct position in all the views, so i can work correctly on modeling the car.
Thanks for the comments guys!! I’m glad to hear everyone’s happy with the tutorial and finding it easy to follow :) I hope you’re all getting good results!
Hey Ben,
This is a great simple tutorial, Thanks so much for the upload.
Also had a look at your updated website, Looking Sweet!!!
Thanks for an alternate workflow for rim modeling – much appreciated!!!
Look forward to your tire-ture – regardless of what immature haters post, you can NEVER have too many tutorials or ideas to work from.
Keep up the awesome work!
Great tut Ben! 3DS just taught me a lesson, was going along with the tutorial fine, adding a support edge and boom! 3DS has crashed, it said it saved it, and it did, opened it and bam only the blueprint. Damn, I don’t go well with technology :(
Was lucky, found a backup for it, heres my finished model. Time to start on the Tire now. (Excuse the background and lighting, I don’t know how to really do this yet, just modeling at the moment. Waiting for Ben to do one :P)
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/470/tirerimc.jpg
hey, tut is really great :) buut, i can someone help me in 14:15′ ? Whe Ben use mirror.
I select vertex in right side, delete and the use mirror. Select copy and the use attach. When I do that my plane become transparent :(
What did I wrong ?
hey, tut is really great :) buut, maybe someone help me in 14:15′ ? Whe Ben use mirror.
I select vertex in right side, delete and the use mirror. Select copy and the use attach. When I do that my plane become transparent :(
What did I wrong ?
I am holding shift and can make another plane to stretch he rim to continue at 13:09. can anyone help me and tell me why this is?
Great tutorial man! I finished modelling my Camaro and was looking for a way to make a professional looking rim.This helped a lot.
Thanks man
keep up the good work!
I LOVE YOU BEN! All other tutorials on other sites aren’t as well explained. Took me forever to find a good quality tutorial :)
Nice tut, saw you finally put the tire video in, been awhile since i did your tut. Give us some more!
Thanks for the time and effort you’ve put into this Ben, I’m picking up plenty of useful methods and tricks. You, your brother and Kaleb are single handedly getting me through my modelling module!
Great vid for 3ds max. Ive been using XSi and this video helped with my transition into Max. I notice a triangle in the spoke you’ve modeled and I have always been trained to make all my surfaces squares. Why is ok this time around to use a triangle?
I only saw the 1st vid so far
I am modeling a Camaro myself, and thought i might lookup how to model some wheels and tires.
And what a coincidence, the first tut i find is actually Camaro wheels :)
I like what i’ve seen so far from the tut :)
However i find it a bit wierd that you use a wireframe as blueprint, and not a photo or a drawing.
Still a great tutorial, keep it up
Hey Mathias,
It was a little unorthodox to use a wireframe render as a blueprint. The only reason I did, was because when I originally modeled the camero and the rims. I couldn’t find an actual side picture of the tire that would have worked for modeling. So I had to model the rim blind in Max with no blueprint at all. Obviously this wouldn’t have work for a tutorial, so I decided to just create my own blueprint by doing a side render of my previously modeled rim. The wire overlay was just to show the topology of the mesh and to also help me re-create the mesh a second time for the tutorial :)
Cheers!
Hey bro..ur tutorials are awesome….the technique is simple & easy 2 understand…
can u upload a tutorials regarding a F1 car modelling…
thanks once again…
I’m with a doubt? because when I play my bitmap image as the quality gets bad in the viewport?
Ok this question is not related to your Camaro tutorial…. besides the fact I am actually getting a 78 Camaro to go with my 81 Chevy short box, stepside 4×4 High Seirra (then I’ll have the best of both worlds… and matching Motors & tranny) This is kind of a random question… but my desperate search for answers led me to this forum… I hope you can help!
So I’ve recently moved from box modeling to using closed splines to editable poly….. I create my basic topology then using snap to vertex create my poly… Ok so that all seems to go well until I actually convert to editable poly…. for some reason many of them just randomly become backwards, leaving holes in my mesh… whats up with that? Under “edit polygons” I hit the “Flip” button… but it does no flipping… my polys do not flip yo ! Any help I could get would be rad… I have been through many tutorials that show step by step how to create a model using splines and such…. none of them seem to explain this issue, and so far every time I’ve attempted to create a face from a reference photo or whatever this problem arises. I have tried deleting polys and re-creating them only to find the same locations show up backwards…. and sometimes do not render at all ! Could it be because my vertex become a bit out of line? Is there a way to snap them all ?
Fantastic Tutorial, as all yours are. Just followed this one along in C4D and was able to follow all the way with a just a few things having to be achieved differently. Your clear explanations as you go along made it easy and rewarding – thank you and well done – your experience has helped me loads.
Great tutorial!
Thanks =)
I realy liked the tutorial but when i put the blueprint in max it look like a 1000 whells.
http://img43.imageshack.us/i/problemablueprint.gif/
anyone knows why is this happening??
Thanks man for nice tutorial such as like this a tire modeling so i think i do my best to make my own tire thanks again to make a great tutorial
Thanks man I have learned a lot with your tutorials.