Hello blenderworld,
This weekend I started my first non-tutorial based project 
and this is the result (so far). I have to say, it took a lot longer than I expected, but then again, I made a lot of mistakes so seeing it gate some (sort of) shape is really rewarding. Canāt wait to get into the materials once I finish the model, Iām one of those guys I guess, I donāt want to ruin it by texturing from the beginningā¦
Leave your thoughts around, thanks.
So I just finished rendering this a couple of minutes agoā¦ not quite happy with the materials, have to go back and try some moreā¦ The other thing you might notice is the gears at the backā¦ they are missing some sprockets, but yeah, that kind of gave me some difficult time and even though it doesnāt make sense in real life (and it does look a bit weird) Iām happy I could manage to model it as is :). Over all I think it isnāt all that badā¦ for my first project (I hope).
If youāre wondering, all the materials + textures are procedural soā¦ that also reduces some of the realism and it does make it look a bit (quite more actually) computer generated 
aaaaaaanndā¦ I just realized some of the front part has the wrong materialā¦ oh well, it just means it isnāt done (yet!).
Have you tried using Ctrl - R in edit mode and then rotating it, to make the hull (dont know how to call it) to make it look better? The wheels look good so far and one small question. Are you using mirror ?
Iām working on a few bikes myself. I think itās a lot of fun. For a first project it looks great! With materials I found that experimenting helped a lot just so you can figure out exactly what each setting does. Are you using Blender Internal or Cycles? It looks like BI, but I might be wrong.
After being away from this I have a very different perspective on it all nowā¦ The more I look at it the more unhappy I am with the outcome. I did do a lot of mistakes though and after revisiting some tutorials and reading online, I want to redo this project from scratch.
I think you meant to say āALT + Rā (instead of CTRL + R)? yeahā¦ I actually didnāt use the spin tool at all, just forgot about it completely and I did have a hard time aligning things and well, it isnāt the best product out there letās just say :)ā¦ And yes, Iām using mirror. Can you tell?
Hi, thanks for the encouragement :). Iām using cycles, but this is my first time with it and didnāt actually look at tutorialsā¦ so it was more of trial and error. I havenāt found a good explanation of what the nodes actually doā¦ all the tutorials Iāve seen so far are like āand now we set this setting on the glossy and this setting on the diffuse and then connect them to whateverā but no one says āand we use this layer weights node because it does such and suchā so if you might know some good tutorial / references please let me know. The blender user manual doesnāt even include the shader nodes (or does it and Iām blind?..).
So yeah, next update will be with the ābeginning of the projectā all over :).
Edit:
By the way, I seem to have a hard time finding good ātechā info about bikes, dimensions of parts, etc. Iād appreciate it if you could give me some references?.. that is if you use these sort of things :).
This is the beginning of the new project: ā¦
Andā¦ I think this goes (finally) in the right direction:
Your second try is looking much more promising than your first one.
I was just thinking about making a model of my bike.
Yeah, the second try is looking very good. And i meant Ctrl- R not Alt-R. 
Thanks guys for the support. It really helps :). So, a lot more (good) things are happening now I think:
Iāve decided to take my time with it. By the way, when you guys do your bikes, are you using by any chance some āweldingā effects as well? and if yes, do you know a good way of building that effect?..
My bad, sorry. :)ā¦ well, actually yes, Iāve tried doing the CTRL + R thing and then rotating but it didnāt give me satisfactory results but I did manage to get a good result with ALT + R :Dā¦
Sorry but the wheel doesnāt work. Your going to have to find a way to redo it so that your can get the correct treads. I have yet to see a bike that has treads like yours.
Haha, yes I know, I didnāt spend at all time on the tire, I just came up with something off the top of my head, obviously not realistic :), Iāll redo that of course, I donāt like it either :D, but thatās why itās called a āwork in progressāā¦
edit:
Soā¦ just this freeking tire alone took me around 2 and a half hours to makeā¦ pfiu, but Iām pleased with the result, I guess could be better butā¦ for the time being itās all right. I hope youāre happy now TARDIS
What are you using for reference? Iāve never seen a frame and tires like that. Spokes look a bit thick to me.
Hi Tardis, thanks for taking an interest in my project. Iām not using any particular reference, Iām just looking at pictures on google to have the basic shapes right. The rest is all coming from my head. I know the spokes are thicker than usual, thatās on purpose, the same goes for the frame (I might change the thickness on that though). As for the tire, I was inspired by this image (I actually donāt care if itās used for bikes or not :D).
The purpose here is not to make a real accurate model, but to practice my modelling and rendering (and imagination) skills.
Your welcome. Taking interest in other people projects is something I do.
What might be a good idea, If you have a bike, try modelling that, you can get any background images you need, and you have all the reference you need. If you donāt have a bike, see if any of your friends do.
For the tire, it might be a good idea to watch some car tire tutorials. Iām sure that there are some others, other that blender guruās 2.4x tutorial. If you canāt find any, maybe ask some of the more experience car modellers how they do it.
It may be a good idea to use a normal map/bump map instead of using actual goemetry. You could try adding way to many verts to it (probably a subserf) and use the displacement modifier with the bump map. Then you could retopolagize the mesh using the standard methods.
I understand not wanting to do a completely accurate model, but you should try to at least make it look like it could be used.
Thanks for the advice, I havenāt actually thought about the displace modifier, but going into retopology is a bit too early for meā¦ I mean this is my first try at modeling without the help of tutorials so I kind of want to take it a bit slower. I might change the tire, so it doesnāt have so many vertices, but for the time being I quite like how it looks.
Do you mean to say that this doesnāt look usable? (as in the working tire I guess, cause the rest isnāt finishedā¦ yet :D)
And one small new step (I never played with bezier/nurbs before, this is too cool :D, I just wish there were more tools available for precise work):
Well the tire doesnāt look like it would help that much. The rest of it looks fine.
Sorry if I offended you. I just meant that you should pay a bit more attention to one specific bike.
No no, donāt worry, you didnāt offend anyone. I really apreciate you taking time to give me pointers. In the end though it is something I want to do from my imagination (with the help of old mighty google for inspiration that is) :). So even if some things might not be looking like they workā¦ I actually spend a lot of time preparing and figuring out how all of these things combine to make the whole, I never knew for example before starting this project how those sprokets combine to make a working gear system and I actually tried to model it accurately (well, close enough), with the mount and everything :D.
But yeah, donāt let me stop you from your comments, anything constructive is appreciated!
I thought it would be nice to add some pictures of how things look without any modifiers applied:
Enjoy :). Youāll notice that I applied Tardisā idea (thanks!) about the tire and made a new one using a bezier curve instead. And Iāll apply some displace/bump to it somehow afterwards (somehowā¦ :D).
So Iāve decided to go for a very light weight carbon fibre type of thing so I changed the design accordingly.
A preview of things to come:
Youāll notice the awkward camera angleā¦ thatās because I havenāt learned how to properly apply textures yetā¦ so on the other side itās all messed up :). Anyway, this is my try at making a procedural carbon fibre texture. Maybe you donāt approve, but Iāve spent quite a bit of time on it and Iām gonna stick with it!
I like the sleek design of the frame. Itāll be interesting seeing how everything else fits into it. I think you should make it a little less smoothed out, though.
What part of properly applying texture do you not know? I might be able to point you to a tutorial.
