Help required with making wheels for a train

Support Modeling
1

Hi all… I’m quite much new to blender and have been making assets for a game like buildings houses etc and texturing them… Now the problem is that I am asked to build a train now… Now as far as I guess the train and the compartments shouldn’t be a problem but the wheels are… First up I have no idea how do I make them and secondly the train will be used in a game in unity. So I have to make the wheels so that the later person can animate the wheels to rotate in unity.
So if I can get help on how to make the wheels and how to make them rotatable that will be a great help…
(The train looks like it is an old train… U know steam engine type stuff)
Thanks in advance!!

2

The train looks like it is an old train.

So wheel like this?

http://thumb1.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/173680/173680,1291249587,4/stock-photo-old-steam-locomotive-with-big-red-and-white-wheels-side-view-66348307.jpg

For a game, its best to use alpha mask texture for spokes to keep poly count down.

3

Umm what are alpha masks plz?? I havent used them yet and uh I also have no idea about how to make the rail that connects the wheels… I made the wheels rotate with the engine using drivers(out a tutorial I saw on youtube)…

4

Coming from someone who uses railway simulators quite a bit, it’d be best to avoid alpha masks. There’s whole communities involved in Blending-up railway models, myself included. Best place to start, for old steam locomotives, would be at Paul Hobbs’ excellent recent tutorial: http://44090digitalmodels.co.uk/tutorials/blender4.html .

If you go to his site, you’ll find more tutorials on animating the rotating rods and rails that make the wheels move (pistons and rods in railway terms.)

5

Thanks a lot bro… I have already made the main mesh… The only problem was the wheels

6

There’s a tutorial on animating these wheels, and other parts alike http://44090digitalmodels.co.uk/tutorials/blender3.html . It’s for an older version, but still works, if understood.

Regards, Ron

7

Thanks for the help… That was pretty interesting but I found a tutorial of simple steam train piston rigging on youtube and followed that to make the wheels… As now I am done with them… I just need to find a way of connecting them to my engine mesh because as soon as I rotate or scale or translate(move) the wheel assembly everything goes in awkward directions…
Heres the tutorial anyways - https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1802&v=7w7quOeOAHk