I am fairly new to Blender (though not 3D in general), and am using it to teach myself how to model. This is my first attempt at modeling anything. I am starting with a motorcycle wheel.
I’m not sure if I will finish the whole motorcycle as work will tend to interfere with my ability to sit at the computer all day long, but I’d like to get a fair bit modeled if I can. A few times I got stuck and had to ask a question on this forum and the responses have been overwhelming. I really appreciate all the help everyone has given me (as well as the kind souls who post tutorials on YouTube).
At any rate, here is the model so far. Critiques welcome!
Edit:
I’m going to post my latest renders in this first post as well as later on in the thread:
Edit 2:
I don’t know how to “delete” the images I originally loaded into this post, and I can’t post any additional so… I suppose I’ll just go back to adding to the end of the thread.
Also, this is my very first 3D model (beyond some simple sketchup stuff I have done over the years). While I have access to Maya and Modo at work, I decided to use Blender to learn modeling and so far I am very pleased that I did. I even showed my progress to some of the modelers at work and they were impressed with what Blender allowed me to do.
Of course, since it is my first model, it is taking me an INCREDIBLY long time to do. What you see here has taken me roughly 20-30 hours (and I have re-done chunks of it time and time again). I am hoping that by the time I am done with the whole bike, I will be a lot faster and more efficient.
Thanks again for the compliments. I took some screenshots of the wireframes (I turned off all the Sub-D surface modifiers… is that the best way to show a wireframe?)
Wonderful job. Looks like you nicked it straight off an old BSA or something. I have ridden things that had brakes like that. “Efficient” is not a word that springs to mind.
How many verts on that model? It looks to be incredibly dense for no subsurf.
Not sure how to count the verts. Is there an info panel somewhere?
The motorcycle that I am modeling is an m72 molotov. Everything on this bike screams “not efficient”
The m72 is based on the old BMW R71 I think. The current URAL and the Chang Jiang CJ750 are based off of a similar design. My model is going to be a blend of all three of those because all of my reference is a mix of them.
I’m not really a motorcycle guy (for no reason other than I never had the opportunity and now I’m just too old to start something new like that) but I do love the way they look. It also seemed like a challenging project to start with, but not so hard that I wouldn’t be able to finish. Now the only thing that will keep me from finishing is simply running out of time.
ZOMFG. Those Urals used to be truly woeful, when they were first released over here. The brake drums weren’t machined properly and were sort of elliptical. I read the road test, and decided I didn’t want to ride one myself.
Anyway verts, etc are across the top of the screen, if you are using the default layout.
Thanks. I agree on the tread. I am currently re-working the whole model to reduce the number of verts it uses, and in that process I will deepen the treads.
The bike is based on the m72 Molotov. Here is one reference image I am using:
Though the tire reference I have (from a different picture) is closer to the one I am modeling. It isn’t a dirt bike per se, but these bikes were designed to be a lot more off road than the typical street bike of today I think.
Ok, I managed to get the vert count down to about 420K verts with sub-D turned on. With sub-D’s turned off, it is about 240K verts now. Visually it still looks pretty much the same (with the Sub-D’s turned on… and I might even permanently leave the sub-D’s off on a few of the smaller objects).
Just a quick update. Work has picked up which is, generally, a good thing. But it does slow me down on my personal projects… which are legion.
At any rate: I am about 80% done with the front forks and axle. I still need to add a few more braces to the forks themselves and finish the mounting bolts for the fork to axle joint. The hard part is cutting a nice square hole into the round shock absorbers while having it still be a decent sub-D surface…
I am also about 90% done with the front headlight and speedometer. The only thing missing here is the actual light switch that turns the headlight on and off, a small hole in the side of the headlamp for the speedometer cable, and a small tab that holds the chrome ring in place over the headlight lens itself.
I am really learning a lot about modeling with this project!
I have done the handlebars and the various bits and baubles on the handlebars (throttle, brake levers, etc.). I wound up doing several of them more than once because they contain complex surfaces where I have to have a cylinder intersect another cylinder, with some other odd shapes blended in as well. Like I said, I’m still learning and these little bits and pieces are really forcing me to think about topology.
Next up, the frame!
But for now, here it is. Any critiques and suggestions welcome!
Closeup of my joints. They are tricky, but I get better with each one I do (though I usually have to do them twice at least). These joints are ok, but are some of the first I tried…
