I have been pulling my hair to model this tire. I would normally model a section and do a circular array, but this one has a pattern which has a lot of overlaps, so can’t get the segments to align, Have tried making a single segment, but it is too long in the Y axis to bend in the X. I’ve tried using a torus so it has the bend ready-made and carving out a segment of tread, but that totally messes the curve up.
I’ve pretty much decided to use a normal map, but would be very interested to see whether anyone can suggest a method of modelling it.
Follow the shapes with some extrusions, bevel and move down the slots, give your object a curve (to round it) + array (to duplicate) + simple deform (bend mode, so that it rotate 360°) + subsurf modifiers.
It was tedious to get a “good” topology but I’m not sure there’s a easy way (or you could just use bump which would be much faster)
My apologies for the delay in responding - been having bad weather and worse internet service!
That is very neatly done, moonboots - as you say, keeping good topology is a real mission. Just for the heck of it, I tried making the indent patterns using Bezier curve, bevelling, cutting off the tops to make channels and connecting with bridging. Looked very promising, but the topology is a nightmare. Would probably work with Booleans, but it would be a massive task to get the topology right for bending and smoothing.
Guess I’ll admit defeat and go for the bump option.
@graeme_h - thanks for the link - that is what I would normally do, except I use a circular array. I find that fine-tuning the number of repeats and the angle of rotation give finer control.
I’ve edited my picture, having a good topology was tough but I succeeded much better than yesterday, actually a grid would make that more complicated. Just make sure that the bottom vertices line fits with the top one so that the array works
