Making Tire Threads in Maya

Well, this is first tutorial that I have made and it’s about something I have also struggle during my early days of car modelling. I hope this tutorial would be helpful for those who love modelling cars, especially the beginners. So, this tutorial is about making tire threads for your car tires. There are many ways in Maya to make tire threads. You can either model it or just create it with the help of textures and mapping processes. The modelling process I’m going to show here is simple but the end product would be pretty high poly. The final output would look something like this.

The idea is to create a single section of the threads and duplicate it and to use bend deformer to achieve the tire shape.So lets start.

Step 1: Create a plane. Make sure its rectangular. Right now don’t worry about the scale as it doesn’t matter unless you are making this in an existing scene.

Give subdivision width 5 and subdivision height 1 respectively (or you can have it your way, try experimenting). Before next step make sure you have something like, seen above.

Step 2: In this step we tweak the geometry we have into something that looks like a section of tire thread. This is what I have got.

This may not look anything like what I have said. But eventually we’ll get there. Here also you can have reference of some tire and make some other shapes out of it.

Step 3: Now insert edge loops on the borders and along the subdivisions as seen in the following pics.

After you have done inserting edge loops, the geometry would look something like this.

Step 4: Now select all the centre faces and extrude it in Y- axis. In this case you’ll have to select 5 faces and extrude, as shown below.

Step 5: Now we again add edge loops to each extruded ends of the geometry as shown below.

This is done to hold the meshes together (to get a sharp edge) when you smooth the geometry. If don’t when you smooth the geometry by pressing 3 this is what you’ll get. So make sure you do this.

After you have inserted edge loops correctly and if you go to smooth mode, you’ll get something like this.

Step 6: Now that we have a section of the tire thread the next step is to duplicate this section and place it as shown in the picture.

Press Ctrl + d for duplicating the geometry for first time and Shift + d the next time so that it will place correctly every time you press it.

Step 7: Now select all the sections and combine it (Mesh > Combine). We are combining the sections because we have to merge the vertices of one section to another.

Step 8: Select the vertices in between the sections and give merge vertices. You’ll find the merge vertices button in the under the Polygons Shelf. 

After merging the sections you may have the problem of two or more vertices merging to one. This depends on the merge vertices attribute called Distance. By default it’ll be 1 and reducing the value should solve the problem. (Check the distance value in the above picture)

After combining and joining all the section the result will be something like this.

Step 9: Now select the polygon and go to Create Deformers> Non- Linear> Bend. In the interface you’ll see a vertical handle. Select the handle and rotate it 90 degrees in X and Z axis. (It depends on what axis you’re modelling).

Step 10: In the bend attribute you’ll see the Attributes such as Envelope, Curvature, Low Bound and High Bound. Change the Curvature attribute to bend the polygon into a tire shape as in the below picture.

Bring the ends close enough to merge it together and there you’ll have tire threads. To remove the handles just delete the History (Alt +D). 

And that's it. I hope you understand the whole process if not please feel free to ask any doubts and may be I can clear it for you. Thank you.

Requiescat in Pace

This week was spent playing and trying out new games such as Assassins Creed Revelations (ACR) and Saints Row :The Third and finished the former. I have been a hardcore fan of the Assassins Creed franchise since I played its first part. The plot and the storyline is so interesting and moving that we would ask ourselves "OMFG is that all true....?" Believe me I have asked it to myself a million times whenever I played it's series.
I remember when I and Allen-my college mate and a Game Designer- tried to tell the story of Assassins Creed Series to another friend who haven't played it. We found it's not that easy because it says a lot some of it takes lots of thinking to digest and if any of  the so called gamers haven't played any of the Assassins Creed Series, sorry to say you ain't one.
Regarding the game play, it's the best Ubisoft have done so far in this frachise. There are many great changes that have been done such as introducing the concept of Hook Blade and Bombs. Hook blade is the coolest thing in the game and the gliding through zipline is a real fun. The plot is Constantinople and what we've to do is somewhat similar to what we've done in Assassins Creed Brotherhood (ACB). Like eradicating the enemies (Templars) influence from different districts which is similar to doing the same with Borgia's in ACB and also renovating the districts.
Ubisoft has taken the ACB's combat moves to a next level in ACR. There are several brutal combos (different with each weapon types), the best I have seen in this franchise. If you are a psychopath gamer, you should play this.
I really admire the way Ubisoft have brought up such a great concept and putting up such an awesome story to back it up. The soundtracks by Jesper Kyd and Lorne Balfe gets you back to those ages and feel is so immense that you won't forget this game in your lifetime. I hope all Assassins Creed fans also would feel the same.The story, like all other Assassins Creed Series doesn't disappoint at any point despite the fact that it's the end of Ezio's story. It's like what Ubisoft says "The End of An Era".

Tutorials coming up...!!!

Well I have decided to take my blog a step ahead by including some tutorials for 3D artists. Mainly it'll cover some modelling tips and tricks and some simple things for beginners. I don't have much of experience in this tutorial thingy but I'll try my best to keep things simple as possible. Mostly I'll handle the basics and of course everyone is free to ask questions and I'll try my best to clear it.
I haven't decided when do I start this but the kind of plan I have is like may be "one tutorial in a week". The tutorials could be video or pdf or may be just I'll type it down on the blog (of course....with screenshots). If you ask me why I'm doing this, I would say its my gift to the world of 3D artists. As a student I have learnt many things and I think knowledge is something which multiplies when people share it with each other. So stay tuned up...!!

Japanese Interior- My first Set Modelling

This is the first completed set model  that I have done using Maya. I did it in the first year of my college as part of the studies and this is the final render I have given. The render was done in Mental Ray. I did this when I had little knowledge about Maya and what it is capable of. As you can see its a Japanese interior that I have tried to make. I got the idea of making Japanese interior  from the game called Hitman : Silent Assassin- one of my all time favorite. At first I thought I would make a Dojo, but the concept was already taken by one of my classmate and so I decided to make just something Japanese and that's how I ended up doing this.

I took screen shots from the game itself for references and also relied on some other reference pictures from Internet. The modelling was pretty easy but the lighting seemed to be a tough job at that time. Modeling the Katana was really fun and also I enjoyed doing the texturing. I was able to study a lot like different unwrapping techniques and that was the time I really came to know the concept of unwrapping and texturing. The texture used are downloaded- didn't had enough time to make and I'm not good with Photoshop-such as wood textures. However some of them were made such as the textures on the carpet and cushions- I know, it's simple. After this model, my attention went to cars and started modeling many and after that I haven't really tried making a set except during my Second year project.

 

Mazda Rx-7- Dropped Beauty

This is the 3D Model of the Mazda Rx-7 I was working on and had to drop behind because Maya was behaving weird. It was coming out well even though the blueprints weren't aligned correctly. In the second picture you can find why I called Maya weird. I don't know whether it's the problem with my system or Maya either way I couldn't solve this issue. I love the way the curves were coming out but unfortunately things went wrong at some point. This is the car that we see in the movie Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift, the one driven by Haan. I hope to resume its modelling later on.