This tutorial explains how to create a tyre in a similar way to making
tank tracks, make one tread object, DUPLICATE it 30-50 times and use
ARRANGE to auto arrange them around a circle spline, also You will need
the MAKETHICKER plugin, download and drop it into program
files/maxon/cinema 4d/plugins, you can find the plugin at the following
page...
Get the "makethicker" plugin from here
1. Create a cylinder and rotate it 90 degrees as shown and scale it to
look roughly like a tyre, 2. Set the caps to 1 and the HEIGHT SEGMENTS
to 4...
MAKE EDITABLE and select both sides as shown, using EXTRUDE, SCALE,
EXTRUDE INNER and BEVEL make something resembling the shape of the
sides of the tyre as above!
In the top view and in POINT MODE select the middle points and SCALE em out a bit just to give the tyre a little more rounding.
Now we are going to create a tread object
to be repeated 1. Make a new POLYGON OBJECT and 2. Here it is, empty
ready to build some points/face in it.
1. Make sure your on the MOVE TOOL and 2.
In POINT MODE, 3. HOLD "CTRL" and add in some points to make half of
the tread pattern as shown (study a few using google images) BRIDGE the
points (see my C4D basics tutorial for bridging) to create several
"seperate" faces as shown...
To mirror this half 1. Drop a SYMMETRY
OBJECT into the scene 2. Drop the tread object into the SYMMETRY and 3.
Set MIRROR PLANE to "XY" 4. to get it to mirror onto the other side as
shown.
Make the SYMMETRY object EDITABLE and you
end up with a symmetry and a POLYGON, drag the POLYGON out as shown and
delete the symmetry as its no longer of use to us, we have a POLYGON
OBJECT made from both sides....Cool eh? ;-)
1. From the front view and in POINT MODE
edit the points to follow the tyre more closely, 2. Heres where we use
the MAKETHICKER PLUGIN, in FACE MODE select all the faces in the
POLYGON tread object and choose MAKETHICKER from the PLUGIN MENU up
top, set it to "2" and APPLY and as you can see instant
thickness...very quick, very cool!!
1. Add a bit more detail to the treads
using EXTRUDE/INNER/BEVEL etc and 2. Choose FUNCTIONS and 3. DUPLICATE,
4. Input a number here something between 40-60...I used 50 in the end
and 5. Set the MOVE to "0" as Y is set to 500 by default.
1. DUPLICATE gives us a NULL OBJECT filled
with 50 copies of the tread object, now we need a SPLINE to arrange
these around, 2. Drop a CIRCLE SPLINE into the scene and 3. SCALE it to
fit the tyre roughly
At this point when I ARRANGED the tread
around the spline they faced outwards, so I ROTATED the SPLINE by 180
so it was facing the opposite way and for some reason this worked ;-))
Anyway heres the ARRANGE part 1. SELECT
the NULL OBJECT containing all the copies, 2. Choose
FUNCTIONS>ARRANGE and 3. Type in "Circle" so it knows which SPLINE
to ARRANGE around...
BANG!! there you go a nice car tyre with
chunky tread, different patterns can be found online and by scaling the
NULL OBJECT you can make the tread stick out more or less etc...Also
the amount of duplicates must be experimented with to get the kind of
tread spacing you want ;-))
Throw a Black texture onto em and there you
go, maybe make a decal for the writing on the sides or use a BUMP MAP
to raise the lettering....Have Fun!!