In this detailed tutorial you will learn how to create rims for a sports car by using the Bridge feature for an Editable Poly. This new feature was introduced in 3D Studio MAX version 7 and can save a modeler a lot of work. Not only will you be able to create the wheel in shown in the screenshots on the left, by using the techniques in this tutorial it will be a piece of cake to create your own original wheels. Apart from that, many of the common modeling techniques (Extrude, Bevel, Chamfer, Bridge, Soft Selection) are used in this tutorial, so it can serve as an excellent way to learn some new selection methods and basic poly-modeling skills.
This tutorial is aimed at the beginner and every step is outlined and displayed in detail. If you are absolutely new to 3D Studio Max , you may want to start with our Chess Pawn modeling tutorial first.
Note: Click on the thumbnail in each step for a larger screenshot that includes the viewports and the relevant portion of the user interface. Some thumbnails lead to more detailed instructions on how to perform certain selections and other tasks.
Create a Cylinder on the Top viewport with the following attributes:Radius: 40
Height: 30
Height Segments: 4
Cap Segments: 2
Sides: 30 |
 |
| Left-click the Snaps Toggle button on the main toolbar and then right-click it to open the Grid and Snap Setting dialog box. Click the Clear All button and then enable the Pivot option. Close the dialog box.
Enabling the Snaps option will allow you to allign the following object correctly.
|
 |
|
| Create a Tube on the Top viewport with the following attributes. Start creating the tube from the center (pivot) of the cylinder you created in step 1.
Radius 1: 90
Radius 2: 105
Height: 80
Height Segments: 5
Cap Segments: 2
Sides: 60
|
 |
|
| Right-click the Snaps Toggle button to disable it. Move up the cylinder on the Front or Left viewport as shown in the screenshot. |
 |
|
Select the Top viewport and click the Maximize Viewport Toggle button on the bottom right of the screen. 
Select the tube and rotate it -3 degrees on the Z-axis so it lines up as show in the screenshot.
|
 |
|
| Convert the tube to an editable poly by right-clicking Tube on the Modify tab and selecting Editable Poly below Convert To:.
Select the cylinder and use the same steps to convert the it also to an Editable Poly.
|
 |
|
| While the cylinder is still selected, click the Attach button on the Modify tab in the Edit Geometry section and click the tube to attach it.
You should now have a single Editable Poly object called Cylinder01. Click the Attach button again to disable it.
|
 |
|
Press the F3 key (to see the shaded model), press the F4 key (to see the edges on the shaded model), and press the J key (to get rid of the selection bracket). Click the Arc Rotate SubObject button and rotate up a bit. 
Go to Edge sub-object level and select an edge on the upper inner side of the tube and click the Loop button.
|
 |
|
| Move down the row of edges half way the top row of the polygons and scale it up as shown in the screenshot. Click the Maximize Viewport Toggle button on the bottom right of the screen again. |
 |
|
| Go to Polygon sub-object level and select the polygons as shown in the screenshots. Make sure you select them on all sides, meaning the inner side of the tube element and the outer side of the cylinder element. These will be the ends of the six spokes we will create for the rim in the next step. |
 |
|
Click the small square button on the right of the Bridge button in the Edit Polygons section on the Modify tab to open the Bridge dialog box.Change the number of Segments to 7.
Change the Taper value to: -1.3(Play around a bit with the Taper and Bias setting to get an idea of how easy it is to create different spokes).
Click the OK button to close the Bridge dialog box.
|
 |
|
| Select the Top viewport and click the Maximize Viewport Toggle button. Click the Select Object button and click the Circular Selection Region button:
Click the thumbnail on the right for detailed instructions on how to select the polygons displayed in the screenshot.
|
 |
|
| Click the Maximize Viewport Toggle button to show all the viewports again.
Enable the Use Soft Selection option in the Soft Selection section of the Modify tab and on the Front or Left viewport move the polygons a bit upwards.
|
 |
|
| Disable the Use Soft Selection option. Click the Select Object button and change back to rectangular selection by clicking the Rectangular Selection Region button.
Select all the top polygons. Click the thumbnail on the right for detailed instructions on how to select them. |
 |
|
Click the small square button on the right of the Bevel button in the Edit Polygons section on the Modify tab to open the Bevel Polygons dialog box.Change the Height setting to 0.4
Change the Outline Amount setting to -0.4
Click OK to close the dialog box.
|
 |
|
:3d studio max, 3dnuts, car, modeling, tutorial
Pages: 1 2
Powered by WordPress.
| |
January 31st, 2009 on 7:53 pm
Hi nice tutorials , but some pictures are missing, is there anyway to add the missing pictures?
I mean on this tutorial:
http://www.3dvalley.com/tutorials/modeling-a-car-rim-in-3d-studio-max
Sorry for my bad english
February 1st, 2009 on 12:06 pm
Hi, Thanks for letting us know. We just did a major site upgrade and it is possible some links are not working. We will try to fix this as soon as possible.
February 11th, 2009 on 6:29 am
very easy method just I watch, then I do it. Thanx
February 12th, 2009 on 11:36 pm
Fixed the missing images in the sub steps.
February 13th, 2009 on 3:51 pm
Yes was everyday watching about the missing images, nice thank you very much
February 13th, 2009 on 4:03 pm
thank you very much! I love this tutorial
February 23rd, 2009 on 5:35 am
Thank you, learned so much with this tut.
February 23rd, 2009 on 9:30 am
thanks a lot, great tutorial! i’m a n00b yet i managed to do it!! =D
February 26th, 2009 on 10:28 pm
Thanks, very nice tutorial! Great techniques.
I’ll show to my friends here in Brazil.
March 27th, 2009 on 3:43 pm
Great Tutorial !!
i just did it - it’s very good!
M0é
May 5th, 2009 on 11:56 am
hello
i m new student of max studio
this tutorial is very very helpful for me for making car rim for more design, its understand very much clear step by step
u r great many many thanks i need more tutorial like this for helping me to learn max studio.
regards
ghazala
May 9th, 2009 on 1:50 pm
Bueno hola a todos DE SER UN BUEN TUTORIAL LO ES ALMENOS DOY GRASIAS POR HABER APRENDIDO EN OQISIMO TIEMPO UN ARO ALUDOS Y Q PONGAN NUEBOS TUTORIALES Q NOS HAIA BIEN PARA LOS NOVATOS
July 3rd, 2009 on 9:23 am
awsome! thanks for sharing with this great tutorial!
July 3rd, 2009 on 3:00 pm
thank you for dedicated the time to make this step by step tutorial, i’m learning 3dsmax 09 and this is a better exercise than the one in the book I brought!! even that im from Mexico and my book its in spanish! thank you!
July 9th, 2009 on 1:17 pm
Great tutorial. Learned a lot from it, but when it came time to put details on I knew there had to be a better way and mashed your tutorial together with another one where they used about 4 symmetry mirrors to only have to model 1 part of the 10 way symmetry (http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_details.aspx?id_product=943 )
Your wheel looks far better in the end by the way
I just wanted to be even lazier than normal and symmetry saved the day
July 23rd, 2009 on 2:11 pm
Great tutorial one of the best about car rims…Thank you very much
September 27th, 2009 on 2:48 pm
Great tutorial,
My first completed 3d model !!
BTW, Can any-one tell me what happend to Mike Nuts and the 3d Nuts website / forum ?????
Clad this tutorial is hosted here if the 3d Nuts site is no more, now off to the tyre tutorial.
Thanks again.
September 30th, 2009 on 2:53 am
A really good tutorial, easy to understand & follow!
One suggestion though:
Between Step 25 & 26.
Create a cylinder in the Top viewport with eight sides.
Position the centre point over the centre node of the hole you want to create.
Rotate the Cylinder so that two points fall over the radial line of the hub.
Now when you start moving the nodes on your rim you automatically have guide points to reference.
This ensures that your holes are nice & “round”.
November 13th, 2009 on 6:53 pm
Great tutorial, everything is explained very nice and there is no way to go wrong if you follow this tutorial step by step, even if you are a beginner. Thanks !!
Just one question though, since I am a beginner too, how can I make the holes if I want to make sure that they are absolutely the same size ? The way this tutorial shows how to do it, is more like guessing its the same.. Still good at the end, but what if I want to make some holes that are exactly the same size, not even 1mm difference. How can I do that ? Thanks again for the tutorial and sorry for the long post
January 7th, 2010 on 8:44 am
Nice tutorial
Each and every steps are given clearly.
One humble request from me!…
It could be better if there is also an explantion about the materials used for the rims.
How to create that material for that rims to get the exact output while rendering.(like the above picture)
January 13th, 2010 on 1:08 am
wow it’s really helpfull tutorial even u are a beginner really thanks i really expects more tutorials from u in future
January 13th, 2010 on 1:09 am
nice tutorial