Making the Alley Surface

 Building the alley surface; curb and ground

On the plane I selected the vertical edges in the middle nearest the building and moved them closer to the buildings to mark the curb. I then used the insert edge loop tool to insert two more lines to set the width of the curbs. I dragged another horizontal edge near the front of the buildings to set a cross alley and used the insert edge loop again to set the width of that curb. I selected the faces of the alley way and then extruded the faces down and then deleted the extra faces created by the extrusion. Next I selected the alley way pieces and extruded them.

I selected the curb pieces and extruded them upward slightly. I then selected the ground faces on either side and extracted them.

Starting Maya: Blocking in the Set

Blocking in the set with simple shapes

I first had to go to the project files and unzip the scenes folder so I could access the camera view the tutor had already set up. I then created a polygon and set the width to 40 ft and the height to 30 ft.

I created a cube polygon and set the width to 14, the height to 11 and the depth to 9. I duplicated the cube using ctrl+D. I then selected top vertices of the duplicate and pulled them up to make the box higher. I duplicated that box as well and tried to move it as equal a distance as possible away from the center line as the other tall cube. I adjusted the third boxes height to make it slightly lower than the second cube. I duplicated the third cube and then made it shorter and slightly wider.

Completing the Bike.

Finishing the bike

I selected and grouped related items together such as the wheels, the chain guard, etc. I then merged in a render set up and brought in the Render_Setup from the scene assets of the project files. Finally I rendered the bike to see my final project.

Adding Text and Materials

Adding text

In the create panel under geometry I added the text "DT" and adjusted the size and font so that it would fit on the chain guard. I then repeated those steps to add the text "Racing". I applied the bevel modifier to both pieces of text

Adding materials

I dragged the mental ray Autodesk metallic paint into the window and changed the color to white, set the pearl setting to second color and made it a light purple. I then applied that material to my bike frame, the front of my fender, the forks and chain guard. I then added the car paint material, changed the base color to orange and the light facing color to a red orange. I applied this material to the screen, the accents, the back fender, and the sprocket. Using the Autodesk metal material I changed the metal to chrome and the finish to satin. I applied this to the spokes, the inside rim of both wheels, the inside of the sprocket, the spindles on the ends of the crank arms, the brake handle, and the kickstand. Next I added the arch and design material, added the rubber template, I also added the Autodesk plastic/vinyl material changed the type to vinyl and the finish to matte. On the tire I selected the polygons on the inside bottom and applied the vinyl material . To select the rubber portion of the title I went to select invert and applied the rubber material. I then repeated that process on the back wheel. I added the chrome material to the seat springs, and the pivots. I added the white vinyl to the main part of the bike handles. I created a new Autodesk plastic/vinyl material and changed the color to orange and applied to to the grips on the handle, the brake box and the bottom of the seat. On the top of the seat I applied the white vinyl. To the brake pad I added the orange material, to the cylinder and box I added the chrome material, to the arms of the brake pads I added the white material, and I added the orange plastic color to the pedals.

Making the Kick Stand

Creating the kick stand

I created a line following the bottom part of the frame to make the kickstand and then used rendering and the rectangle option to make a 3D object for the kickstand. After converting the shape into an editable poly I selected 4 polygons on the side of the kickstand, extruded them and then used the scale tool to taper the end. I hid all unselected items and then in polygon mode selected the 3 bottom inside polygons on the kickstand and used bevel. I applied NURMS and added some resolution using the swift loop tool,

I selected the sprocket, turned on NURMS and in edge mode selected one of the middle edges used ring to select all the other middle edges and then used the connect tool and adjusted the segments and pinch. I then selected two polygons on the sprocket right under the bottom of the kickstand, inset them slightly, then extruded them inward to create a hole and then upped the iterations of the NURMS to 2. Finally I moved the pivot point of the kickstand to the bottom where the kick stand and the sprocket meet.

Making the Break System

Creating the brake system

I un-grouped the two pieces of fender and converted both of the pieces to editable patches. I adjusted the fender pieces so they fit better in between the forks so that I have room to create the brake system. I next created a cylinder off to the side of the bike and then moved it and rotated it so that it was somewhat parallel with the fender pieces. I then moved it inside the two forks and in front of the fender pieces and scaled the cylinder in. I applied NURMS and added some resolution to the cylinder with the swift loop tool. I also selected the middle of the cylinder on both sides and inset them slightly and then upped the iteration one spot.

Made a box right on the end of the cylinder and then aligned it center to center with the cylinder. I then applied NURMS and used the swift loop to add resolution

To make the break pad, I selected four inner polygons on the wheel that matched up with the box and made a copy of them. I then extruded the polygons. To cap the hole on the back of the extruded polygons I used the bridge tool and added a segment. There was still a hole at the top and bottom so I had to weld some vertices together using target weld. Finally I added some resolution using the swift loop tool.

Continuing the brake system

With autogrid turned on I created a plane in front of the break pad and then rotated it to line up with the box and cylinder. I then adjusted the plane so that it curved around the wheel and added a shell modifier, applied NURMS and added resolution with the swift loop tool. I used mirror to copy the plane and the break pad for the other side of the bike.

I created a small cylinder on top of the larger cylinder and create an inset on the top circle of the little cylinder and then extruded the inset and finally copied the shape.

I created a box and added resolution to it using the connect function by selecting the four middle edges and adding two segments. I also used swift loop once near the top of the box. Then I selected the top middle square and extruded it inward to create a hole in the box. I deleted the top polygons on the end of the box so that there wasn't a polygon blocking the top of the hole I just created. I then capped the other top polygons, leaving the middle hole open. I then used cut to break up the cap into 3 separate polygons.. I then used swift loop to add an edge through the middle of the side of the rectangle so I could cut the two side polygons on top in half. I applied NURMS and added resolution with swift loop.

 Finishing the brake system

I took the brake box and lined it up with the handle bars and then using splines drew a line roughly following the path the tubes will take. I then created a small circle and lofted the shape to get the tube.

I created a tall thin box and placed it near the brake box and then adjusted the vertices to make the box somewhat curvy. I applied NURMS and used the swift loop tool to add resolution. I finally adjusted the brake handle to fit into the break box.

Making the Frame Accents

Creating the frame accents

I made a copy of the bike frame and after I decreased the patch topology to 5 I converted the frame copy to an editable poly. I then used the lasso marquee to select some of the top polygons on the frame and then copied them to their own object and repeated that process for two more sections.

I selected vertices near the top corner of the frame and adjusted them to get a shark fin-like shape and then applied a shell modifier. I applied NURMS and bumped the iterations up to 3. I also adjusted the back of the accent so that it fit up over the seat spring

I selected the first of the smaller accents and applied a shell modifier to it and then applied NURMS. I then adjusted it so that it too fit over the seat springs. I also selected the last accent, applied the shell modifier and NURMS. Finally I selected the middle pieces of the back two accents and raised the middle to make the accents thicker

Making the Crank Arm

 Creating the crank arm

I selected the inside of the sprocket and then created a spline going up toward the pedal and after adjusting the spline to make it curvier I extruded along spline and set the taper amount to -.4 and set the segments at 7. I then created a cylinder at the end of the sprocket arm. I moved the pedal so it lined up with the arm. Finally I repeated the same process on the other side of the bike to get the second pedal and crank.

Making the Pedals

Creating the pedals

Used NURBS with point curve turned on to make the basic shape of the first pedal. Copied the pedal and pulled the copy down so there was the top and bottom faces of the pedal. I then held down shift and scaled the top pedal to create an inset copy of the pedal. Next I copied the inner ring and pulled it down slightly, I then copied this piece by holding down shift and scaling it outward and did one more copy hodling down shift and dragging upward

I used create U loft surface to attach the different lines and create a surface and then used the cap tool to close of the top and bottom holes in the pedal.

Making the Front Screen

Creating the front screen

I used a spline to trace the screen and then adjusted the corners to follow the curves of the screen. I then elected the back middle two vertices and shifted them towards the front of the frame and then adjusted them to make the shape look more like one half of a shield. Next I used the refine tool to build some geometry across the front of the shield. I then adjusted the two new lines to curve out somewhat. I used the mirror tool to get the other side of the shield, then attached the two pieces together, welded the middle vertices and applied the surface modifier to the whole shape. I also applied the shell modifier to give the shield more depth when rendering and adjusted the outer amount down so that the shield was a bit thinner.

Adjusted the shield to eliminate any penetration into the bike frame.

Making the Seat Springs

Creating the seat springs

I used splines to draw the initial lines for the seat springs, roughly following the shape of the springs and then adjusted the lines to follow the curves of the springs. I then made a small rectangle and used it when I lofted my lines to create the body of the springs. I then rotated the shapes of the loft 90 degrees so that the pieces would become untangled.

I converted the springs to editable poly's and then applied NURMS and then added resolution with the swift loop tool. Next I created a cylinder on top of the top spring with auto-grid turned on. I moved the cylinder so it went through the spring and then holding shift I moved the cylinder to make a copy, and told the program to make three copies. I moved the copies so they also went straight through the spring and then attached all the cylinders into one object. 

Finally I subtracted the cylinders from the spring using the proboolean tool to create the holes in the spring.

Making the Seat

Creating the seat

I started out with a box roughly the same size as the seat with 2 length segments, 4 width segments and 3 height segments. I then adjusted each column of vertices so they followed the shape of the seat and scaled in the corners to make the seat more rounded and then applied NURMS.

I selected the two middle polygons on the very bottom of the seat, clicked grow twice to select all the bottom pieces. I then extruded the bottom half of the seat to the local normal and then changed the crease to 1 and increased the iterations by 1. Finally I selected the polygons on top of the cushion and extruded by polygon to give the cushion a textured look.

Making the Chain Guard

 Creating the chain guard

I selected 5 polygons starting from the first one up against the bike frame and then copied the polygons onto their own objects to start forming the chain guard. I then scaled the object down and moved it to the front edge of the sprocket

Created a cylinder for the back of the chain guard about the same size as the circle in the reference image. I then attached the cylinder to the 5 polygons to make them one object. Next I selected the 5 polygon strip and 5 other polygons on the top left side of the cylinder and bridged them together and set the segments to 4. Using the edge tool I then selected the edges of the segments of the bridge piece so that the piece had  cure to it. I then moved the very far left edges so that they entered the sprocket.

I applied NURMS and then used swift loop to add some definition to the top edges of the chain guard. Next I selected the polygon in the middle of the right cylinder and inset it twice, extruded it inward, and inset it one more time to add a crease.

Created a cylinder inside the circular inset on the chain guard and then selected all the polygons except for the top middle two and deleted them. I then bridged the gap between the polygons in the front and the back so that the geometry was completely solid. I then used the swift loop tool to add resolution to the four-sided pieces on either side of the triangular segments. I then used the cut tool on the triangular pieces, cutting from one of the top side vertices, to the center line, and to the other top side vertex. I used the swift loop again to add some definition the the polygons I had just created using cut, and then used cut again, starting from the top vertices and going down to the middle line at the bottom of the shape.

I selected the two polygons in the middle of the two triangles and extruded them inward and upped the iterations to 3. I then copied the piece all the way around the circle using shift and the rotation tool. Finally I added a sphere so that the triangle designs look like they are secured by a pin.

Making the Sprocket

Creating the sprocket

I drew a rectangle with the shape option and lined the side of the rectangle up with the left side of the sprocket. After converting the rectangle to an editable spline I reshaped the rectangle to line up the match the width of the sprocket. I applied the lathe modifier and then used align to max to eliminate some inner penetration. To create the hole in the middle I aligned the axis of the lathe to fit the shape of the sprocket. I then aligned the sprocket to the frame.

I selected the top polygons after converting the object to an editable poly and used the scale tool to scale the polygons in and then applied NURMS. I used the swift loop to add resolution to the edges of the sprocket.

Made a tube that started inside the sprocket and ended just outside of the sprocket. I then centered the tubes pivot to the object and then aligned the center of the tube to the sprocket. I then used the swift loop to add some geometry to the inside of the tube. Next I selected two of the top inside polygons and extruded them. I reshaped the top edges of the the extrusions so that the middle went up and the side edges sloped downwards. I selected the four side polygons including the extrusions and created an inset and then extruded that inset inward into the tube. I applied NURMS and then used the swift loop to insert some geometry into the tube.

I selected the inside edge polygons and deleted so the sprocket pieces could later weld. I then copied the sprocket by holding shift and rotating along the Z-axis 180 degrees. I then rotated the copied piece again 180 degrees along the Y-axis and moved the sprocket copy to the other side.

I attached the two seperate pieces so I could select vertices on both objects, I then selected the top inside borders and converted them to vertices and then welded the two pieces to bridge the gap. I repeated the same process on the bottom inside borders. to remove the piece of the frame that penetrated to the sprocket I changed the curves of the bottom frame piece so that they were inside the sprocket but not going through.

Making the Handle Bars

Creating the handle bars

Used spline to draw a line following the handle bar shape and then turned the corners into bezier corners so I could round the line out. Then I adjusted the vertices so that the bottom left vertex was inside the pivot. I also adjusted the top vertex so that it was in-between the two bottom left vertices. I then drew a circle using shapes.

With the spline selected I went to the modify panel, selected compounded objects and hit loft. I then selected the circle and lofted the object to make the handle bar tubes.

Next I selected the handle bar again and made a copy of it. Then in polygon mode I selected three polygons at the end of the handle bar and then held down the shift key to select all the other polygons in those three polygon's rows and then deleted them. With the remaining polygons selected I then changed the rectangular marque tool to a lasso I selected every other column of polygons. Then I used extrude and applied NURMS to make the grips on the handle bar.

I selected the end polygon and used extrude and inset to make the button shape at the end.

Used mirror to add a handle bar to the other side of the bike.

Making the Front Tire

Creating the rear wheel

I selected the tire and rim of the front wheel, held down shift and dragged a copy of those two pieces to the back tire.

I created a tube and roughly lined it up with the back rim, I then set the sides to 20. I then aligned the rim again so that the poly segments would be about the same size as the pieces of the rim that come out from the top. I then deleted the remaining polygons and added end caps to the open ends using border mode and cap.

I selected the top polygons on the ends and then used extrude to get the pieces that attach the rim to the tire. I then applied NURMS, and added some definition using the swift loop tool. Then I used align to align the rim to the tire and then scaled the rim so it sat inside the rim.

Making the Front Tire

Creating the front tire

Created a torus to make the rubber part of the tire.

I selected two of the inner edges of the torus and used ring to be able to select all the inner edges and then used extrude twice. I scaled the extruded pieces so that they would not go past the edge of the tire and then applied NURMS.

Created a tube and aligned it roughly with the rim in the picture. Next I adjusted the pivot point of the rim using hieracy and had it center to the object and then aligned the rim to the spokes pivot point to pivot point. Then I aligned the wheel to the rim using pivot point to pivot point again.

Applied NURM to the rim and then used the swift loop to add some definition to the rim. I also grouped the spokes, the rim and the tire together.