Bicycle Build

[joel ruiz c]

Beautiful work!

 

[ZooHead]

Thanks Joel, trying to keep busy in order to keep my sanity with all that's going on.
I hope you're staying safe.

 

[ZooHead]

So far I have gotten the suspension to work by rotating the swing arm.
But what if I want to move the frame up and down to get it to work?

It can be done.

It's a great exercise, if your interested in trying it out I included a simple test file.
You may come up with a totally different way of doing it than I did.

 

[ZooHead]

Now I'm using a Parent Constraint Tag on the frame so I can compress
the system at the angle of the front fork, which is at an angle with too many
decimal places to be able to match in Pivot Mode, so I rotated a box at that
angle and put the Parent Constraint Tag on the frame object targeting the box.

The problem with that is the struts IK Target is will no longer move with the
system so I had to put a Parent Constraint Tag on it targeting the same box.

The only thing animated is the box with three keyframes.

 

[ZooHead]

Render at four times the final size and reduced in PS.

 

[ZooHead]

Here's some spline art.

 

[ZooHead]

Playing with spline tracking.

4 keys for the legs and two for linear motion.

 

[Lydia]

Ah, the toes follow the circles with spline tracking? I think that's clever. Well, quite logical, actually, but I probably wouldn't have thought of doing it that way. (Just like the bike animation with the box.)
I would be happy to see a complete animation with your beautiful bicycle model. It is really impressive.

 

[ZooHead]

Thanks, I hope to incorporate a bunch of previous testing projects into an animation.
I'm trying to figure out a story line including my character a bicycle and the rollercoaster.
So much work to do, but inch by inch, I'm making progress.

 

[Lydia]

Oh, it would be great to see your character, your roller coaster and the bike in one animation! I like your "grandpa" and I'm curious to see what he will do! I know it's hard to come up with a story. But you will surely make it great and I would be happy to see more character animations here!

 

[ZooHead]

I was thinking if grandpa had a bike it might be more of a beach cruiser.

And this is what I came up with after searching the web:

Now I just need to build it.

 

[Lydia]

Another bike. That's a lot of work. But a beach cruiser in a retro style would be very nice for your grandpa and in general. I like these bikes.

 

[ZooHead]

I'm starting to develop some techniques specific to 3D
bicycle building and the only way is to keep doing it.

Mostly done and it's looking pretty good so far.

 

[ZooHead]

Rendered with the handlebars.

 

[ZooHead]

I used the Chain Creator to simulate a chain. Duh!

 

[ZooHead]

Enhanced version:

 

[Hasdrubal]

Zoo, allow me to act as your conscience for once: As much as I like your 2nd design, I really would like to see No 1 finished.

 

[ZooHead]

Thanks Has, I understand. I wanted to get both frames done to the same extent,
and then make the parts common to both, like the wheels and crank sets.

Playing with tire tread design and rubber material now.
I always have trouble with materials that are dark like rubber and asphalt.

I wonder if Hannibal called him Has... or maybe Dru?

 

[Hasdrubal]

At least when Hannibal's brother-in-law was there (he was called Hasdrubal, too), he probably called him brother . I doubt, it's somewhere transmitted how they called each other.

Light rubber is probably even worse because that would need some sss. That said, there are very good pbr-materials around for both dark rubber and asphalt. You could use some of them, as they are or as a base for your own material.

 

[ZooHead]

Thanks brother, once again you have helped me out of a dark corner by suggesting pbr.

I also remembered a comment from Martin about making the pbr
shader the default and wanted to start using it more often anyway so...

I simply switched to the pbr shader, which gave me much more control.