Vehicle: Suzuki GSX-750F Katana

[DeePG]

Here's a quick update to show the progress.

I've started to separate parts and have been working exclusively on the front fairing.

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana03_1.jpg

And the wireframe.

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana03_wire.jpg

[w0lf]

hey ... its shapin up real great. maybe you could do a tutorial on it when you're done. there aren't many bike modelling tutorials around !

Good Luck ! :thumbsup:

[tomaa]

the wire looks amayzing, keep us up to date... your bike becomes slowly the right shape...

greets

[DeePG]

Tank and Fuel Cap

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana04_5.jpg

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana04_wire_ss.jpg

[DeePG]

The body work is getting close to being finished.

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana05_1.jpg

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana05_1wire.jpg

[DeePG]

I'm getting bored with the body work so I'm starting on the frame and other components. Here's the updated pics:

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana06_1.jpg

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana06_1wire.jpg

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana06_2.jpg

[Kenv56]

aahhhhh dont talk of getting board you have to finish this one its lookin really good

[DeePG]

The engine is starting to come along nicely. Comments?

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/footrest%20and%20crankcase.jpg

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/footrest%20and%20crankcase%20wire.jpg

[DigitalCrystal]

The shape is coming along nicely. I'm more of a yamaha fan, but my first bike was a katana 600 ;) I guess my only thought at this point is the density of your mesh after smoothing. If I'm not mistaken, is that 2 iterations of meshsmooth being applied? If so, I believe you may be running a bit too dense. If you're going for the hyper real look, then the high density will have to do. One thing that I learned a few months back that is helping me out greatly now is that smoothing normals can give very nice effects on the smoothness of a surface with less geometry. Just a little food for thought. BTW the normal smoothing modifier in max is the "smooth" modifier. And for more on that topic.. look up smoothing groups in the user reference section.

Later

[DeePG]

Yes, I used 2 iterations of meshsmooth hence the obscenely dense mesh.

Thanks for the advice Digital Crystal. Great work with the Matrix Hover Ship BTW.

My goal is realism which, with my limited skills, necessitates using meshsmooth. I haven't used the smooth modifier yet but my experiences with smoothing groups has been great and would definatedly use them more if the parts were less complex. I've found that I need to model to a higher degree of detail to be able to apply smoothing groups with good results. Meshsmooth allows me to work with a less complex mesh and end up with good results with the exception of the high polygon count. If I was going to animate this model, I think I would approach it differently.

I will play with smooth modifier tonight to see how it is used relative to polygon smoothing groups. Maybe there's hope yet for me to stay under 300K polys with this model.

Cheers and Beers

[impulseone]

Very nice clean mesh...Its so good to see some bikes after do many cars....if you could do a tutorial that would be cool..
.Keep usposted

[w0lf]

Hey .... that is turnin out to be one helluva model:thumbsup: . Go DeepG ... GO ! lol :thumbsup:








Dont forget that texturing is as important as modelling.:twisted:
Peace:D

[DigitalCrystal]

Thanks man. Sounds like you've got your mind and plan in the right place. Too many starters just blaze away without understanding what goes into modelling, develop bad habits, etc. As long as you understand that your base model is clean low res enough to justify the increased meshsmooth, then I'd say you're on the right track. And from what I can see, you're pretty much where you want to be as far as modelling goes. Keep it up.

[habix]

looking great :)

how do you merge the different cylnders (and/or circles) on engine parts? do you use boolens or do you just weld the vertices?

[tomaa]

the wires are amazing!!! can't wait to see it when it's done...

keep us up to date

[DeePG]

how do you merge the different cylnders (and/or circles) on engine parts? do you use boolens or do you just weld the vertices?I've been using a combination of techniques for the engine covers. Mainly I start with a cylinder and extrude/bevel on polygons, manually moving, cutting and welding vertices where needed. I did use a boolean for the oil level window. The thing to remember with using booleans is that your object must be closed to acheive a closed result. If your object is open, Boolean will just cut a hole.

Keep up the good work on the Ducati.

[DuttyFoot]

I really like the way you approached the creation of this bike. You have a nice wire. Keep it. Looking forward to seeing the finished piece.

[DeePG]

Here is a pic and wire of the frame and rear end work I've done to date. Still a long ways to go but it's starting to look like a bike.

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana08_1.jpg

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana08_wire.jpg

[DeePG]

Added rear suspension linkage, passenger footrest mounting bracket and a few other minor parts.

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana09.jpg

[DeePG]

Finally finished the passenger footrest.

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Passenger%20Footrest.jpg

[DeePG]

Finished the Instrument cluster today.

Everything was modelled, but I used the models to make quality maps for the guages. I've attached a render of the models used for making the maps.

C&C are welcome.

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Instrument.jpg

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Instrument%20making.jpg

[DeePG]

Finished the rear fender, signals and did some shaping around the instrument cluster.

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana10.jpg

I'm feeling pretty happy with the model so far.

Lots of work left on the front end. I've still got to match the windshield with the fairing a little better. There's the exhaust, front forks, brakes, wheel (currently just a copy of the rear wheel scaled down slightly), handlebars, mirror mounts, engine cylinder head cover, chain, left side crankcase covers, carburators and the oil cooler left.

What to do next???

[habix]

progressing nicely :) What render engine are you using? How many polys?

The reason i ask is since i cant render my bike anymore with brazil - it runs out of memory with 1.5mio polys at meshsmooth level 2 iterations... I'am trying final render now, but just can't get flakey gold paint - it always looks undersampled. Any tips on lowering the poly count - have you ever tryed creasing sharp edges with meshsmooth - and not chamfering them?

anyway... make the handlebar and accesories around it :)

[DeePG]

I'm at 240K poly's. Mental Ray for rendering.

As far as tips for reducing poly count, use smoothing groups in the edit poly roll out or the smooth modifier instead of meshsmooth for the simpler less rounded parts. A good example would be your brake calipers. Make a semi-detailed version of the part with sharp edges. Select all the edges you want to round off and do one large and one smaller (1/3 of the large) chamfer and then go back and select the poly's that make up the rounded corners and apply a smoothing group to them.

To understand smoothing groups, convert a primitive like a cylinder to an editable poly. Use polygon selection and check out the polygon properties in the roll out. The Select by SG button will pop up a window where you can select one of two smoothing groups that are applied to a primitive cylinder. If you select '1', the ends of the cylinder will be selected. If you select '4', the rest of the cylinder will be selected. Select them both and press OK and then press Clear All in the polygon properties roll out. The cylinder will now be blocky. You can select just a few adjacent polygons on the cylinder now and press one of the smoothing group numbers and those selected polygons will then be smoothed and also be available for selection from the select by smoothing group button.

Smoothing groups don't alter the mesh in any way but alter the way light affects the object.

I hope this helps. If you already understood smoothing groups, ignore my rant.

[DeePG]

Closeup of the handlebar mount.

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Handlebar%20Mount.jpg

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Handlebar%20Mount%20wire.jpg

[DeePG]

Did some work on the front running light and the headlight reflectors.


http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana11.jpg

[DeePG]

The handlebars are almost finished.

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Handlebars.jpg

How do the handlebars look? I'm missing the mapping on the controls right now and the brake oil reservior. Do the rubber boots over the brake levers look like rubber boots? How about the bump map on the grips?

[habix]

wooooow :)

no words... - bump is great :)

can you please post unsmooth wires?

for the brake-bar: it's usually not covered with rubber boot... maybe my ugly unfinnished brakebars can give you an idea (the oil piston and cup for oil are missing - but you can se the lever that pushes the piston) -- sry for my poor knowledge of these eng. words.
http://habix.tovarnaidej.com/tut_996/out/out174.jpg

at this rate, you'll finnish your bike before me ;)

[KayseriliFatih]

awesome work.. cant wait to see more

[DeePG]

Habix: Thanks for the feedback. Here's the wire of the unsmoothed handlebars.
KayseriliFatih: more will be coming...

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Handlebars%20wire.jpg

Habix: My bike has a rubber boot on the left brake lever. The right side is exposed with the brake fluid reservoir attached. Here's a photo of what the boot looks like on the bike. I'm fortunate that I've got the real thing to model from.

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Left%20brake.jpg

[habix]

thank you for the unsmooth wires -> i needed to see them to get the feeling of how many polys to spend on such parts -> i've mastered the high poly technic, but that hunts me now, since i'am way over my computers capabilitys... I'll re-do some of parts, and use smooth groups instead of meshsmooth :)

keep up the great work!!

[DeePG]

Habix: I don't want to mislead you, I still use subdivision or meshsmooth for most of the parts.

With sub'd, the key is to keep your mesh as simple as possible prior to applying.

The smooth modifier or smoothing groups usually require a greater density base mesh which means more work and then further work applying the smoothing to the correct groups of polygons to achieve the correct look.

Basically, if you can easily model the part with a high density base mesh, and none of the edges of the part are in high contrast with objects behind that will give away the vertice corners, smoothing groups work well. If there is high contrast on the edges or the part is very abnormally shaped, sub'd is much simpler to work with.

[DeePG]

Latest update: The handlebars were more work than expected but other than further texturing, the're complete.

I just noticed that the left fairing panel moved out of place. Arghhh!

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana12-2.jpg

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana12-3.jpg

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana12-4.jpg

The steering stem and forks are next.

Any comments on the texturing so far? I am definately weak on the textures so any c&c would be appreciated. I realize that the speckle on the body looks rough up close but I plan to adjust to suit the final rendering distance.

[Shiver]

thats HOT:love:

[Pumuckle]

wow a lot better than my first bike (in max)

[DeePG]

A lot of small additions including:

Mirror mounts
Instrument switch labels
Fork supports
Key switch
Wire harness
Windshield edge bevel

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana13-1.jpg

[DeePG]

Update includes front fender, forks and brake disks.

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana14-2.jpg

[GhostFace]

looking great man

[DeePG]

Up late modelling the front calipers. What do you think?

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana14-3.jpg

For reference.

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Front%20Wheel.jpg

[habix]

wow... you're beeing to accurate :)

the front 'around thee wheel' part looks much better with details adding up. Keep it up!!!

[DeePG]

Been awhile since I've posted a full bike shot.

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana14-4.jpg

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana14-5.jpg

I'm going to have to start thinking about a scene for this machine. Any ideas?

[habix]

hey... how about up2date render? :)

Superb job as usual.... the only thing i dislike is blue material... (not the color, but it just doesnt fit on this bike)

well... don't keep us waiting ;)

[DeePG]

Here's an attempt to acheive the factory gun metal color. C&C welcome.

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana15.jpg

Habix: Thank you for the critique. I haven't had much time to model lately with the holidays and all. I hope to do some more work on the left side of the bike which has purposely been left out of renders as there is much work to do. I really like the way your Ducati is looking. Keep up the good work.

[DeePG]

Added some decals, seams on the seat and finished the exhaust. More engine work to come.


http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana15-3.jpg

[habix]

superb :)... (as usual)

one thing only: chrome exhaust looked better (or is the problem in reflections?)

keep us updated!

[DeePG]

Thanks Habix.

I removed the backdrop so there is little to reflect in the exhaust except a white panel directly above the bike. I was more interested in playing with the lighting to acheive a more defined look.

On another note, I was playing with an animation of the suspension earlier but was having problems with the MS codecs giving errors off my hosting server. For some reason the animation would play just fine directly on my machine but would give errors when I tried to play off the server. Can anyone explain this? I tried a number of different codecs to no avail.

I am able to make it work with the QT codec (Sorenson 3) so here it is.

Rear Suspension Animation (1.9 MB) (http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/suspension.mov)

[DeePG]

Worked with the textures some. Added tire bump. Still plugging away at the engine. Nothing worth showing on the engine yet.

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana15-6.jpg

[DeePG]

Here's what I've completed to date on the engine.

The cylinder head and block are still vertical until I finish the details.

I will put more detail into the crankcase but not to the degree of the cylinder head and block.

What do you think so far?

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana16.jpg

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Katana16_2.jpg

[DigitalCrystal]

Your work is looking real nice. Very clean as far as these last few renders on this page show. I would mention that you may consider brightening up the background shade to a lighter grey to show of the overall shape better.. Since most of the parts on your bike are black, or close to it, they would stand out more, food for thought.

Other than that, the model is coming along nicely. Have you kept a log of how many hours you've spent on the project?

Keep it up.

[DeePG]

I took your advice DC and lightened up the background to make things more visible. I haven't kept a log of my time as this is just a learning exercise. It would be interesting to know how much time I've put into this. Thanks for the feedback.

Here's a render showing 1 of the 4 Mikuni BSR-36 carburators. Yes, no fuel injection on this bike. The carburator and engine block are completely modeled using polygons without subdivision. The molded plastic connection to the engine is subdivided though.


http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Carb2.jpg


Here is a render that shows the blocks used to make up the carburator.

http://www.telusplanet.net/asia/3D/Carb.jpg

[neiy0]

looks very nice man..i dont know much about this specific bike, but it looks good so far..

i really like the full body renders, it has a lot of weight to it;)

one thing i noticed was that the tires seem a little to square..around the edge..when cornering a turn, tires need to be more round, or else the bike will flip or roll..

awsome job so far, nice texturing too:)

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