Whippet Scooter - Vintage Motorcycle (1919)

Hello everyone,

I am a recent graduate and while job hunting I have lots of spare time to brush-up my skills and develop new projects.

I really like motorcycles, especially the classic ones so I decided to create one to add into my portfolio.

This scooter was made in 1919 in London and I found one in a great condition(restored) in a motorcycle museum in Hampshire.

I am using Maya for this project and here are a few viewport screenshots of the process.

Feedback and suggestions are welcome.

Reference Image



Blocking Phase






Modelling Phase

I began with the front wheel. These are the 1919 equivalent of our modern disc brakes

Unfortunately I did not capture as much references as I should and I had to use some artistic license to create some of the parts.





Then I modelled the parts on the handlebar. Brake levers, air-choke, etc.



And a screenshot of what I had done so far along with a wireframe.

In some parts such as the wheel spokes I have too much unnecessary detail, hence the dense wireframe.

Moving on to the saddle which has a complicated string system underneath.

This is the how I made it.



The traditional 3-cylinder approach to model a rope. Only in this case I am using it for metallic spring.






Then I used 'bend' and played with the values.



The result!





Then I moved to model the actual saddle.





and the wireframe

Nice work so far. Must be annoying not to work with a front reference.

Thanks! I have various images from most angles so I can kind of estimate the dimensions of the front.

Great work so far, look forward to the end result.

Only thing I can point out is, there are unnecessary edge loops, specially on the long straight pipes. But I guess I can understand if you are trying to keep everything clean haha

#xXShuyaXx

Thanks for your nice comment! I know they are unnecessary loops throughout the model. I am planning to clean it up at the end.

So here is the engine WIP. Started with Create Polygon tool.






So thats the main body done.



And moving on the cylinder.





Job done.



Wireframe.



And the cylinder head.

Then I continued to the carburettor. I had some struggle since all carburettors are quite complicated in shape and structure.





Top View.







The whole engine with wireframe. Definitely the most challenging part of the motorcycle.

These are the screenshots of the model so far.

Latest additions are the rear wheel and connecting the engine to the body frame.

These tyres are just placeholders. I am planning to model them in detail later on.

I now modeled the tyres. They are bit heavy in topology though.

Hey man,

Things looks pretty good so far! Your edge count is nice and low, and you've done a nice job using smooth mesh.

That being said, your bevels are not even. I'm not sure if you want to take it this far, but it would help to even those out by adding some edge loops so they smooth evenly. If you really want to take this to the next level, you really need to get those worked out. Also, dont be afraid to use the crease tool on your edges.



-AJ

Yea you are right about the bevel. I never got to use the crease tool and it seems its a tool I really need :P

Thanks for suggesting cool tips!

This is the finished model. Only a few final tweaks left to be made.

The final model is around 250k polys. I could have done with much less though.

Now I moved to shading/texturing. And I will be posting updates on that.

Perspective



Side View



Front View and Back View




And a few close ups





Suggestions and feedback are welcome.

Hope you like it.

That's pretty decent modelling. Motorcycles are always hard to do as they come in so many shapes, sizes and design differences. You've done a very good job so far and posting pics and details of how you worked is a nice touch.

Thank you man. Motorcycles are quite hard, but they are also very fun and challenging!

I haven't worked on this for a while because I was busy.

The last few days I jumped back on it and got a render out.

Did a comp in Nuke and this is the result. Hope you like it.

More to come in the next few days.





Higher Res Image