Tire Treads Demo

blanchsb  as promised (and everyone else that's interested, of course) a 'small' video going through the principle of the Drivers and Custom Property and how I set it up. I started from scratch and didn't make the exact one from my entry, because I thought that it  would be nice to see the whole process. It's a uncut realtime recording and I am not very good at doing more than one thing at the time (like talking and modelling), so it's not perfect (lots of "ehhh's" and pauses), but real;)

Have fun!

https://youtu.be/-4eKbpt_ZtM


  • Kent Trammell replied

    The legend himself, in my ears!

    Spikey, this is an excellent demo. Far superior to my bumbling demonstration on stream. You've got a clever, technical mind. A very impressive 15 minutes đź‘Źđź‘Ź

    Thanks for taking the time to record this tutorial. I hope you won't mind that I added the video embed to the bottom of your post.

    sshanr It doesn't get better than this.

  • spikeyxxx replied

    Thank you Master! That means a lot to me, coming from you!

    |I hope you won't mind that I added the video embed to the bottom of your post

    Of course not;)

  • adrian replied

    That was an excellent demo, so cool how it rotates just by moving the empty. Great how the scale changes in relation to number of treads to keep a consistent size. sshanr you really need to see this, you will never need to watch another tyre tutorial again.

    @theluthier watch out, someone has got there eye on being Top Dog. 

  • Shawn Blanch(blanchsb) replied

    This is, without a doubt, the coolest way I have seen a tire made.

    Plus I learned about drivers, which was on my bucket list.

  • spikeyxxx replied

    Thanks Adrian!

    so cool how it rotates just by moving the empty

    Yeah that was a fun discovery, but wouldn't be useable as a rig the way it is now, because turning the wheel (rotating around the Z-axis) would mess everything up;)

  • shanr replied

    How long did it take for you to learn blender

  • spikeyxxx replied

    sshanr if I remember correctly, I discovered Blender somewhere in 2012. I'm a slow learner, but I use Blender, like at an average of 10 hours a day.

    But I still haven't learned Blender,; there is still sooo much I don't know..

    For me Blender is like life: too big to know everything about it, but I appreciate everything I learn and don't worry about all the things I don't know yet and maybe will never know...

  • Ingmar Franz(duerer) replied

    spikeyxxx This is the best and cleverest way to create a tyre and keep it easily editable 👍 and it's an excellent tutorial, too 🙂!

  • Shawn Blanch(blanchsb) replied

    This is how I felt after I watched this video spikeyxxx 


    Shock and Awe

  • Karen Trevino(ketre) replied

  • Shawn Blanch(blanchsb) replied

    I also just noticed after watching it another time: He doesn’t delete the default cube!

  • spikeyxxx replied

    blanchsb That was an insider (Blender user) joke;)


  • Kaj Suominen(louhikarme) replied

    Great one! :) Simple Deform is awesome. 

  • Shawn Blanch(blanchsb) replied

    Yeah,  some other funny things:

    Caps lock when you meant to shift: I do that all the time. My new keyboard lets you turn caps lock off!
    Rotate instead of loop cut (or vice versa): It's like we're brothers in Blender because this is another thing I do all the time!
    Chewbacca grows while making the treads: Classic!

  • Sudeep Singh(hellosudeepsingh) replied

    Thank you spikeyxxx 

  • Shawn Blanch(blanchsb) replied

    Man there sure are some funny "Delete the Default Cube Videos"
    (My personal Favs: 1: Delete Default Cube; 2: What happens to the cube when you delete it )

    This is my favorite meme of Blender Instructional Videos: 

  • adrian replied

    What about this one blanchsb Default Cube.

  • spikeyxxx replied

    Nice one, Adrian!

  • Bhavesh Patel(ryzen7) replied

    spikeyxxx : I tried to follow the tutorial which you prepared. But even though I have 360° bend. There is gape in the tyre tread. While I did another tyre, it worked there.

    Above tyre tread has a gape. 

    This one worked perfactly.


    Do you know why it happens?

  • spikeyxxx replied

    rryzen7 I have absolutely no idea how you managed to do that.

    Looks like your original segment is missing. One way to create a gap like that would be to have an angle less than 360°. but even then would the gap not be where it is now.

    My guess is that you used a Count of 18 in your Array Modifier. Now only 17 are visible....Strange.

    Make sure that your segment is straight at the connecting edges, so not something like:

    The beauty of the 'Bend Modifier' is that you can set the angle and 360° is always a full circle (unless you are in a country where they still use a 400° circle...).

    No matter what I try, I cannot accidentally create a gap like that.

    The closest I could get to something like your screenshot is by applying the Modifiers and then deleting the original segment and I don't expect you to have done that.

    Or by using a Curve Modifier instead of a Simple Deform.

    Long story short: I'm clueless!

    (Do you still have that .blend file????)