Summer Project

Well first off I’m just gonna say I really should’ve kept up with my blog over the summer holidays, its going to be weird having to get used to talking to myself again, oh the joys of blog writing.

So… the Summer Project – the choice between an environment, vehicle, character or animal. I thought I’d go down the vehicle route. From here it was a tough decision what to model, but I wanted to create something from a 3d reference which I could see fully before my eyes.

So I went to various arts crafts and toy shops (Toys ‘R’ us bringing back so many childhood nostalgic memories, was so tempted to roll round the store in their electronic cars, but turns out they don’t leave batteries in them anymore ! how sad) anyways, I was trying to find an airfix kit which I could work from. Ideally I wanted to make a motorcycle, and eventually I found one, the Honda CBR 1100xx… Perfect !

It’s also like the daddy version of my CBR 125R back at home haha.

Making it was fun, it’s been a while since I sat down with the smell of glue sticking tiny bits of plastic together. But after a couple of days the model was finished and it was time to restart max and create the bike in the virtual world !

My first attempt was rather shabby, I started off modelling the side fairing but not really thinking about what I was doing. After a while though I decided it wasn’t working out and it was time to start again.

After this it went surprisingly smoothly creating the geometry ( I was actually thinking about what I was doing ) I think having the Model Airfix kit in front of me really helped as I could really see the curves and shapes on the bike and I was able to covert this into 3dsmax. I had the hardest time making the fuel tank, for a while I couldn’t get the right shape and when it did, it wouldn’t fit onto the bike correctly. Eventually though I got this sorted out.

I am pleased with the final outcome. The bike resembles the real thing and I also explored new techniques within texturing such as reflective maps to make the model nice and shiny. however there are small details which I didn’t manage to create within the tri budget, which I would’ve liked to have included. The wheels could also do with a higher use of polys, looks uncomfortable to ride in the real world !