Bicycle Pedals - 3ds Max Modeling Tutorial

Bicycle Pedals - 3D Modeling Tutorial
Hello people, it's time for the 4th part of our 3d modeling tutorial series witch show you the process of 3d modeling a bicycle using 3ds Max 2015. In this part we will create high poly pedals. Unlike the first 2 parts, this 3d modeling tutorial will not use any reference images, it will be done by eye. So, don't hesitate to comment, to show my any errors in this tutorial and to ask my any questions you have.  So, let's begin this 3d modeling tutorial.

Part 1 - Bicycle Fork - 3ds Max Modeling Tutorial
Part 2 - Bicycle Frame - 3ds Max Modeling Tutorial
Part 3 - Bicycle Crankset - 3ds Max Modeling Tutorial
Part 4 - Bicycle Pedals - 3ds Max Modeling Tutorial
Part 5 - Bicycle Handlebar - 3ds Max Modeling Tutorial
Part 6 - Bicycle Seat - 3ds Max Modeling Tutorial
Part 7 - Bicycle Wheels - 3ds Max Modeling Tutorial
Part 8 - Assembling the Bicycle - 3ds Max Modeling Tutorial


Step 1: To start this 3d modeling tutorial Open or Reset 3ds Max. In the top left corner you can see the 3ds Max icon, click on it and click Reset, Save or Don't Save your work and click YES for "Do you really want to reset?". 

Step 2: So you don't get confused with the units setup change it so that we all work with the same type. From Customize, click on Units Setup, select Generic Units and International, click OK. I've use to work with the metric system, but I've found out the with generic it's easier for everyone.

Step 3: With the Front Viewport active, from Create, Geometry, select Cylinder, change the Height Segments to 6, the Cap Segments to 3, and 12 sides. Expand Keyboard entry and leave the X,Y and Z axis to 0, change the amount of Radius to 15 and Height to 90 and click Create. After you've created the Cylinder right click on it and select Convert to -> Convert to Editable Poly.

Step 4: Press ALT+W on your keyboard to expand the viewport and press "T" on your keyboard to change the viewport to Top. Now from the Modify tab in the top right corner, enter Vertex selection mode and select the middle 30 vertices by clicking and dragging over them. Select the Select and Scale tool, go to the Front Viewport and scale the vertices down in the X and Y axis to 80. You can also see the result bellow.

Step 5: In Front viewport, change the selection mode to Edge, select one edge and click on Loop to make a loop selection. Click on the square next to Chamfer, set the amount to 0.2 and click OK.

Step 6:In Polygon selection mode, select the inner polygons of the chamfer edges from before. Extrude them with an amount of -10. Click OK and press Delete to Delete the inside ones.

Step 7: Select the front and back loop edges in Edge selection mode and click on the square next to Chamfer to chamfer them with an amount of 0.2. Click OK.

Step 8: In Polygon selection mode select the middle polygons. Using the Select and Move tool, move the polygons in the Y axis for about -1.5.

Step 9: With the same polygons selected, click on the square next to Extrude and extrude them with an amount of -5. Click OK.

Step 10: Now, since we only want to affect just the front part of our object when we are going to move some vertices around, select it in Polygon selection mode and click on Hide Unselected.

Step 11: In vertex selection mode position the vertices like bellow using the Select and Move tool. After you finish go in polygon selection mode and click on Unhide All to see the rest of the object again.

Step 12: Select the middle polygons in Polygon selection mode and click on the square next to Inset to inset them with an amount of 0.1. Click OK.

Step 13: In Edge selection mode, select every other edge from the middle and press Backspace to Remove them.

Step 14: Chamfer the Edges with an amount of 0.1. Click OK.

Step 15: Go to the other side of the object and select the middle polygons, using the Select and Scale tool, scale the down in the X and Z axis to 80.

Step 16: With the same polygons selected click on the square next to Extrude, change the amount to 10 and click on the "+" sign, change the amount to 5 and again, click on the "+" sign. Finally change the amount to 10 and click OK.

Step 17: Change the selection mode to Edge, make a loop selection of the edges by selecting one from each row and clicking Loop, Chamfer them with an amount of 0.1, click OK.

Step 18: Back in Polygon selection mode select the bellow polygons and Extrude them with the type "Local Normal" and an amount of 3.

Step 19: Select the Polygons and Hide Unselected again.

Step 20: Change the Viewport to Front or Back(pressing "V") and in Vertex selection mode using the Select and Move tool or Select and Scale Tool rearrange the vertices like in the next image. You can not Unhide All in Polygons selection mode.

Step 21: Make a Loop selection of the edges and Chamfer them with an amount of 0.1.

Step 22: Also Chamfer the base ones on both sides with an amount of 0.3.

Step 23: In Edge selection mode select every other edge from the middle circle and press Backspace to remove them.

Step 24: By Now you should have something like this:

Step 25: It's time to make the outer part of the bicycle pedals. So, in Top Viewport, from Create, Shapes click on Line and create one around the inner pedal. Hold down SHIFT when making the line to make it straight.

Step 26: Now, go to Modify and enter Vertex selection mode for the Line. Select the Top vertices and change the filet amount to 5. Select the bottom vertices and make a filet of 20.

Step 27: Exit any selection mode by click on Line in the selection mode tab and from the Modifier list add an Extrude modifier. Change the Amount to 28 and the Segment to 4. Position in correctly.

Step 28: Again, from the Modifier list, add a Edit Poly modifier and go in Edge selection mode. Select the middle edges and Connect them with 5 segments.

Step 29: 1) In Polygon selection mode from the Edit Poly modifier, select the 4 middle polygons and press DELETE. 2) In Vertex selection mode using the Select and Scale tool scale up to 140 in X,Y axis the top, bottom and left, right vertices. 3) Select the Border in Border selection mode and scale it up to 125.

Step 30: Select the Edges in Edge selection mode and Connect them with 8 segments. We will do the rest of the 3d modeling only on one side, because we will mirror it later and do only half of the work.

Step 31: In polygon selection mode, select the polygons and using the Select and Scale tool, scale them down in the Y axis to 50. Press Delete to delete them.

Step 32: Now, in Vertex selection mode, expand the Soft Selection tab and check the box for Use Soft Selection. Change the Falloff to 15, Pinch to -0.05 and Bubble to 0.68. Select the back top and bottom vertices and using the Select and Scale tool, scale them down in the Y axis to 30. When you're finished, uncheck the box for Use Soft Selection.

Step 33: Exit any selection mode and from the Modifier list add a Shell Modifier. Change the Outer amount to 3.

Step 34: Now, we can add another Edit Poly modifier to keep working on the same stack, but we don't really want to have that many since we don't want do go back and change anything. So right click on the object and click on Convert to -> Convert to Editable Poly.

Step 35: In Polygon selection mode, select the bellow selected polygons and Extrude them with an amount of 5. Click OK.

Step 36: In Vertex selection use the image bellow as reference and reposition part of the to vertices resulted from the extrusion before.

Step 37: Now in Edge selection mode we need to select about 103 edges. So take your time, analyze the image, and holding down CTRL start selecting them.

Step 38: Now Chamfer the previously selected edges with an amount of 0.2.

Step 39: Now go to Vertex selection mode and Weld together every corner that has 3 edges intersecting because there are now formed 3 edge polygons. So look at the next image, see the zoom in, see the result, and Weld all those vertices together. You have to select 72(you see 68 in the image, but they are 72) vertices in total, from both side, click on the square next to Weld and change the amount to 0.7 so the difference between before and after is 34 vertices.

Step 40: In Edge selection mode, make a ring selection of the top edges. Select on from each part and click on Ring. Connect the edges with 2 Segments and a Pinch of 80. Click OK.

Step 41: Make a Ring selection of the edges and Connect them with 1 Segment.

Step 42: In Top viewport, exit any selection mode and click on the Mirror tool. Select X axis, for Clone Selection chose Copy and Click OK. Activate the Attach tool and click on the other object the attached them together.

Step 43: Repeat last step but only this time go in Front viewport and change the Mirror axis to Y.  Attach the objects together.

Step 44: Select the bottom part polygons and using the Select and Move tool move the up to align with the rest of the object. You can also do this in step 41 if after the mirror they don't intersect right on the edge.

Step 45: Now go in Vertex selection mode and press CTRL+A to select all vertices. Click on the square next to Weld and change the amount to 0.06. Click OK.

Step 46: Select the 22 polygons in Polygon selection mode and Delete them.

Step 47: Select the top and bottom edges and Connect them with 1 segment.

Step 48: Go in Border selection mode, and select the Borders resulted from the deletion of polygons in step 46 holding down CTRL or by pressing CTRL+A since those are all the borders we select them all. Click on the Square next to Bridge and Click OK.

Step 49: Now Make a ring selection of all the 4 "arms" edges. Connect them with 3 Segments and a Pinch of 90.

Step 50: Now in the Top viewport, in Vertex selection mode using the Select and Move tool you can rearrange the vertices like bellow. You don't really have do to this since the entire object is modeled by eye, without any measurements and it look good as it is, by consider this an extra step.

Step 51: We are pretty much finished. I wont build the screw that goes in the pedal handle because it won't be seen in the final render. So, for the last step of this 3d modeling tutorial, from the Modifier list add a Turbosmooth modifier, with 2 Iterations and check the box for isolate display.

3D Modeling Result:

As i said at the beginning of this 3d modeling tutorial, fell free to comment and ask me any questions you have. See you soon guys.

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