I have finally got the wheels almost where I want them. I have discovered that bumpmapping and texturing a tire is quite a challenge, but oh so worth it. Thanks litst for all your help, without you I'd still be sitting here scratching my head. Now if I can just finish the car these are going on, I'll be really happy. Questions and comments would be appreciated. These are 99.9% done, one more night and I'll be there. kaom

WOW!!! Looks awesome! Is there anyway I could talk you into posting those in the free stuff??? My '57s could sure use some Kaom brand wheels! Jared

Or even the market place?

Give me your email and I will send you the Carrara file for it.I'm thinking about making a collection of them and selling them in the marketplace later on. But for now I will give you the Carrara file, just for you! Thanks for the compliment, now I'm turning red! Stick a set of KAOM brand wheels on cruiser, and roll in style! Now I'm just being cheesy! Thanks, kaom

I just realized that the .car for this is 14 MB, so I guess email isn't an option. I'm going to inquire about the markeplace and see if I can sell them in there. What do you think would be a fair price for these. I'm thinking somewhre in neighborhood of $5.00. tell me what you think and I will check into uploading them to the marketplace. I know that hey have to test the files befor they will sell them, but hopefully they would take this file.What knid of file should I export it as? A 3DS Max, OBJ? Let me know. kaom

rockjockjared, I just exported the wheel itself and the file si only 2.3 MB. So maybe email is a possibility. kaom

kaom, 3ds would be great! But unfortionately my isp only allows 512k or less e-mail files! Stupid @home service! I don't know what a good price would be...I've thought of selling some of my models, but I can't ever figure out a good price for them. But that's up to you! Did you use Nurbs for modeling this? I was working on a set of wheels in Max a while back and always had trouble once I did the booleans for the cutouts and subdivided them. I think I was just using a mesh tough...I eventually just gave up! I'll probably have a try at it again later...maybe tonight... About the models though...I've a WAYS off from finishing the cars...I'm trying to get them as close to actual specs as possible...so it will probably be 2101 before I'm done! Whenever you get the entire set done and in the market place, let us know (keep us updated more than that though!) I'll pick 'em up! Jared

Cool! I will definately keep everyone posted! I'll be working on them over the next couple weeks. Max is tough to learn, Back in college I had couple of 3D classes, and in one of them we had to do basic projects in 3DStudio Max, I had a hard time with it. It's powerful, if you get the basics down, but i never did! I modeled th ewheel in Rhino using Nurbs, and everything else in Carrara. And used Photoshup for some of the textures and bumpmaps. Thats a drag about your ISP only allowing 512kb, I'm not even sure what my limit is. I'm still on 56k. Someday I'll evolve and get high speed. I'll keep you updated on these. Keep working on those cars, I know it's a pain, but the results will be worth it. What are you modeling them in? Thanks, kaom

I'm modeling them in Max. I'm pretty much a beginner using Max...went up from Carrara (still use C too though.) So it's a good learning project for me :) Which will hopefully get some pretty good results when I'm done. Good Luck on the rest of the wheels! Happy rendering! Jared

Maybe if I can sell enough sets of wheels I can eventually upgrade to Max myself. It would be nice, but right now it's more than I can spend. And remember that KAOM brand alloy wheels!LOL kaom

Really nice skins kaom, good work.

Nice tires. Only nitpick would be that the text on the side is REALLY yellow.... I think it's too bright, even for a brand-new, never-been-on-the-street tire. Just my input. But I LOVE the modelling. The wheel is awesome, and I like the little KAOM logo in the center. Great work!

Cutcopypaste - thanks for the link! It was very helpful! The wheel (still very much a WIP!) took about an hour to create in max. I did the pencil in max as well (what can I say, I got bored lastnight.) Thanks again for the link, and thank you Kaom for making me start up the old wheel again! Jared

Very nice rockjockjared, I knew you master Max, and from the looks of it, your not having to much trouble making a killer wheel.I might get a free site and pit some free downloads for now on it. Good suggestion, or I guess I could put it up in freestuff here. THanks guys,I appreciate the compliments, I've learnes a lot in the last week about mapping in Carrara, this whole project was a great lesson in itself. Now it's a matter of being creative with it and not just guessing. Thanks, kaom

Nice Work Kaom! Can't wait to see the finished car. One question: You used Rhino to model the wheel, is this something that Carrara can't do or is it just way to hard/involved. How does it compare in Rhino? Thanks, PAGZone

PAGZone, I did use Rhino to make the wheel. I probobly could end with something close to it in Carrara but it would be about 10 times the work. Rhino's Nurbs tools are so easy to use. But you could do something close in the spline modeller, or even the vertex room, but I suck at making complicated vertex objects. I'm sure someone out there could end up with very similar results though in Carrara, I do love Carrara for the things that it can do, it does them well, for a low cost modeling application. Thanks, kaom

kaom...the link that ccp gave me gives a good description on how to do it in Max, but you can follow the same steps and end up with something very similar to it in C with the vertex modeler...I don't know why you would want to do this having Rhino...but maybe if you get bored! Jared P.S., got more done on the wheel...it's coming along nicely! I'll probably UVW map the tire later tonight or tomorrow.

I'd like to see it. I'll try making a wheel in the vertex room, and see what happens.I'll check the link out, that would be great if Max techniques would work in Carrara's vertex modeller. Thanks for the tip! Post that wheel in here when you get it done. I'm anxious to see what it looks like. Will you be rendering ti in Carrara or Max? What version of Max do you use? The render engine in Max4 is incredible, I got the demo of it from Computer Arts last month and Wow! Render on, kaom

kaom - here is the wheel modeled in carrara...I've forgotten how to use the vertex modeler so I didn't subdivide or crease or any of that run stuff. It was pretty easy to create the basic mesh (took about 10mins.)

and here is another render or my Max wheel with tire, shading, and lug nuts. I'm using v4 and I absolutly love it! The renders are excellent quality and pretty fast! They will be much better when I get a new computer...hopefully next month if business picks up 8-) Jared P.S. this render is from earlier today...still haven't gotten the tire UVW mapped...I'm being lazy for the moment :)

Ah yes version 4, I'm jealous. I can't wait for the day when I can buy 3DStudio Max. Till then I'll keep using Carrara, which in my opinion is kind of like a poor-mans version of Max. I really do love Carrara, especially for the price, It really can't be beat for the price and features. I will try the wheel in vertex, great work, looks like you're getting the hang of Max pretty well. kaom

Yes, Carrara is AWESOME for the price. I probably would have stuck with it, but I bought max just about a week or two before CS came out, I guess I had lost faith in Eovia and I just needed something that would be reliable and effective. I'm glad that I bought it...my wallet is still recovering! But it was worth every penny, and hopefully some day I'll be able to produce some really awesome graphics with it. Jared

You will, you will! If I could afford it I would of given up on Carrara a long time ago, through all the B.S. and frustration. But I couldn't, so I guess we al got lucky when Eovia gave us the Studio patch, if they hadn't I'd probobly be working with another program by now. Keep on learning Max, you'll be glad you did. Once I get it, I can bug the sh&t out of you to teach me how to use it!LOL kaom