Does anyone know where I can buy a nice bicycle object ?

Thank you

There's a few in the freebies here. Otherwise, maybe you could get someone to model one for you.

The nicest one I've seen is from Lab108.  It's sort of hiding under a Japanese name:

http://lab108.x0.com/lab108/mamachari_v12.zip

It's not fully posable (ie you can't animate it for a ride), but it's extremely accurate and pretty.

and if you can't model, I bet I could make a few moving parts on it for ya. Only for your personal use tho, can't distribute it or anything.

Yup, the Mamachari can be made posable quite easily.  I rigged a CR2 that works well, but didn't want to post it here because it required a slight change in the OBJ file.

Here's what it looks like in action:

http://ockhamsbungalow.com/blog22/Ride-bike.swf

There are a number of very nice ones over at Daz, as well.

Thank you very much for your responses, and helps.

The mamachari is very nice. I like it.

Ockham, your movie is very nice !

BionicRooster, if you could make a few moving part, it would be great.

Thanks again.

Hmmm...

It could be a fun project to make a modern bike.

I may just give it a go.

SamTherapy,

If you could make a flat bar road bike or a road bike, it would be great.

I am going to buy it.

Let me know if you have any plan.

Thank you

Quote - Hmmm...
It could be a fun project to make a modern bike.

I may just give it a go.

Yeah I was thinking that too Sam, I was looking up some designs today.

If you could make a flat bar road bike

and/or a road bike, it would be great.What kind of bicycle are you going to make, BionicRooster ?

I am still not sure, I was waiting to see what kind people wanted. I may make the flat barred road bike tho.

It is very nice.

It is now 65% off.   I could buy it for $ 5.25.

The sale ends tomorrow.

Well almost a month later, and I've been asked to make an old, 60's style, Schwinn StingRay bicycle. I'm not sure if anyone else would be interested, but here's what I have so far. I should have it finished in a few days, with UV mapping and making a new and worn texture set. Forgive most the colors, as of now, only the tires and chain are UV mapped and textured.

New and worn textures sounds nice. Looks good.

You can't really tell how it looks without some kind of scenery, so here's a better look (and a littlt more finished)

All that's about left to model is the seat. Then on to the texture making.

That looks very nice.  Can't wait to get my hands on it.  Thanks.

Wow that brings back memories. In 1969 only 2 kids in my california neigborhood had real StingRays. They were the cool kids. I had a schwinn too, but it was a 10 speed, more nerdy, we all had junker bikes we "took jumps with" and such, but the StingRay Kids were the kings of the hill.

I have to spend some time optimizing it, as the chain has more polys than the rest of the bike combined lol

I'm hoping to get it down from almost 55k to maybe in the 20's or lower.

How many colors should I include? I know the powder blue, red, pink, black/grey, but are there any others you guys would like included so you don't hafta mess around too much in the Material room?

And hborre, I believe you were my 1st comment ever on here on my Iron-Man pic (my 1st Gallery upload,) so you're one of the people here that have seen me go from pretty much nothing to where I am now. Man, how a year can fly by... lol

Bionic Rooster -

That baby is screaming for a banana seat with a sissy bar!

Klebnor

Quote - That baby is screaming for a banana seat with a sissy bar!

Just wait, it's gonna be EPIC I tell ya! lol

The sissy bar is gonn have a morph to be the short, ass-crack high version, or the shoulder-blade high type  :o)

Baseball cards clipped to the wheel supports, impacting the spokes during flight?

Klebnor

Ya know what, I was actually thinking about adding a baseball card with the wooden clothes-pin holding it in the spokes... I soooooo did that as a kid, and that was in the 80's!

Exactly right, BR.  You have definitely come a long way, and I think the forum appreciates your comments and contributions

Quote - Ya know what, I was actually thinking about adding a baseball card with the wooden clothes-pin holding it in the spokes... I soooooo did that as a kid, and that was in the 80's!

OK ... but did you have a racoon tail hanging from the top of the sissy bar?  You have to use a rubber band to make sure it doesn't slide down and hit the back wheel.

Yeeha!  It's wheelie time!

Klebnor

Well I think I'm all done with the modeling and some texturing. The sissybar morph didn't work too well for me, so I will just include 2 versions.

So here's how it looks. Should I do a sub-d on the wheels to make them look more round? Just wondering what you guys think.

You da man!

The sub-d on the wheels should improve the look for closeups.  I don't think it matters if you use it as a background prop.

I hope the seat slides down 'cause ... really ... everyone made these into low riders.  Ass right over the rear tire - pull back on the handlebars as you hit the pedals, your back settled into the sissy bar and the front wheel was up off the pavement in an instant.  Usually could ride half a block without the front wheel touching the ground.

Skid stops worked much better with the center of gravity low, too.

Bringing back lots of memories, BR.

Klebnor

The lab site now asks for a password to the server. Odd.

Well, it's nearing completion. Sissy bar morph and seat height morph are working now, so that's a relief. Been working on making textures and making it look nice n pretty for most the day today, and then I am making the "worn" textures as well. It will most likely have 5 or 6 color options, with new and old for each. I am also going to make the baseball card in spokes smart-prop, and reflectors in the spokes and up front, in case people would like those also. Anyways, here's the "hot-rod" look that was mentioned :o)

Very nice work, looks Good.

Superb!

I haven't even gotten off the ground with my attempt at a bike.  Apart from a few pencil sketches, that is.

Ok, I'm trying to make a rusted look and here's what I have so far. It's just rust spots with a mask and I used the Blender node to work it in to the original textures. I'm still unsure about it, and might only do 'new' textures if I can't get this to look better. I will keep trying tho, but I don't wanna waste too much time on it.

Ok, it's 4:46 am, and I've been at this since I woke up, literally! I wanted to get the textures done so i can package it up and have it ready for you guys ASAFP. Well... Thanks to a certain super genious (coughbagginsbillcough), pointing me to a thread with some handy shader tricks, I was able to modify them to this model with minimal effort. So, I am happy to show you the "probably" finished old texture. I may make a few adjustments here and there, but I like how it turned out  :o)

Un-frickin'-believable.

Nice work ... very nice work indeed!

Get some sleep, BR.

Klebnor

I am now thinking of doing 3 levels of aging. New, old, and frickin' really old. Somebody give me a color sample scheme for colors you'd like included pre-made. Here's an example I threw together (if you can't tell by the ground and BG, which are there for reflection purposes only,) that shows the full out rusted look, like what would happen if say, it was left in a field and forgotten about for many years...

Freakin' awesome!!!!!

The model is awesome. Will it be for sale?

Yes it will. After evaluation, I think it'll come out to be 13 or 14 different colors, with new, old, and really old versions of each. I should be able to have them all completed in a week or less, depending on how much Call of Duty:Black Ops I play lol

On a side note, so far it's a parented together prop, and I don't have the skills yet to rig something like this. Is there anyone out there that could rig this? In my attempts, whenever you rotate one thing, something that you don't want to move, moves! So if there's anyone that could rig it I'd gladly give them the set.

This is a great use of procedural texture - it's a much lighter load on Poser than loading 500 MB of various image and masks.

The "old" bike seat is too shiny.

Yeah I noticed that as well on the close up and have taken it down, and also removed the Reflection node I didn't notice was in there at first. I also took the reflection down on the aged chrome, after all, it don't keep that "polished" look forever.

I'm sure you recognize the leather :o)   I am definately open for more suggestions to modify your shader to fade it and possibly add those tiny cracks that appear after weathering.

I'm learning more about procedurals during this project, and what a doozy it is, there's a million nodes to sort thru and figure out what affects what with what effect. Took me a sec to figure out there was 5 nodes to adjust to modify the amount of rust. But it is a learning experiance after all, and it'll only help me in the long run.

Nice modelling and texturing !

Just sent you a PM about the rigging.

Ok, I've been tinkering with the nodes trying to get the right looks for each, and I am getting close (I think). I put the 3 side-by-side for easier comparison. Don't ask me why I didn't think of it b4... lol

A big thanks goes out to noxiart for rigging it for me, as it makes applying the MATs easier, 1 object to change instead of selecting each part then applying MAT.

Anyways, here's an update. I'm trying to get the shaders right for each on this color, then making all the other color options is just a matter of changing the color in 1 node for each.

Looks really excellent. My only criticism is the tire color - way too black on the older ones, even  the new one is a bit too black. Do a google image search for "old bicycle" and see how much rubber fades, on a well-used bike the tires are a dark grey, on an old one a mid grey-brown.

BR asked me for rubber but I haven't had time to find mine and post it. If I recall, though it's really simple. Use something between dark gray and black on the diffuse, with diffuse value really low. Use a Blinn set up broadly for the specular. That would be eccentricity is somewhere between .1 and .4, and reflectivity is low, like .1. Combine these as per usual in a GC shader.

If you don't use a GC shader, you can get it to look right, BUT ONLY WITH ONE LIGHTING REGIME. Getting specularity to look right with many different light setups requires that you must do the linear workflow.

Also, BR, the painted part looks wrong. I think you want to use my car paint material on that.

http://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/car-paint

However, the car paint doesn't come in rusty versions. However, perhaps you've learned enough how to put nodes into its parameter nodes to modulate color and shine.

Note: How to make a "peeling" procedural is in my plans to write someday. I have prepared a number of peeling paint examples for publication (in my book, whenever THAT is), but the same principle applies to leather. When done correctly, the edges of the peel actually stick up, or at least appear to.

Thank you all for the input. I am trying to go "all out" on this and not half-ass anything, so I will continue to mess around and see what I can do to improve on everything mentioned. I had already thought about the tire colors, but thus far, have only made them slightly bald and really bald.

As for the car material shader, I will see what I can do about working that in and making it look nice n pretty :o)

Thanks again for all the support.

Ok, I've been working on this since I last posted, working in GC shaders on everything that didn't already have a pre-built BB shader. So, here is what I've got using his car material shader (any setting tips would be appreciated, I've never used it before), and a GC on everything else, modified to whatever part it's on.

And do I have to do this to the rust shaders as well? Cuz that would make one monster of a shader to assemble, especially for a noob like myself.