What I did for a guide and since the rim has 5 sections, I divided that by 360 which give me 72. Now I divided that in half since if you create one half, you can duplicte it with a -1 on the scale as long as the pivot point is ok and it will make the 2nd half. so that give me 36. I created 2 planes as guides, one rotated 90 degrees and the other rotated 36 degrees. i took a sphere and gave it 30 sections which you will see will fit into the guide PERFECT. deleted everything but the 3 planes that fit in the guide that was attached from the center. I started from there and modeled it. Once finished, duplicated it, combined it to 1 piece. From there i made sure my piviot was at the tip of the rim in the middle and i did a duplication of 4 copies rotated 72 degrees and then combined everything that made 1 half. deleted the other half because it would have been alot more polies to combine and duplicated that site by a scale of -1 again to get the other half and finished. I know it sounds abit complicated but it was worth it

meredith, im going to guide you with images of what im taking about because I have to redo the rims to add the lug holes. Damn I wish I did that in the first place. THis is the first step
1) set guides(a poly Plane) 1 rotated 90 degress and the other rotated 36 degrees.

2) model within those constraints and this is what you get

Next, set a piviot point at the proper spot so when you duplicate it by -1, it will mirror it.

Combine the 2 sides and make it one object my merging verts,

after completed I know that together, this has a rotation of 72 degrees since 1 equals 36 so that would be 36x2=72.

since its 72 degrees, divide that by 360 because thats a whole circle and that gives you 5 so I now know I need 5 segments. When i dupliclate, rotate by 72 each and number of copies 4 so that will give you 5 total.

It will look like this

now delete it in half because its easier to combine 1 half then a whole. Dont mind the space, because I acidentally deleted a extra face before i duplicated it so i have to redo it

Now duplicate it by -1 again like you did in step 2 and combine it down the middle . This is another reason why you to deleted the half ilke in the other step is so that you know you will have prefect symmetry or however you spell it.

now combine the half and u have a rim

OMG are you a math teacher or model in maya ... hahha kidding


love the small tutorial on the rims ..hehhe ...

looking really good eric ...cant wait to see finish product ...

also eric ..just wondering if you could not just use a boolean and cut it ? and make the lugs that way ? just wondering if that would have worked too ?

it would but then I dont have full control over my verts. I like to make my lines in holes instead of trusting maya to do it because lets say later on i have to unsmooth it and then try resmoothing it. the boolean might just the whole shape.

oh okay I see your point ..was just thinking outside the box lol

love your wheel modeling, I always have problems no matter how small I break it down!

Ok, I dont like the intake so im going to redo the whole thing. I just dont like the way it shaped up but i found some real good references so i know what to do. I started working on finishing up my Q.P. and I just started the basic shape of the rear bumper and tail light areal. C&C welcomed. I know there are alot of mistakes so please pitch in

and another shot

wow thta is so clean looking ..nice mesh ....teach me lol .. car is looking really good ..

Ok got to working on some of the exterior

ok heres a shot with a lamborghini ive been working on. The lamborghini needs work because there are alot of bumps in it but I lvoe the modena more so ill finish that after the modena is complete. Then ill be working on a gallardo.