Technical modelling and more curves + more odds and ends

After working on such a free rein project such as the last environment (still in progress unfortunately). I wanted to throw some technical modelling back into the mix to keep me sane and to give me something I enjoy doing as well as forcing me to push the boundaries that bit further. As technical and mechanical go so well together and Iv half attempted it in the past, Iv decided to try and make another motorcycle. This time after a lot of inspiration from some really good modelers I want to try and make my model as detailed as possible. I have chosen to re create the BMW S1000RR, one reason because the bike is asymmetric, so no copy and pasting but also because it has some really nice features that look, well.. really hard. As always lots of good references always help with the production so I gathered a tonne of imagery from the net to help me make a start.

I understand there is a lot of different ways to model this kind of thing but I feel most comfortable with mapping the model out with curves then essentially filling it in with poly planes, snapping the points to the curves. It seems to me to be the easiest way of keeping things neat. Below are where I am at with the reference guides and a little bit of modelling with the front end, just to see how the guides are doing really.

Its quite hard to see more than just squiggly lines at this stage but you should be able to pull out some shapes and detail from the guide. As always with this kind of model, the top half is easier to make than the bottom. I'm not sure if i'm missing a trick but it starts to become a lot of guess work which takes a lot of time.

So far this is the best of the geometry iv put together, I'v started to work on the swingarm but its not worth showing yet as it is still pretty basic. Extrudes and bevels really are your best friends when it comes to this sort of thing.

Besides from starting the motorcycle model iv also made some quick 2d environments for the portfolio but to be honest they're very quick and a little sketchy but I needed something for an interview and desperately needed to pull something together. Shame on me I know!

I feel uncomfortable posting them but its good to know what I can do when times limited, these took around a day to make (for both). Paid Illustrator a visit for the second one, I forgot how fun it can be!

Also, here's my last effort at our group modelling thing I mentioned in the last post, unfortunately it kind of died a quiet death and went stale (Not my models, the tasks). I'l end this post with my Mc Esher inspired image, what a pain that was to make!