Creating Tire Tread - Part II
by Daniel Buck
www.danielbuck.net

The last tire tutorial was just to get your feet wet. As you probably noticed, the result isn't really the best tire in the world. (haha!) Here is another method, one which I prefer over the last.

I assume you have basic knowledge of polymodeling, if not, I suggest you go through all the buttons in the editable poly rollouts and make use of the help files and manual to familiarize yourself with polymodeling

Here are some references from www.tirerack.com
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Here is a quick animated gif of the modeling process:

This may be enough for some people, just to get an idea of how to start the tread. For others, I'll go into a bit more detail.

Start with a plane 200x25 with 14 segments. these numbers will vary slightly depending on what type of tread your modeling.

Move the vertexes to match the pattern of the tire:

Chamfer any edges that are needed to create space between the tread "blocks"

Extrude the "blocks" of tread

You'll also want to delete the outside faces of the 2 "block" in the middle of the tire. That way they can be continuous when we drag the outside edges out later on.

Move the vertexes from a front view to create the slight curve of the tire.

Flap down the outside "blocks" of tread, so that they slope off to the side wall

Chamfer the tops and sides of the tread "blocks" to give them a smoother look

Shift drag the edges of the tread so that they can be connected and still have space between the tread "blocks"

Copy the sliver of tread so that they are touching each other end to end. I needed to copy mine 62 times. you can create a cylinder and change the segments until they are roughly the same width as your tread strip, then copy your tread strip that many times. that’s a quick and easy way to guestimate how many times you need to copy it.

Attach all the tread strips together as one object, then use the bend modifier to bend the tread around into a circle. I had to bend mine 369.3 degrees, so that the tread would come around and touch at the seam

At this point, you'll want to select the tire (it should all be one object) and in Border mode use CTRL-A to select all the borders, right click and convert to vertexes and weld the vertexes together. Use a very small thresh-hold, probably .1 or smaller. (depending on the scale size of the tire). That way all the tire segments are not only one mesh, but are physically attached (welded) together.

Then shift drag the 2 sides of the tread pattern a few times and round them out to get the side wall

and there you have it!