Creating a ball bearing using arrays
Back to home / View commentsIn this tutorial you will learn how to create a ball bearing using an Array Object. You will also learn about the use of the Taper object, Fillet option and Bevel function
Before you star modelling something you should always first determine the easiest steps to create your object, thats why its easy to have a reference picture. You can find various pictures of ball bearings using google image search, here is the ball bearing which we are going to create:
As you can see our ball bearing has tooth on the side, although in real life ball bearings normally don’t have these its nice to add them. They can easily be made by first creating a cube and then adding the cube to a taper object to give it his taping shape. Then we can add this in an array to duplicate them.
The 2 rings that keep the balls in place can easily be made using a tube object.
Finally the balls can simply be made using a sphere in an array object.
So now we know how we are going to create our ball bearing, lets get started!
Go to Object > Primitive > Cube or use the shortcut menu on top (see the picture above) to add a cube. Now use the following settings in your Attribute browser (bottom right):
The Segment setting will divide your cube in smaller sections, as you can see on the picture above. This has no use yet, but by dividing your cube you get much smoother results when using deformers like bend, twist or taper.
The Fillet will round the edges of your Cube, increasing the subdivision will smoothen the rounding. Using 5 subdivisions is enough here.
Cinema 4d Taper Object
Now its time to give the teeth its shape, so lets add a Taper Object. Then drag and drop it underneath your Cube Object
The Taper object does nothing so far, so lets edit the Taper settings:
I first changed the size of the Taper Object so it fits nicely around our Cube, keeping the mode on Limited and change the Strength. Just play a bit with the settings to check out what they do.
As you can see the Taper is in the wrong direction, it should make the front pointy, not the top so lets rotate the Taper Object. This can be done in multiple ways, I’m going to use the Coordinate tab you can see in the above picture. We need to rotate the Taper around the blue axis (the Z axis). But do we need to roate it +90 or -90?
I always have had trouble with this, if you want to learn this check out this link and remmember that C4D uses a Left Handed Coordinate system.
Of course when you are lazy you can also just keep rotating untill you get it right 
Ok nice our first teeth is done, now we are going to add it into an array object
Cinema 4d Array Object
Now we are going to add an Array Object to our scene. An Array Object creates an Array off whatever you set as a child of it. Just have a look for yourself and you will understand that this is a really helpful feature of Cinema 4D!
You can add an Array Object from: Object > Modeling > Array, or the quick select menu. Then drag your cube in the array object like this (you set the cube as a child of the array):
For the Array settings you will mostly only use Radius (how far the objects will be from the center of the Array) and Copies (how many objects you want in your array).
With the other 3 settings you can create a sinus like wave in your array, just set all the settings to zero since we don’t need them.
Your scene should now look something like this (I increased the strength of the Taper object):
Now we are going to create the first ring, to do this add a tube (Object > Primitives > Tube) and size it up so it touches the just made Array:
When you take a look at real ball bearings you will notice that they have an indent in the ring that keeps the balls in position, so lets create it!
With the Tube Object still selected hit C to make the object editable, you will notice that the white raster lines have turned blue.
Now select the polygon tool from the toolbar on the left and while holding shift make a selection on the inter inside of the tube like this:
You will notice that the selected Polygons turn yellow, once you have selected all the polygons go to Structure > Bevel and use the following settings:
Extrusion: since we want to extrude inwards we have set this to a minus value. The inner offset setting rounds the edges of the extrusion, subdivision determines in how many polygons this offset is divided.
Our ring is now done, now lets add some balls to our scene. Go to Objects > Primitives > Sphere and add it to your scene. Set the radius of your sphere to 16m
Now add another Array Object (Objects > Modeling > Array) and set the Sphere as a child of this Array. Use the following settings on the Array:
Now all we have to do is create the center ring, the process is the same as our first ring so I won’t explain step for step what I did, if you get stuck somewhere take a look on how we created the first ring or ask your question in the comments section. This is result after this step (and finished model) :
Tip: when creating the indent on the inner ring you might notice that you can hardly see what you are doing because the balls are blocking your view, to make them invisible simply click on the green icon in the Object browser. To make the balls visible again click on it once.
Finishing your scene
To finish your scene add a floor object, some lights and a sky (Objects > Scene). Now add your fav. materials and set up your rendering settings.
If you want to learn what render / lighting settings to use to create a realistic looking render I suggest you to read this tutorial. With it you can achieve stunningly results like this:
What you learned in this tutorial:
- The use of the Fillet option
- The use of the Taper Object
- How to use Arrays
- How to use Bevel on an object
Feel free to show your result or ask a question in the comments!
Tutorial based on “Ball Bearing Gear tutorial” by R-Nader with his permission
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40 Comments
September 5, 2008
Yo um, whenever I apply the array object, I get the circlular form of the multiple objects, however, they look like they are a train, and not sticking outwards like an actual gear.
September 7, 2008
Type41:
Have you checked out the coordinations in the Taper?
Everynow and then you have to tweak to get them to orbit around the right axis.
What I did was this for the Rotation: H-90 P 0 B -90.
That was about it and now the cogs are lined up as supposed.
Good luck,
Musiqal
September 10, 2008
That worked great! Thanks a lot! This is a great tutorial!
September 25, 2008
thanks man is cool… keep up the good work bud
October 7, 2008
I loved this tut…I made my ball bearing quite like the one on the tut…I’m amazed…loved the array and bevel…Keep up the good work.
October 7, 2008
How do you do the black metal material and the glowing lights?
October 14, 2008
how do i rotate the perspective view so i can see all arrayed object (from the same angle you have on the tutorial)?
November 5, 2008
Towe:
There are 4 buttons on the top left of the viewport, used for manipulating you view.
These are most basic thind, i suggest consulting to the first chapter of c4d help.
Will:
Of course the authoe can be more precise but basically the blackmetal is the same metalin the first picture. It is just less illuminated. And thi metal material is a anistropic material. In c4d you could achieve this effect by using Danel shader. Go material editor – File > Shader > Danel. And check anisotropy.
As for glowing lights, there is a glow channel in standart c4d material. You can use that. And I guess that render uses global illumination so if you activate an object’s illumination channnel, it will act as a light in render.
November 5, 2008
edit: the buttons are on the top right:)
November 17, 2008
very nice, but how can i learn to do that final texture and ilumination look?
November 27, 2008
Awesome! Learnt a lot of things from this.
February 23, 2009
helpful tutorial thank you so much
February 24, 2009
This tut seems amazing but I’m a total newbie in C4D.
The begining is really easy but when it comes to the selection and the bevelling, everything just goes wild. I may not be using thepr proper tool for the selection, but I cannot really select what I want let alone quickly I have to select rectangle by rectangle, and my is this tedious.
On top of that when I try bevelling my selection it does not work properly it seems that nothing is bevelling at all !
I must be dumb, or may I am missing something.
Could anyone explain ?
March 1, 2009
hi, nice tut.
just one thing im curious about. cant figure out how did u do the gold color at the top of circle.
i’ve tried many areas of light but still cannot make it so good.
March 13, 2009
Excellent tutorial – any possibility of adding the final scene file. The HDR link for lighting was great, but like others mentioned, it would be terrific to be able to dissect the materials/details.
Cheers,
~Chris
March 14, 2009
hi thanks for the tutorial but whenever i get to that second tube i can get everything correct untill the bevel part. it bevels all the selected cells but when it bevels, it leaves some of the sides of the cells unbevelled ???
thanks
June 1, 2009
hi everyone!! a completely noob i am, i was troubled in the array-ing the tooth part. In my place they were circled but facing head to tail after one another, instead having them all circled facing outward . What have i done wrong ??please please help for this. i`d really appreciate that
August 30, 2009
great tutorial!!!!
November 26, 2009
I am following the directions to a letter; however, I find that the tapered edge of the array always faces towards the tube side not facing outside. I have tried changing the rotation before adding to the array, but the results are the same. Any help would be a plus.
December 8, 2009
VERY GREAT TUTORIAL
I LOVED IT
January 31, 2010
thank you very much .! this guide very helpful and interesting .. thank you so much . !
February 13, 2010
@Type41 – yeahh i got that problem 2 but you just have to change from size Z to 50 and that taper coord from ´B-90 to B = 0 and P=-90 hope that helpt you
February 21, 2010
Increible !
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