After all these shiny super cars in all the 3d communites, I’m glad to present you an environment friendly alternative. The brand new Volvo 7900 Hybrid in its articulated version. I really don’t know where im heading with this model, but I will see.
Lot of work done, lot of details to do. The render is just a basic testrender with a hdri and a sun lamp. I think i will try to put this bus i a rusty old factory for the final shot.
Thats i for now. Comments and crits allways welcome.
Cheers!
Like.
The rims look so traditional. I should look up that bus…
Polyline visible in the wheel arch.
This set-top box above the windshield, is it really that unaligned in the original?
Awesome.
I’ve tried to make the model on my own, but I’ve never got it like yours. I don’t think, that this Bus would look better, if it’s rusty. Very good at all.
Sent you a PM.
@ArneCRosenfeldt: Yes, this windshield plus that box are original :yes:. Look at this:
Image taken from http://images.volvobuses.com. Copyright Volvo AB
Deleted, sorry for double posting!
Thanks everybody for the kind words.
Worked a bit on the Volvo. Still not finished. Not much spare time.
Cheers.
Cool work! I’m really liking the environment/lighting.
The spot to work on I see is probably the windows. How they look, and also interact with that middle person.
keep it up!
Thanks mate. Worked on the windows a bit more.
Anyone got an idea how i could rig an articulated bus?
Yes - I do. Some question:
How would you describe your rigging skills?
What do you want to know and what do you want to achieve?
How far do you want to go - just the bending of the two halves and the concertina connecting tunnel?
Do you want the steering rigged correctly and do you want the steering wheel to turn?
Do you want the wheels to turn correctly as the bus moves along the road?
Let me have these answers, and I can help you.
Cheers, Clock.
I would say they’re pretty basic. -
Primary i want to use the bus for visualization purposes. So i want to place it in stills. All i need for that i can place the bus not just straight on a street, but more for turns and so on. So i need him to bend in the middle and maybe that i can easily rotate the front wheels. That would be all for a start.
Here is a screencrab off my chassis. What i allready achived is that the mechanical part in the middle works.
OK - here is a simple rig to bend the bus, and a simple Ackermann steering setup.
Rotate bone “Front” about it’s Z axis to bend the bus - noting the middle floor turns half as much.
Rotate the bone “Steer-control” about its Z axis to steer the wheels, noting the inner wheel turns more than the outer wheel as in real life.
Let me know if you want a more sophisticated system, such as the bus bending to go over a hump back bridge for example. I did not add bones for the rear section wheels, you can see how I did the driving wheels of the front section, just copy it! To rotate the wheels, rotate the “wheel…” bones about their Y axes. You could add copy rotation constraints so they all turn together. This is not the way I would do it if you wanted to animate the wheels, there we must use a more sophisticated system…
Hope this helps. 
Cheers, Clock.
bendy-bus.blend (756 KB)
Thanks a lot. Can get into Blender right now, but i will check it out later.
speechless!
Thanks a lot Clockmender for your rig.
I think i get it how you achived this. But, do you think its possible to rig the gaiter part (the bendy, leathery, fabric thing, don’t know how to translate this into english) of the articulated bus? Maybe with some weights, i really dont have a clue how i could make this work.
I added the blend file of the basic parts for the rig. Maybe someone got a idea how to bend it. 
Thx a lot.
Volvo_7900_Rig.blend (4.07 MB)
I have done similar things before, so leave it with me and I will look at it later.
Cheers, Clock.
Man, i really appreciate your efforts!
Thanks a lot
OK - I have had a look at it and this is my “version 1”, maybe I will find a better way…
The only thing I am not entirely happy with is that when you stop the animation, you have to click “Jump To First Frame” twice to reset it, so it’s not perfect, but it works! :eyebrowlift2:
I have done this on my bendy bus rig from before - I have less folds in the concertina than you, just to save me some time. The important things are bone parenting, IK chain lengths (Mega Important), and driver values to get the folds to stay in place, but you can play with these values. It would of course be easier if you allowed stretching of the folds, but, I don’t know if this is accurate or not.
Anyway here it is - press Play to see it working and don’t forget to press “Jump to…” twice to reset it.
Hope this helps you, I would of course welcome any other suggestions from more experienced riggers… :yes:
Cheers, Clock.
bendy-bus.blend (860 KB)
Hey Clockmender,
thx for your rig. But i think the bendy part did not move correct. So here’s my attempt. I just used one bone chain for the gaiter and did the rest with constraints and parenting. Now the only problem is, that i didnt model the bendy part in one piece. So there are gaps all around, but i will fix that in a bit.
I’m quite happy with the rig. Here’s an animated gif. I hope this works on BA. Edit: Didnt worked, here is a video:
Cheers,
Mauk
What was wrong with my rig? Can you show me where I can improve the movement.
Cheers, Clock.
Finally had time to work on the rig.
I think i’m gonna leave it that way, since i dont wanna animate the bus. There are some issues with the bow in the middle, but i dont worry.
@Clock: I added the blend file. Have a look. I’ll try to explain if you got questions.
Now i’ll finish the modeling, get the materials right and prepare the scene for the final renders.
Volvo_7900_Rig_BA.blend (5.49 MB)
