1. Liquidpope’s Truck Tire Tread Tutorial

2. Step 1 – Layout a fairly detailed, properly scaled profile of the tire in one layer, and the tread block in a second layer.

3. Step 2 – Lathe each poly in it’s own layer
Step 2 – Lathe each poly in it’s own layer. These will be your guides for laying in the tread blocks. I used 64 sides, but this may need to be changed later, so save a copy of the profiles before you perform the lathe.

4. Step 3 – Draw in a single row of tread blocks
Step 3 – Draw in a single row of tread blocks. Notice that there are only 3 shapes here, mirrored and repositioned. Be careful to make the gaps between the tread blocks consistent.
(This is a simplified BFG AT-XT All Terrain tread pattern.)

5. Step 4 – Do a radial array. This will take some testing
Step 4 – Do a radial array. This will take some testing. Start with a radial array number of 36. (just because it’s easily divisible by 360)
Depending on the size of your model, 36 may or may not work. You’ll have to try a few times to get a good, even distribution of tread blocks. Always try a number that will be easy to work with down the line. 24 was a good number for this particular model. Remember your number for the next step.

6. Step 5 – Once you’ve got the radial array looking right, undo back to the single section of treads, and bend them to fit the curve of the tread block guide as shown here.

7. Step 6 – Radial array again, and then erase all but three tread sections. (The green colored ones here are my original.)

8. Step 7 – Connect the points in the gaps between the tread blocks
Step 7 – Connect the points in the gaps between the tread blocks. The object here is to create a single tread gap section (shown here in red).
The point of doing it this way is, when we erase the gray polys, we’re left with a single row of treads and gaps that, when arrayed, will join up perfectly with the section next to it.

9. Step 8 - With the gap filler poly in a separate layer, select it and Smooth Shift to match up to curve of tire as shown. With the main poly still selected, use Stretch to make the vertical polys point roughly to the center of the tire as shown.
After Smooth Shift
After Stretch

10. Step 9 – So here’s what you should have now
Step 9 – So here’s what you should have now. A single row of tread blocks, and the spaces between them. You’ll need to delete the highlighted polys.
Now cut and paste these two layers together, then array and merge points.

11. And here’s what you should end up with
And here’s what you should end up with. A pretty decent low poly tread model. Now it’s just a matter of adding edge detail to get a nice sub-d smoothing happening.

12. There’s too many steps to write them all out here, but it’s easy enough to see what I did. It looks like a lot of work, but really it’s just 3 single blocks, mirrored and arrayed.
Low poly start Add edge detail Subpatch