Tutorials of creating random sheet metal parts is fun and all but sometimes it’s nice to practice modeling something else. Water Filtration systems are fine, but what I am designing professionally is limited in feature scope. As I built out a library work is becoming more and more a drag and drop routine, which is rather nice and allows me to focus on actually managing projects (ie. make sure suppliers/vendors are happy/informed). So whenever I have a few minutes I grab something from my desk or around the house and see how it can be modeled to try to branch out. The user group I attend (Los Angeles/Orange County) has competitions where the entry is just this, model anything. Models are then put up for a vote and the winner is the one that gets the most votes. There is no criterion for voting, no judging scale, just show a picture of the item to a room full of users and let them decide what they like most. In the past I did well with a corkscrew.
Recently, during a few hours of down time, this is what I saw on my desk.
Just a small staple remover. Nothing to detailed to model but getting the fit/form just right still takes some thought. I also wanted a model that I could use for rendering practice. Making such a basic component seems easy, and although my first few render attempts came out okay I’m still not happy with them. The lighting is not quite right and having the part float in mid air is not providing the results I’d like.