Hammer Project

The Modeling Process

For this project we expanded our knowledge of the extrude tool to make a hammer and a nail. We started with a cube which we extruded into a long rectangle. We closed off a section at one end, splitter it in half, extruded it again and divided it into six sections to make the claw of the hammer. We made the curve of the claw by going into vertices mode and selecting the vertices we wanted to bend and using the manipulation tool. Opposite from the claw we made the hammerhead by individually extruding four sections and widening/shortening them using the manipulator tool. On the last section, we beveled the corners to make it look smoother and round. Next, we shaped the handle by bending the vertices again. After that, the final step of modeling was to bevel the edges of the handle.  We were also told to make a nail to go along with the hammer this was achieved by placing a cylinder and extruding both ends. On one end we widened it to make the flat face and on the other and we shrunk it into a point.

The Shading Process

After modeling we began shading our hammer and nail. On the nail and head of the hammer we applied a phong to make a shiny effect instead of a lambert or blinn. We kept the end of the hammer at a grayish color and made the nail into a dull gold. On the handle of the hammer we applied a regular lambert and changed it to brown. The final step was to add a texture to the surface that our hammer would be lying on. I chose a raw wood texture to look like a workbench.

The 3-Point Lighting Process

The finishing touches of this project included lighting it up with spotlights and using the method of 3-point lighting to give off the best shadows and display the details. We started with the key light on the right which was closer to the subject. The fill light was on the left and farther away/less bright than the key light and was used to fill in unwanted shadows cast by the key light. Finally, the back light topped it off which was put in between the key and fill lights but on the opposite side of the subject.  After placing all of these lights I went into render view and made my adjustments according to what I wanted my render to look like.

Overall this project was very interesting as I got to implement skills of lighting from the Polything project and adding textures and materials from the Castle project. We dealt more with extruding and manipulation as well as more complex wireframes. I can't wait to see how we will expand upon these skills to make more elaborate models and animations.