Year
2019
Modeling & Rendering Exercise
Just like great painters recreate still life scenes with paint and brush, I find value in recreating real-life products using my digital tools. Fusion 360, KeyShot and Photoshop were the primary tools used here. Training the eye to look for details, to deconstruct lighting and understand mechanical assemblies only strengthens my own creative visualization skills. Plus, it's fun.
Hario Slim Ceramic Coffee Mill
When I consider products I love, a small handful rise to the top. This coffee mill is one of them. The first one, I used from 2008 to 2018. After a decade of twice-daily use (that's 7,300 cups of coffee), I wore it out and decided to buy another one. It's affordable, well-made, works well and its size is great for travelling with. Brewing craft coffee is near and dear to me, so the subject was an easy choice.
Process
I disassembled my coffee mill and took some decent reference photos and broke out the digital calipers to take some accurate measurements from the parts. I created the model in my CAD tool of choice, Fusion 360. Then, I used KeyShot to create my materials, lighting and renderings. Photoshop was used to clean up and color correct the finished images. The table and glasses were modeled by me for props and the coffee beans bought from Turbosquid.
Renderings
The lighting setup was very simple. I used a single area light for the key and another photographic HDRI turned down low to add a few more interesting reflections and add ambient light. I just used a simple plane for the backdrop.
Animation
The animation is a bit simple by my standards, but shows some of the internal components, so I thought I'd include it.
