The Museum Of Power: Mechanism

My next job for my group was to help model the moving mechanisms in the centre of the steam pump. At first this looked quite daunting and complicated, and the animation was going to be even more difficult by the look of it.
We decided to break up the work load between two members. My part was to model the triangle shaped mechanism and the other smaller parts that surround it. As this was an awkward shape to undertake I started to build it up slowly and worry about the finer details later on. At first I tried to create the basic shape by creating a square with a lot of segments that I could manipulate into the shape I wanted, however this was fairly inaccurate and didn't look very good.
I decided instead to use the line tool with properties of the line tool set to 'Smooth' so I could create a fluid line with no straight lines. This created a much more realistic and better looking shape.

I converted the line shape to an editable poly and extruded the shape out into the right width and height.
Like all line shape converted to an editable poly the reverse side border must be selected and 'capped' to create a polygon in the empty space.
As the shape had a hole through the middle I cloned the object and scaled it smaller and wider so I could boolean the object, creating a hole.

For the next part I created a cylinder that would be put on the right hand side where the triangle object comes to a point. I gave the cylinder 32 sides for a much more rounded and smooth edge. I then cloned the object, scaled it down and placed it inside the first cylinder.

I cloned the cylinder again and scaled it down significantly, increased the length and again placed it inside the second cylinder. However this time I booleaned the smallest cylinder creating a small hole in the centre, which is very similar to the actual design.

To create the metal poles that hold the main component and allow it to move from side to side, I created a cylinder that was about the right size and increased the amount of segments. Once converted to an editable poly I could select the end polygons via the sub selection mode and and scaled them so they were slightly larger, creating a shape that was similar to the real design.

the cylinder shape also had a small metal shape that points out and away from the object, so to create this I simply made a square, changed the shape to the right size, decreased all the segments as this object didn't need them and rotated it slightly.

I grouped the cylinder shape and the small metallic square and cloned them and copied them on the other side of the main component, reversing the little square.

Inside the cylinders I created another one, but much longer and more slim. These are the parts that allow the movement of the mechanism, and are attached to the main body of the pump . I created one for each side.

Now that I had the main shape and body of the component, I went back and started to add more detail. The top part of the main triangle shape has a raised edge that runs around it with one part having a rectangle hole. To create it I made a rectangle, then another smaller and slimmer rectangle in the centre which I would boolean to create the hole.

To blend the object in to the triangle shape, I rotated the rectangle slightly and made it fit, then turned the object into an editable poly, with the vertices at each corner selected I pulled them out so there was a slight angle rather than straight down which would create a more obvious contrast between the two objects.

I then needed to create the raised edge around the triangle. I used the line tool again and drew out the shape on one side .

and again on the other side.

I converted the line objects to editable polys and extruded the shapes to the right size, capped the reverse sides and moved them into the right place.

Within the raised edges there were also two circular objects that were there for attaching the small metal oil pots that I had modeled before. To create the circular base objects I made a cylinder and placed it in the right position, converted the object to a editable poly and with the top polygon selected I used the bevel tool to create a rounded tip.

I placed one either side and used the scale and move tool to make sure they were in the right position and didn't look out of place.

I imported my metal oil pot that I created before and placed two on top of the circular bases. I had to make slight adjustments to the oil pot with the scale tool to get a good fit. I also rotated them so they were facing the directions they were in the photographs.

The final part of the model to create was a thick rectangle shape that moves up an down in the middle of the main component while it moves side to side. This was a particularly difficult object to model correctly because of the shape and the position its situated in.
Like the first part, I decided to build it up in a very basic form then make it appear much more detailed later. I used a cylinder and with the scale tool made it wider, creating an egg shape. Then I made a rectangle that made up the main section. I made another rectangle, but smaller and thinner, I used the boolean tool to cut a hole in the main section.

Using the line tool again I created a shape which over lapped the cylinder shape slightly and ran halfway across the main section. Again I converted this line object to an editable poly, extruded and capped the reverse side.

The top section I created with the line tool also had a small rectangle hole with a raised edge. I created a rectangle with a couple of segments and converted it to an editable poly, then pulled out the verticies on one side and brought them up slightly creating a slope in the shape.

After using the boolean tool to cut the shape out, I created a small rectangle shape that sticks out from the object and gave it more segments, converted it to an editable poly and moved the points either side down a bit, making it look a bit like an arc. I then applied a mesh smooth modifier to make it appear smoother.

Along the top section again, there is another hole in the surface, a dark dent in the object further back from the first. This time I used a pyramid object and rotated it upside down, scaled it to the right side and placed it where the hole would be.

Using the boolean tool again I cut the pyramid out of the surface below. I also placed a small sphere in the centre to give it bit of detail that closely resembles the real surface.