This project’s objective was a practice / tutorial for myself to learn Blender’s render engine called “Cycles”. It was also a sort of test to see if Cycles could hold up to some commercial render engines I used in the past (Vray, Mental Ray, KeyShot, etc.) and possibly become a viable alternative. I was positively surprised with the results I was able to produce, and I believe I was only just scratching at the surface of Cycles and its potentials.

Also, while the goal of this project was primarily to learn Blender’s render engine, I also took this opportunity to freshen my 3d modeling skills and get a more in depth view in “Moments of Inspiration (MoI)” a software made for NURBS modeling (mathematically generated curves and surfaces). Thus the process looked like this: real live iPod Nano Touch as reference > model in MoI using NURBS > render in Blender using Cycles > touch-up rendered photos with Lightroom.