This project involved reverse-engineering an AeroPress to produce a dimensionally accurate CAD model, and rendering this model in various environments. The entirety of the project was done within Siemens NX.
I rendered the model across four scene types using Siemens NX's ray-traced studio. The top-left image shows a composite scene — a photographic background with a modelled tabletop surface. The bottom-left image is fully modelled. The centre image is a whitespace render with a clean drop shadow, and the right-hand image places the product in a real photographed scene.
The main challenge was sourcing and aligning HDR environment maps that matched each scene's lighting, to produce accurate shadows and reflections on the AeroPress. The most technically demanding part was getting the plastic to read as realistic — achieved by tuning surface roughness so it catches light correctly.