3D » Final Entity: Fire Extinguisher

The final outcome of the Fire Extinguisher entity I made for my 3D project. It has more shiny materials and I’ve included some close-ups.

3D Max » Fire Extinguisher

I was set to create a 3D model of an existing object in the real world within 3D Studio Max. I chose to model a fire extinguisher because I thought this would be fairly easy and simple to make. To begin I researched on the components of a Fire Extinguisher and found that it consists of:

• Cylinder – Holds extinguishing agent and expelling gases
• Handle – Used to carry and hold extinguisher
• Trigger – When pressed, releases extinguishing agent through hose and nozzle
• Nozzle or Horn – Agent expelled through these items
• Pressure Gauge – Shows pressure of the extinguishing agent being stored in the cylinder.  The indicator should be in the green area.  CO₂ extinguishers do not have a pressure gauge.

I have modelled all these components except the Pressure Gauge, because I’ve seen many images of Fire Extinguishers without this component. Therefore I chose to save time and not create this section. However if I do have enough time and feel like creating this cylindrical glass piece, I shall. (It could give me more marks…)

I have used a variety of methods to model this object including Spline Modeling, Lofting and Scaling. Plus many modifiers to create smoothness of the materials and object. A problem that arose was creating the tube because I was trying out methods such as spline modeling and bending a cylinder shape. These weren’t valid methods because they wouldn’t create a smooth bend of the tube I wanted, so another method was necessary. Searching websites online I finally found a solution, a simple one too, all I had to do was draw a line in the shape of the tube I wanted and then alter the thickness of it. However I had to render the scene to see it in action which annoyed me because I thought I was doing it incorrectly.
Another was the label which looked stuck on to the cylinder. The material used for the main body was a bright Red colour. However once the label was placed above the two Red colours didn’t merge; therefore making the label seem separate from the whole product. To solve this issue I remade the mask, used to cover the rounded edge on the top of the label, in Photoshop to also mask over the Red coloured sections on the label. This then allows the main cylinder of the Fire Extinguisher to show through and not clash with that of the label image. It also makes the label seem like it is stuck onto the cylinder and is part of it.
The cylinder had to be stretched as well since it looked inproportional to the whole model. This was done by manoeuvring the vertices on the Y-axis.
A total of 6 materials was created for this model: Floor, Wall, Cylinder, Handle/Trigger, Hose, Tube.
To make the metal looking materials I made the specular level rather high and glossiness a low number to create a shine effect and the illusion of a metal component. These values and Diffuse colours were tweeked every now and then to create the perfect shade.

Here is the final result:

3D Max Model of a Fire Extinguisher

The only problem I have now is the handle/trigger of the Fire Extinguisher because it doesn’t seem 3D, but a matte component compared to the rest of the scene. I believe this is due to the handle/trigger having flat sides rather than a smooth and curved edge. I will have to play with this model further to try out different methods and possibly make some curved edges for the trigger. Hopefully it’ll then cause somewhat a shine effect like that of the hose. Another solution is to change the colour of the trigger/handle to a Red because I’ve seen many Fire Extinguishers with a Red handle.