I started with a capsule and stretched then added more subdivisions. I made my object editable so that I could make a loop selection of 1 segment.
step 2 of 18
With my selection made, I chose the scale tool to reduce size using all axis
step 3 of 18
This is the result.
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I chose a glass material and assigned.
step 5 of 18
I add a floor and after trying out different materials, I decide on a red velvet
step 6 of 18
so far so good
step 7 of 18
I made the temperature scale in InDesign then exported as a n eps.
step 8 of 18
I opened the eps file in Photoshop, made a selection of it and created an alpha channel to use later.
step 9 of 18
Next I create a gradient fill going from red to black and add a layer mask from my selection.
step 10 of 18
This is the result. I save the file as a tif checking the alpha channel box.
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I created my blob of Mercury with a sphere.
step 12 of 18
I assigned the melt deformer to my sphere and adjusted the strength of the melt until I got the desired effect.
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This is the result. The material assigned to this is a Chrome material with increased reflectivity.
step 14 of 18
I chose a tube to create the Mercury reservoir and positioned in the centre of my thermometer. I also used a tube for the paper insert that lies just under the reservoir. I made selections of a number of faces of this tube to delete so that my paper insert is curved.
step 15 of 18
The glass housing for the reservoir is also a tube with a glass material added.
step 16 of 18
For the Mercury well I used another capsule, made it editable and manipulated some of the faces. This capsule is slightly smaller than the main body of the thermometer.
step 17 of 18
To add my temperature scale that I made earlier, I had to create a new material and in the color field I loaded my tif file as a texture. I then checked the alpha field and loaded the tif file as a texture again. I am using the alpha channel from my PS tif file to just select the type and not the background. I then assign my new material to the thermometer so that I have the glass material and the new material with type. I then had to go to the display drop down menu and choose stacked materials. This will place one material on top of another.
step 18 of 18
This is the type on the thermometer. I chose a flat projection with tiling unchecked. I used the move texture tool to get into position. I then scaled to cover the length of the thermometer.
I got all my pieces of the puzzle positioned duped, my Mercury blob a couple of times with adjusted melt strengths. I made a few extra cuts to the neck of the thermometer so that I could make it look like it was broken, messed about with lights, turned on Ambient Occlusion and Global Illumination set my render size and rendered to the Picture Viewer. I saved my file as a tif, opened it in Photoshop, tweaked the curves to give a little contrast and saved as a jpeg.