While studying Advanced Modeling & Rendering (DAI 521) at San Francisco State University, one of our early exercises was to model the Alessi/Michael Graves 1985 tea kettle (with the small bird-shaped whistle) using some basic tools in Rhino. We were provided some rough dimensions, and a photo to aid in creating this model. Later on in the same class I learned how to make use of Flamingo nXt to create the beautiful looking renders shown below. I tried using a couple different lighting methods, and I am still really happy with how these renders came out.
