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A few years ago, when I was having more trouble with fibromyalgia, I was researching ergonomic mouses to help ease the strain on my hands. I remember seeing
this mouse, but after tying something similar, I knew it would feel so different that I would have too much trouble adjusting to make it worth my while. Instead, I wanting to make something that is comfortable, but is closer to the feel of a regular mouse. I decided to elongate it to allow the hand and wrist to rest better. I kept the idea of clutching the mouse, so I extended the mouse over to allow the thumb to hold onto something. I added extra buttons to be convenient, but would have a switch on the bottom that can disable them if the user wants only the basic functions. I made most buttons flat, but made the zoom and back/forward switches to imitate the feel of going back and forth, up and down. I added areas of grip material, since I imagine a perfectly slick mouse would be hard to hold onto. I made the trackball a literal ball so that it can also scroll left and right.
Ghosted Painted Black
Layer Assignments
The main body of the mouse started as a sphere that I rebuilt to have more control points. I stretched and scale the points to shape the handle and the way the mouse tapers in the back. I tried to make the overall body look like it would fit comfortably in someone's hand. I made most of the buttons by drawing a curve in the top view and projecting them down. I used those to split the main piece. I copied the faces, and then moved them further into the mouse to make the insets. I made the piece whole using blend surface to bridge the gap with straight edges. I used fillet edges to make the insets nice and rounded off. I made the buttons themselves by extruding the copied faces straight to make a solid piece, filletting those edges, and setting them into the holes. I made all of the holes for the buttons and trackball in this way. But for the rockers, I used cage edit on the copied surfaces to raise the ends before extruding. For those I used chamfer edges to help them stand out as different. To make the grip, I used the same process of projecting a curve and splitting. Instead of pushing down, I pulled up. I used blend surface and adjusted the settings so it was slightly curved to make it look like they were placed above the surface. I did the same for the bottom of the mouse. I cut a square space out of the bottom of the mouse and inserted a lens to be the sensor. I also separated a piece of the bottom and added little grips to be the piece that comes on and off to change the batteries. All of the buttons and inlaid spaces for the buttons were filleted to be smooth.
Button Labels
I personally like the metallic paint materials, so I chose one for the body of the mouse. I couldn't decide on the color, so I made two versions. I edited the color input for the darker one so that it is dark blue at the base but shines semi-purple. I made the main buttons a metallic silver so they stand out. I slightly changed the colors so some buttons are slightly different shades of silver to differentiate the types. I colored the bottom of the mouse with a matte black plastic with increased roughness. The grips are a mold-tech scaled down. The trackball is also a mold-tech, but is scaled extremely small. The rocker buttons are shiny plastic.
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