It’s been a while since I posted. I haven’t given up! I’ve just been struggling to model a lamp I like. I started with a really realistic looking lamp (on the far right). It was cool, but impossible for me to animate… which is the whole point of this section.
So then I moved to something with simpler mechanics (The lamp on the far Left). I found this lamp on a youtube video and I loved it! I spent quite a bit of time working on it, and the old age feel of the lamp is really cool. There was an issue with the boolean i used to cut out the wholes in the mesh, and it makes it look terrible when I render it. I know I would have to re-make the whole thing and do the mesh by hand if I wanted it to look good. I will eventually finish it, but…
I finally finished the lamp I’m going to use for the animation! The Lamp in the middle! It’s simple and has no boolean whole issues, and it has no complex parts that make it hard to add armature to. I went for a sci-fi theme because I love all things sci-fi. I did a UFO look for the base, with a power pylon type connection. Then I just followed that theme all the way up. I’m so happy with it, and in the animation it’s going to fly around. 
So now… I just need a keyboard and mouse for the desk, then I can animate.
