[Rick TYler]

First off, you are almost certainly more worried about trademark protection than copyright. Trademarks protect marks of trade (like "Cheerios" in a certain font in a certain color) while copyrights protect writings and other similar intellectual property. Trademarks have been upheld for items of a distinctive design that uniquely represent a trademark holder's product. The classic glass Coca-Cola bottle is trademarked, for example.

There are two answers to your question. The first answer is that, no, you may not replicate someone's trademark without their permission. They could technically file a suit asking you to cease and desist using their trademark. If you are talking about something fairly generic like a notebook computer or cell phone, you are EXTREMELY unlikely to have a problem as long as you don't include the company's name or logo. If it has a genuinely unique shape, you might be infringing the mark.

The second answer is that as long as you are not using the shape in an insulting, embarrassing, or critical way that would tend to degrade the value of the trademark, and you are a high school student using this in your FIRST animation project for educational purposes, and that you and your team are not making money off the use of their mark, no self-respecting company lawyer will come after you. I seriously doubt that the company will care.

I am not a lawyer, but I do work with trademarks as part of my day job. If you want a really good opinion, you should consult a lawyer If in doubt, don't do it. Your problem, of course, is that you can probalby do what you want without a problem, and if you ask they will probably say no. My recommendation would be to model their product, and then alter the model enough that the maker is not immediately obvious. This should de-trademark your image.