How can I achieve a crumpling effect? I want to make an object - a fork in a vertical position - fall and hit a flat surface, and when it hits the surface I want it to fold in on itself as if it was made of a very very soft metal...but hold its shape as pictured in this sketch I made .

I've tried soft body, but it collapses to absolutely nothing, as in the end result has no form and no volume. Any advice would be appreciated since working it out by trial and error takes a lot of baking time!
Here's how you might do it using shape keys.

First model the fork as you would normally, but include plenty of edge loops around the handle and prongs (tines?). Save this as your base shape, create a new shape key, then enter Edit mode and deform the object manually by selecting and dragging nodes. Make sure the undeformed parts of the object are moved down by a suitable distance so that the deformation looks believable.

You can then animate between the base shape and the deformed shape key by animating the shape key's value parameter: