This paper is the first one of two-parted research efforts focusing on the modeling of rubber pad forming process. The rubber pad, driven by the pressurized fluid during the forming process, pushes the sheet metal to solid tool half and forms a part to final shape. In this part of the paper, a numerical procedure for the FE analysis of the rubber pad deformation is presented. The developed three-dimensional FE model is based on the total Lagrangian description of rubber maerial characterized by nearly incompressible hyper-elastic behavior under a large deformation assumption. Validity of the model as well as effects of different algorithms corresponding to incompresibility constraints and time integration methods on numerical solution responses are also demonstrated.