Basic 3D package design mock-up in Illustrator and Photoshop
Attached is a jpeg that shows and explains the basics behind making a 3D mock-up of a package design without the use of a 3D application. This is just Illustrator and Photoshop. Now you may say why not just use Modo, Blender, Rhino, Sketch, on-and-on. Well, let me tell you...
I took the time to teach myself Modo. It does impressive package 3D's. The learning curve is not too bad. I had a friend with a copy on his laptop and allowed me to borrow it while I learned. So I created a full render of a Cadbury Box I had designed. it took forever. I realize it would get faster the more proficient I had become in the application, but even the rendering time for the computer to go through to give me a 350 dpi render was taking 40 mins. yeah, yeah... I know it's a laptop. and a Mac to boot.
I did some simple rough guesses, 30 mins to set up and UV map the shape and another 30 mins to render. Thats an hour. I can make a mock-up my way in less than 10 mins. Literally. I can also make it whatever res. I would like and not add any time to my project. Don't get me wrong here, a professional 3D photorealistic package done in a 3D app is simply flawless to look at. But the time it takes to do it does not see to justify my switching anytime soon. Not to mention, nobody seems to care. More and more, quality takes a back seat to speed. Not sure that's a good thing or not, but there it is.
Anyway! Attached is a jpg I have made that you can download, should you be interested in learning how I do the 3D's
*Something to note*
If you are doing many of these (flavours in a sku or something), use smart layers. That way you only need to build one 3D. The 3D Photoshop file will auto change to each new flavour once you import them into the new smart layer. I will make another tutorial explaining this later. It's also handy for the soccer ball 3D's I make.
Will I make them for you? Yep. I charge 75.00 cad an hour for a very basic 3D (like in the example), if you supply me a PDF of your package.
