Weekend Widget: True BoxShot

There is no doubt you've seen cool three-dimensional product shots on Web sites or in printed catalogs. You've probably wondered how they were created. Today's pick is True BoxShot and it makes the process incredibly easy. The box shot shown at right is a product of the software. In reality there is no box as it is downloadable software.

So that you can go through the process yourself, download a trial version of the standalone product, the Photoshop plug-in or the bundle of the two products.

When you open it up, you have the choice of several different "3D" products you can create. They include a box shot, a CD, a DVD case, a screenshot, a member card (credit card), a photo or a book. Then you simply need to load the graphics for each size of the product. In the example here, you would only need the front and one side of the box since those are the only panels visible. Don't worry, you are simply providing a flat rectangle view of each side. If you have designed the product in CorelDRAW (or Corel PHOTO-PAINT or Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop), you'll just export each panel as a PNG file.

Within seconds you can see a quick preview of how it looks. For me, the learning curve was about five minutes before I had a preview of my first "box". You can choose a background color or even a bitmap background. Do you want the box to reflect on the floor or to have a shadow? Either of those effects is a simple click away. Want to rotate the box in 3D space? Again, not a problem. When done, you simply render the final bitmap at the size of your choice. Keep in mind that the trial version will limit the size of the rendered bitmap and it will lay some text over the graphic indicating it was created with a trial version. Beyond that, the trial is fully functional. You can even save the graphic with a transparent graphic so that you can drop it over the bitmap of your choice later.

Get more information on the standalone version, Photoshop plug-in or bundle of the two products by following the links provided. If you need to create this type of graphic, the prices of each of the products is very fair. The standalone version sells for $44.99, the Photoshop plug-in sells for $39.99 and the bundle of the two products sells for $64.98.

I went for the standalone version as it doesn't rely on any other software. Just import bitmaps of each of the box panels and output a bitmap of the finished product. The output is very impressive and yet the product is very easy to use. Anyone who needs to create box shots would find this money well spent!

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The Creation of 3D Box Shots

A very common vision when you see a software box on the Internet is for that box to be shown in a three dimensional view. Sometimes those images are actual photographs, but it is just as common that the graphic was built from flat pieces.

There are a number of ways to build such a graphic and the best method can vary based on a user's goals. You can use perspective tools in either CorelDRAW or Corel PHOTO-PAINT to adjust the three orthographic (flat) views of the box until they fit together. With a little practice, you can create a series of steps to accomplish this fairly fast. For those using CorelDRAW, you may want to look into the EZ Metrics utility as it will instantly put the three pieces into perfect perspective at the angle of your choice. Then you'll just slide the three sides together and you're all done.

I'd like to introduce two other utilities that are geared towards creating 3D box shots. They are Box Shot 3D and True BoxShot. Both products allow you to try the program before you buy it. If you need to create these type of 3D box shots on a regular basis, one or both of these programs should probably be in your design arsenal.

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Shooting Great Product Shots

With the advent of the digital camera, there are more people shooting pictures of their products for use on the Web and in other areas of their promotional campaign. This leads to some great pictures and some really awful ones.

The folks who created Bling It have created a short video (go ahead, it's free) that gives you some pointers on getting better pictures. Some of their top suggestions:

• Don't use a flash
• Fill the frame with the product
• Try to shoot in natural daylight
• Hold the camera still. Use a tripod or steady your arm on a wall or table.

All very good common sense things to keep in mind. Yet non-professionals don't always remember them all when it comes time to get some pictures.

If you aren't already familiar with Bling It, it is a cool utility that takes plain product shots and adds "bling" to them to help them drive more sales. All things we could do in Corel PHOTO-PAINT, but it makes this exact task very easy to do.

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