These product packaging images were created in Blender, a 3D modelling and animation application. I have worked on the 2D artwork in Adobe Illustrator for many of these products over the years, and from time to time have created 3D "studies" in Illustrator. To create images for marketing the finished products, mock-ups or actual samples were photographed in a studio and retouched in Photoshop, but now we can "re-create" them in 3D and produce these great looking promotional product images straight from the computer.
This was one ot the first pails I built. Once it's created and the lighting is done, multiple copies are simply a matter of copy and paste.
Because the packages are based on actual dimensions, I can give a very accurate impression of what multiples of the product will look like in "real life"
Here's a package which includes artwork that I acually worked on. I did the spot color line art in Adobe Illustrator for the tape roll on the front panel. Then the project came back for a 3D render of the whole carton.
Reflective and translucent materials slow down the render time but look great.
This was my first experiment with the animation capabilities of Blender.
This material was a challenge. Similar to a milk carton, a translucent plastic with a glossy egshell texture and filled with a white liquid.
Based on actual production keylines, this carton is very acurate and the artwork is mapped around in one piece the way it will print. That means design changes to the artwork can be replaced easily and a new render made.
A demo movie I created to help the client visualize the package all around, including the top panel. The file includes a background with shadows which made the first movie I rendered look more natural. It looked great but the file size of the render was huge and so was the render time. I took out the background and it rendered faster and created a movie file small enough to email.
The pail was easy to create, but lighting a black pail on a white background with a predominantly white label was not so straight forward. After lots of experimants, I ended up with 4 lights of different sizes, positions, strengths and distances from the subject. I ended up lightening the label "artificially" in photoshop for the version I sent to the client. What you see here is the original render.
This series of installation images were instructional in nature, so they needed to be illustrative rather than photo realistic. Photos of step-by-step installations like this can look very messy and unatractive on a package, even when done by a professional craftsman.
This was a challenge - working from some fuzzy photographs, a few dimensions and an idea that I had seen this type of lightwieght, shiny, translucent, white insulation foam before.
Here is an older project. Again with this one the lighting was the challenge. A white product on a white background is hard enough, but I needed to keep the graphics bright and bold while also capturing the translucent plastic. I resorted to adjustments in Photoshop on this one, but I think somehow you can always tell. Since then I have improved my lighting skills and I feel like I could get it right first time in Blender if I had to do it over today.
