July 2013 Tips and Tricks: How to Draw a Photorealistic Bottle Cap

**Rik** · 27 July 2013, 06:07 PM

Why not experiment with different colours and shading?!
Try your ideas and personalise things - as Frances and stygg did, with their bottle tops.

**Big Frank** · 27 July 2013, 06:11 PM

actually i was hoping to see how the 3d bottle caps were done

**zaphodeist** · 27 July 2013, 06:47 PM

Fun things bottle caps, though a threatened species sadly

Here's two I made earlier, in good Blue Peter fashion :-

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http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...286#post334286

**Gare** · 27 July 2013, 06:57 PM

@Big Frank—

This is off-topic, but you deserve an answer.

It's only been the past few days I've felt well enough to sit down and work. I'm the one who did the headers for Rik's tutorial. I also screwed up his figures, but have them correct now (I think).

The "3D" bottle caps (am I correct that you're referring to the very first title image?) are a product of my taking a drawing similar to the one Rik teaches in the tutorial, and exporting it as an Illustrator file to then import into Luxology modo, a modeling/rendering/animation package I use regularly to add content to the video tutorials.

What I did was use some modeling tools to "stamp" only the very center of the shape away from the crimped edges—exactly like a bottling machine does this—and the result was a fairly plausible bottle cap I then added Rik's texture (his lettering) to.

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I almost always use Xara as part of a creative workflow. But I do use other programs to illustrate Xara Xone, but not the tutorials per se. I've never been asked by TPTB to use only Xara product(s) to compose The Xara Xone, so I'm guessing that TPTB like my artwork enough not to care what I use to create it.

My Best,

Gary

Back to you, Rik!

**Rik** · 27 July 2013, 07:07 PM

Originally Posted by zaphodeist

Fun things bottle caps, though a threatened species sadly

Here's two I made earlier, in good Blue Peter fashion :-

Earlier, John?!
You mean about 4 years ago.

**csehz** · 27 July 2013, 07:26 PM

Originally Posted by Gare

even Opera.

I exactly tried in the morning in Opera 12.15 on PC, anyway trying it now in Opera that shows even less

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The IE is excluded for me to use in anything (except that Xara has that as default browser at the preview

), but so checking in Chrome that is good

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**Gare** · 27 July 2013, 07:44 PM

Hi Csehz—

We are having a problem with the server, however, I can read the entire tutorial. Additionally, the latest update to WordPress has an error or two, but again, this has not been a show-stopper for anyone. Or has it?

@Anyone else: is anyone else seeing this problem?

@Csehz—please use your browser's feature to clear your cache. If this doesn't work, when you get a chance, please cold restart your computer. Let it be off for about 10 seconds to totally clear the RAM. Then try the page again.

Also? Do not count out the possibility that your computer might have a virus. Computer viruses and the web go together, I'm sorry to say.

I had a virus two years ago, for an entire year that I didn't know about until I ran HitMan Pro. I thought my video card was corrupting my screen; I was blaming it on CorelDRAW, and modeling programs and the card itself, a GeForce 960. It was a virus Hitman detected and killed.

I'll make a PDF of this month for you if this doesn't clear up in a day or two.

This won't solve the browser problem, but it'll let you work through the tutorial!

My Best,

Gary

**Gare** · 27 July 2013, 07:46 PM

Originally Posted by Rik

Earlier, John?!
You mean about 4 years ago.

Actually Rik, John, here in the States there are a lot of "handcrafted" breweries that use pop caps, and one of the best non alcoholic root beers, IBC, still uses brown glass bottles and bottle caps that look like the tutorial image. They twist off, but who cares?

-g

**csehz** · 27 July 2013, 07:54 PM

Originally Posted by Gare

I'll make a PDF of this month for you if this doesn't clear up in a day or two.

This won't solve the browser problem, but it'll let you work through the tutorial!

Thanks Gary but just take it easy with the .pdf, I did not think in the morning that should try in Chrome, there it is perfect for me. So I can follow it from there.

I have cleared the cache now in Opera and also restarted the browser, that did not solve the issue. Maybe tomorrow will also restart the PC, that is a good advice on all microsoft machines. Anyway having all five big browsers on my PC, the Safari and Firefox all are fine.

Yes would be useful to know whether anyone has this issue with Opera, excluding the local computer issue category

**Gare** · 27 July 2013, 08:10 PM

@Csehz—

Barbara will follow up in a moment with a better explanation than this one:

For reasons we don't understand at the moment, when I did edits to Rik's HTML, it introduced a lot of "garbage code" into the document, making it specifically impossible for Opera to view. Other browers don't seem to mind.

She is fixing this problem I created right now.

It's always "something", isn't it?

My Best,

Gary