how to produce a boxshot?

[_nameless]

Hi guys,

I made the cover of a software product box in Xara X and now I need to produce a boxshot (3d perspective, 2 or 3 faces showing).
What I tried: create 300dpi bitmaps from faces, then mould tool, then some heavy blur. But I doesn't look that good and I can't apply realistic shadows.
What proggie could I use for this (preferably small and free [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img])? - there must be something that can map 2 textures on a box and set a camera angle...

Live healthy, exercise more, still die.

[_nameless]

Hi guys,

I made the cover of a software product box in Xara X and now I need to produce a boxshot (3d perspective, 2 or 3 faces showing).
What I tried: create 300dpi bitmaps from faces, then mould tool, then some heavy blur. But I doesn't look that good and I can't apply realistic shadows.
What proggie could I use for this (preferably small and free [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img])? - there must be something that can map 2 textures on a box and set a camera angle...

Live healthy, exercise more, still die.

[gwpriester]

Hello Nameless and welcome to the Xara X Conference.

Why are you bothering with making a bitmap? I don't see any reason to do that.

Make your front, side and top panels. Group each panel separately. Create a 3D box outline. Enable Snap To Objects. Apply a Default Perspective envelope to the panels and then snap the panels to your frame.

Here's a tutorial that explains this process in greater detail using a cube, but I think you can get the idea. February 1999 Xara Tutorial

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>


XaraXone

[_nameless]

The main reasons I use bitmaps are that I notice some shadows are lost and some text effects get really distorted (these are probably my fault).

Also when I tried to select some items with the mould tool (Shift-click), or when have already grouped them, all the mould options will become disabled when I select some particular items (a line of text, in my last case)

Live healthy, exercise more, still die.

[gwpriester]

Well, if you use a bitmap, try to make your resolution around 300dpi or better. The higher your dpi resolution, the better the image will look when you add the perspective.

As for the moulds and shadows, you might need to convert everything to editable shapes (Arrange) and then group all the objects, before you apply the Perspective envelope. This is still the best way to do it because you can scale the package up and down without any loss of image quality.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>


XaraXone

[_nameless]

aha, i needed to convert to edible shapes! [i knew i was doing something wrong - the bitmap approach was too...]

Live healthy, exercise more, still die.