Product Box with Mirrored Drop Shadow Tutorial

[KC]

Product Box Tutorial
Approximate time to complete: 20 minutes
Tools Used for this tutorial:
Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1 for Windows (Mac shortcuts included)
Source: Photoshop 7.0 Down & Dirty Tricks - Scott Kelby

Step One:
Open the image that you want to use as the cover of your product box. Press Control–A (Mac: Command–A) to select the entire image, then press Shift-Control-J (Mac: Shift-Command-J) to put your cover image on its own layer. Double Click directly on this layer’s name in the layers palette and rename it by typing “Front Cover.”

[KC]

Step Two:
Under the image menu choose Canvas Size. Enter a value that is a few inches wider and a few inches higher than your current image. This gives some needed work area around the image. Press the letter “v” to choose the Move tool, and drag your layer named "Front Cover" to the right side of the screen. I chose 10X10 (inches) for this example.

[KC]

Step Three:
For the Spine: Create a new layer by clicking on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Double-click on this layer’s name and rename it “Spine.” Using the rectangular Marquee tool, draw a rectangular selection to the left of your box front. To get the exact measurement of your spine, turn on the Grid under the View, Show Grid menu. Choose a Foreground color that will compliment the colors of the box front. Fill this selection by pressing Alt-Backspace (Mac: Option-Delete).

[KC]

Step Four:
Add some text to the spine to enhance the sell and 3D effect. Use the Type tool to create your type, then go under the Layer menu, Rasterize, and choose Type. Press Control-E (Mac: Command-E) to merge this text layer with the Spine layer beneath it.

[KC]

Step Five:
On the Spine layer, press Control-T (Mac: Command-T) to bring up Free Transform tool. Hold the Shift-Alt-Control (Mac: Shift-Option-Command) keys, then click-and-drag the top right handle of the bounding box straight upward about ½” above the box front (the spine will stretch as you do this).

[KC]

Step Six:
Keep holding the same keys and grab the lower left handle and drag it downward about the same amount as in Step Five. Release the keys, grab the left middle handle, and drag inward about the same amount to remove the distortion caused by stretching. Press Enter (Mac: Return) when it looks like the spine shown in the example. Switch to the Front layer.

[KC]

Step Seven:
Press Control-T (Mac:Command-T), hold Shift-Alt-Control (Mac: Shift-Option-Command), and grab the upper left handle and drag straight upward until it matches the height of the spine. Then grab the lower-right handle, and drag downward about the same amount. Release the keys and drag the right-middle handle inward about 1.” Press Enter (Mac:Return) to conclude your transformation.

[KC]

Step Eight:
Switch to the Spine layer. Press “v” to get the Move tool and drag the spine to the right until it touches the left edge of the box. Press Control-L (Mac: Command-L) to bring up Levels. Move the right bottom Output Levels slider to the left a bit to darken the spine, and then click OK. Next, switch to the “Front Cover” layer, then press “b” to get the Brush Tool. In the Options Bar, click on the Airbrush icon, and lower the Opacity to 20%.

[KC]

Example 8-1

[KC]

Step Nine:
Choose a small hard-edged brush (Example uses size 13), and switch your Foreground color to white. Click at the top corner between the box front and the spine and then hold the Shift key and click at the bottom edge to add a highlight to the front edge. Switch to the Background layer and change the Foreground color to black by pressing “d.” Choose a very large, soft brush (Example uses size 45). You still have the Airbrush tool, so paint a soft drop shadow below the box using the Shift Key technique above. Save your image with all layers visible as “Box_Product.psd






Quick Tip: Airbrushing straight lines made easy
Instead of trying to airbrush freehand, you can draw a straight line by clicking on the starting point for your line with your brush tool. Hold down the shift key and click the end point of the line.

Quick Tip: Saving Your Selections
Here’s a handy tip for saving selections you may use for future projects. While your selection is active, choose the Select Menu and click Save Selection. When the dialogue box appears, click OK. Your selection is now saved. When you are ready to use the selection again, go to the Select Menu and click on Load Selection. When the dialogue box appears, choose your saved selection from the pop-up menu, and click OK. Your saved selection will then appear within your image.

[KC]

Mirrored Drop Shadow
Approximate time to complete: 5 minutes
Tools Used for this tutorial:
Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1 for Windows (Mac shortcuts included)
Source: Original Concept

Step One:
Open the Box_Product.psd file. Press Control-J (Mac: Command-J) to duplicate the “Front Cover” layer. Do the same for the “Spine” layer.

[KC]

Step Two:
Click on the “Front Cover copy” layer and press Control-T (Mac: Command-T) to bring up the Free Transform tool. Right-click (Mac: Hold the Control Key then click and hold inside the Free Transform bounding box) to bring up the menu. Choose Flip Vertical, then press Enter (Mac: Return) to conclude the changes. Repeat this step for the “Spine copy” layer.




Example 2-1

[KC]

Step Three:

Select the “Front Cover copy” layer. Press Control-T (Mac: Command-T) to bring up the Rotate tool. Next, Hold the Shift-Control-Alt (Mac: Shift-Option-Command) keys and drag the middle right handle until the top right edges meet and line up properly. Press Enter (Mac: Return). Next, click on the “Spine copy” layer and repeat the steps above except this time, drag the middle left handle until the top left edges meet. Press Enter (Mac: Return). Press “v” to select the move tool and using the arrow keys on your keyboard, move the copy layers until they both line up evenly with the original layers. See example below.




Example 3-1


The resulting images should appear “mirrored”. If not, then play around with the Transform tool using the Shift-Control-Alt (Mac: Shift-Option-Command) keys until the images align with the “mirrored” effect.

[KC]

Step Four:

Next, lower the opacity of each copied layer to 40%, then go under the Filter menu, and choose Motion Blur. I used 90 for this example but it will all depend on the resolution of the original image. The higher the resolution is, the higher the Angle of the blur. Do this step for both the Front Cover and the Spine copy layers.

[KC]

Step Five:

Next Click on the “Front Cover” layer and press “b” for the Brushes palette. Choose a soft-edge brush (I used size 21 for this example). In the Options Bar, change the Blend Mode to Behind and the Opacity to 60%. With the brush active, click once on the bottom left corner of the box. Hold the shift key down and click on the bottom right corner of the box. This will add a nice drop shadow to the bottom of the box. Repeat this step for the “Spine” layer. Do not add drop shadows to the layer copies. The Quick Tip for drawing straight airbrushed lines (above) is helpful during this step.

[KC]

Step Six:

There are a couple of ways to fade the bottom and will depend on your preference. You can use several tools to accomplish the finishing touch of your product box including the Gradient tool and the Brush tool. There are other ways, but for this example I will use brush tool.

The first step is to drag the copy layers so that one is on top of the other. Once you have both layers stacked, click on the first copied layer, and then click on the box next to the eye in the second copied layer (see example) to link the layers. Press Control E (Mac: Command-E) to Merge the linked layers.

[KC]

Step Seven:


Press “b” to select the Air Brush tool and change the Brush options on the Option Bar to Soft Round 45 pixels. Make sure you have the appropriate copy layer active. Next, Place the air blush at the left bottom corner of the Spine copy layer (leaving about 1 - 1 1/2" of the space), and click once. Next, hold the Shift key and click on the bottom right side of the Spine copy layer so the airbrush makes an angled-straight line (see example 7.0). Click the airbrush on the bottom right side of the Spine copy layer and click once. Again, holding the shift key, click on the bottom right side of the Front Cover copy layer so the airbrush makes an angled straight line (See Example 7-1). Air brush below the angled line you just made so that the remaining mirrored image is removed, blending with the white background (See Example 7-2).

Example 7.0



Example 7-1


Example 7-2

[KC]

Step Eight:

Now add your finishing touches with drop shadows and that’s it!

[Adam P.]

Awesome tut, Urally! Thanks so much! We at SitePoint truly appreciate your hard work and dedication.

[KC]

Thanks Adam. More are on the way for Fireworks, Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop and Elements.

Will start posting shortly after June 30, 2003.

[jag5311]

Ah, hell yea, a fireworks one would be awesome. That was a great tutorial

[macarthur]

Theres like a hundred ways to do this one,
I like this version nice simple clean

[Klaas Koopman]

you could allso just make us of the render 3d box at the filter part!

[macarthur]

you could allso just make us of the render 3d box at the filter part!

The 3d transform???? what render 3d box??? I wanna know!

[ghurtado]

Very nice tutorial, indeed. Congrats!