Here’s a quick little tutorial on how to make some fake-3d objects like cubes, book-shapes, dvd covers, cd cases and more. Those simple shapes can be recreated in Pixelmator (and photoshop since all the functions are exactly the same) easily. Then we can texture them and make them look a little bit more real. Sure with a lot of work they can be real, but the purpose of this tutorial is to create a more cartoonish-style fake 3d + we’re low on time ;)
First let’s create an image, say 500×300. Then let’s paste in our “base image”. This one I’ve found in google image search. To keep the perspective right it’s better to use an image. Sure you can try to make things like that just by eye, and usually it works. But for the sake of this tutorial let’s use an image ok? Well I’m doing it and we’re gonna use an image anyway, whether you like it or not. Hehe.
Then with the point-to-point selection let’s make our first cube side on a new layer. Then let’s fill it with gray.
Then let’s add another, in slightly lighter color (because it is lighter on the image, try to keep the brightness of the gray fills corresponding to the brightness of the cube sides on the image)
Then the third one, which of course should be brighter than the rest. And if you screwed up the lines you can now re-adjust the position of each piece so there’s no empty space between them.
Now let’s fill the background layer with black and let’s remove the reference photo since we don’t need it anymore. And voila, we have ourselves a cube.
Now let’s put in the texture on a new layer. For clarity and simplicity I chose a colorful and grid’y texture. Now let’s go to edit / transform / distort.
By dragging the endpoints let’s adjust the image to the corners of one side of our cube.
When done correctly it should look something like this. Don’t forget to press “Enter” to apply the transformation.
Now let’s add another texture, different this time and repeat the same steps to re-align it on the cube.
And the third one as well. So now we have the whole cube.
Now to make it just a little bit more real. Take those initial gray shape layers and move them over the textures. Merge those gray layers and set the blending mode to multiply and the opacity to 80%. Then with a round, soft eraser tool remove a big chunk out of this layer in the exact middle of the cube, so it will make the forward facing corner lighter.
And for the final touch let’s call our wacky, weird cube something. Like the official “creation machine box of wonders”. Sure. Now go make your own box of wonders!