Is it possible to recreate 3D effect without FX?

[Luscious Tuba]

I'm trying to recreate 3D effect on the vectors without using FX; because when exported it becomes rasterized.

Export File.afdesign

[firstdefence]

Instead of using the 3D fx try shapes and transparency. Lets take the end of the box as an example.

See the added example in your document, there may be better techniques from the more knowledgeable people on the forum but this is a start.

Export File (edited).afdesign

[loukash]

For example, to create vector shadows, you can e.g. stack transparent strokes using the Appearance panel. This is an "old school" method how e.g. Freehand used to create shadows. Some time ago I have posted examples like this one, although I don't remember in which context it was. But a similar method may also work for 3D-effect:

[Luscious Tuba]

1 hour ago, firstdefence said:

Instead of using the 3D fx try shapes and transparency. Lets take the end of the box as an example.

See the added example in your document, there may be better techniques from the more knowledgeable people on the forum but this is a start.

Export File (edited).afdesign

Thanks, this is gives a similar effect. How did you do the transparency thing? I tried doing with the transparency tool.

[Luscious Tuba]

1 hour ago, loukash said:

For example, to create vector shadows, you can e.g. stack transparent strokes using the Appearance panel. This is an "old school" method how e.g. Freehand used to create shadows. Some time ago I have posted examples like this one, although I don't remember in which context it was. But a similar method may also work for 3D-effect:

Thank you this looks neat. How do I recreate this exactly for 3D? Should I duplicate the layer with a stroke?

[v_kyr]

11 minutes ago, Luscious Tuba said:

How did you do the transparency thing? I tried doing with the transparency tool.

Set the opacity level of the Strokes in the layers panel (using instead the transparency tool should work too). - Since you don't want any rasterization here as the FX effects would give you. You want to get plain vectors!

[thomaso]

43 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Set the opacity level of the Strokes in the layers panel (using instead the transparency tool should work too)

btw: alternatively and for future use you can
• use reduced colour opacity + save those as Swatches
• save multiple strokes applied to an object in the Styles panel.

[firstdefence]

Finally got around to making a short video: 

 

[Luscious Tuba]

4 hours ago, firstdefence said:

Finally got around to making a short video: 

 

Woah! this is brilliant. Thank you so much, for sharing a whole tutorial.

[firstdefence]

13 hours ago, Luscious Tuba said:

Woah! this is brilliant. Thank you so much, for sharing a whole tutorial.

Glad to help @Luscious Tuba

[Luscious Tuba]

On 1/30/2024 at 9:02 PM, firstdefence said:

Glad to help @Luscious Tuba

@firstdefence , I was able to replicate it on multiple pack shots. However, while exporting in PNG, there seems to be this problem where there is a jagged line between the front and top intersection. Attached is an export in PNG and the AF file.

Export File.afdesign

[firstdefence]

Hi sorry for the delay in replying, I've had a look at the file and in part it's due to miss-aligned shapes like the trapezoid shading and highlights, zooming in shows how the shadow trapezoids are not aligned correctly but even when they are it still shows some jagging, I'm still trying to work this out, it may be down to the app rendering. See screen grab below for how the shadows are out of alignment.

another tip re the shadow is not to use grey as the base colour for the shadow when over a colour, but use a darker shade of the colour the shadow is overlaying, this gets more complex when you have different colours over a single shadow line, a point in case is the top face of the box on the left side so I'll use this as an example.

You have a yellow shape, a white shape and then a yellow shape. to improve the shadow we need to duplicate that shadow trapezoid two times so you have 3 instances of it then clip each instance to the yellow, the white and the yellow.

The all grey shadow

Colour corrected shadows

This may be more work than you are will to do but I add it to help.