If you (or a client) have a product to sell, you need some sort of a product shot to use in your promotions. Virtual products are extremely common on the Internet and there simply isn’t a physical product to use. Therefore a virtual boxshot is created for a product that is made available as a download. The good news is that you can easily create boxshots of products using software like True BoxShot.

Below you’ll see examples of two different boxshots we created using True BoxShot. On the top of each example are “flat” graphics we created in CorelDRAW and then on the bottom you can see the finished boxshot created from those graphics. The total time to go from the flat versions to the finished boxshot is typically less than five minutes and features like reflections are all automated.

Let’s start with the box on the left created for Fashion Design Dress Templates Volume 1. For the view we created, two panels from the box were required. One for the front of the box and one for the side of the box. In True BoxShot, we added a single object for the box and then loaded a high resolution PNG file of each of the panels of the box. Because only two panels are visible, graphics for the other four panels were not used.

The example on the right was created for CorelDRAW X6 Unleashed and involves both a DVD box and a disc. One of the objects available in True BoxShot allows for this “opened box” look with the box and the disc. It was simply a matter of loading the high-resolution bitmaps for the cover of the box and the disc and positioning them as desired.

With both examples, the resulting boxshot was exported as a transparent PNG file. We then placed the boxshot graphic over the background of our choice, a solid red background for the dress templates box and a blue fountain fill for the box/disc on the right.

If you want even more complex scenes with multiples objects, that is very easy to create as well. There is a free trial of True BoxShot available that never expires. The limitation is that it will watermark all output. Once you have given it a good test drive, you can purchase a copy so the watermark will no longer appear on your output.