this is a typical designer's task: create an
image of a product box, book, manual, dvd, cd,
vista box,
card (etc.) for a web site, electronic presentation or a paper publication. in the past, this was done by photographers. it's a long and expensive process. photographic
images aren't perfect, have resolution limitations and you can hardly edit them. today, designers normally use 3d-rendering software. synthetic
images are perfectly clean. you can use various visual effects and transparent backgrounds to smoothly embed your graphics into existing designs. additionally, you don't have to set up another
photo session if you need to change something in your images.
there's still a downside, though. you need to own an expensive 3-rendering package and you need to be familiar with it. it takes time to create even a simple model.
your best option is to use a specialized 3-rendering
application that does not require advanced knowledge in 3d design and allows you to create a
professional graphic in minutes.
unfortunately, most of the available
programs of this kind are rather limited. they render a simple texturized parallelepiped. they use the 3d-rendering features of your video
card that are normally intended for games and not for
professional designs.
cover commander from insofta uses
software rendering for maximum quality and does not require any specific 3d acceleration hardware. the
program includes a wizard that allows you to create an
image in a few quick steps. the process of creating an
image is highly customizable yet contains a set of presets for each step for fast and effortless customization. you start with a basic scene template: a box model, a box with a cd, book, manual, dvd-box, a 3d-screenshot, etc. the other wizard steps allow you to select
images that you wish to put onto the 3d objects, set up light sources, shadows and reflections. the resulting
image can be exported into a range of graphic formats, including png with alpha-channel.