I’m a 2nd yr scholar however I have not taken a category or something on truly producing a bodily copy of my packaging designs — I would like to do photoshoots with them.
Particularly, I’ve a cereal field, labels for bottles and freeze-dried packaging. I am not clear on the way to search out the supplies (cardboard, and so on) and the place to go to get them made.
I am a bit misplaced right here lol, however I would recognize somebody pointing me in the correct route.
If your goal is *only* to capture nice photos of your product, you might try creating your own custom mock-up using Blender 3D.
We did these by hand in college. Creating the template was part of the project, so we’d be able to print it out, cut it, score it, then glue it.
Check out [Packly](https://www.pack.ly)
Prices are great and quality is better. I use them all the time for one offs, mockups, and prototyping.
Design the template for the package. Arrange your design on the template, keep thin grey outlines for cutting. Print it. Use spray glue to mount it on a sheet of bristol board (DO NOT USE SPRAY GLUE INDOORS!). Cut it out. Score the folds with a bone folder, fold it, and put it together. With enough practice, a good camera, and studio lighting, you can make it look pretty good.
https://help.thegamecrafter.com/article/83-boxes
I think you could find the typical shapes on different product boxes online. The mass produced ones are made using offset presses and a die cut. That stuff is expensive, so doing a few one offs by hand would be the more typical way to go. I guess it’s possible you could find a plotter that can cut different cardboard material. I’ve seen Industrial ones cut in a factory with a CNC machine.
If you are looking for just having product shots, I agree with another poster about using Blender. It will take a little time to learn an all purpose 3d app. There’s also software like Boxshot https://boxshot.com or KeyShot https://www.keyshot.com
If you are familiar with 3D model environments and have access to creative cloud, I recommend downloading Substance Stager. You can create a rectangle to the needed dimensions and apply your graphics to that. The program allows you to stage 3D models and apply textures, lighting, backgrounds, etc.
Adobe has a beta program of Fantastic Fold! If you know how to create dielines; you make one, follow the design format they give you, and then it’ll create a flat/3d object that you fold into package. You can export and throw it into 3D Stager or Blender