Final Image Preview
Hello everybody! Today I will tell you how to create a realistic 3D calculator icon.
But
first let’s have a brief lyrical digression. It is well known that in
any stock business one of the most popular topics is business, and this
applies not only to photos and videos, but also to vector illustration. A
business issue is not only negotiating people in business suites, but
also different objects as office phones, calculators, charts and so on.
On this basis, an idea of creating a realistic illustration of a
calculator appeared; this illustration can be not only used as a
possible replacement to raster image but also as an icon, i.e. with a
strong reduction a calculator should remain a clear shape.
To make
the illustration look realistic you should get the reference image of
an object. You have two options - either find a ready image or do it
yourself. In the first case you can find a suitable image in the
internet or on stock websites; this approach has big disadvantages - you
either need to deal with author’s rights or with the limited license.
That’s why I recommend using the other way. I used an ordinary financial
calculator, a White Box and a camera for making references. The
description of the process of taking a photo goes beyond this tutorial,
so I will just show the results.
Download the reference.jpg file; we will use it in our further work.
The
work doesn’t contain difficult gradient transitions, for which it would
be required to create the Gradient Mesh; so I suggest we divide our
work into several stages: in the stroke mode without fill outline all
the contours with the Pen Tool (P); using the Shape Builder Tool (Shift +
M) create some closed areas; color them with solid colors and
gradients; and finally add some highlights and shadows where it is
necessary. Our plan is easy, so let’s do it!
Step 1
Open
Adobe Illustrator and go to the Edit > Preferences > Selection
& Anchor Display and set the parameters which are indicated on the
figure. It is more convenient to work with these settings of the Pen
Tool (P).
Create a new document with the size of 1866x1398 px (that is the size of our photo).
In
the created document in the Layers panel add a layer with the name
Layer 2; place it underneath Layer 1. Place the reference image into the
workspace of the document (File > Place…). Block Layer 2.
Step 2
Now
select Layer 1, take the Pen Tool (P) and start outlining contours of
the image. As it was mentioned before, the fill should be turned off and
the width of the outline should be 1 or 2 px, whatever you think is
more convenient. Note, the outline color should contrast the photo. In
our case, red contrasts the photo good, so we will use this color.
Start with the biggest details and then proceed slowly to smaller details.
The
task is laborious and tiresome, but if you are self-confident in your
work with the Pen Tool the task won’t be of any difficulty to you.
Moreover, you can significantly speed up your process by using special
plug-ins, for example, from Astute Graphics, such as the
VectorScribe or the
DrawScribe.
Step 3
So,
moving on, outline every detail. There are a few tips which I wanted to
mention. First, practically all the corners in the illustration should
be rounded, and if a rounded corner must be symmetrical you can use
either some special plug-ins, but they will cost money, or a
free plug-in from Hiroyuki Sato - Round Any Corner.
When you need unsymmetrical rounding of a corner, you can use the
following technique which I’ll demonstrate you on an example of a
button. Instead of a single reference point at the location of a corner,
put two points at some distance from one another.
Then select them and convert them into the smooth anchor points.
After that with the Direct Selection Tool (A) attach to the rounding the necessary form.
Step 4
One
more nuance, since at this stage we’re working with open and closed
forms, you should pay attention to the places of their intersection.
Let’s look at it in more details on the example of the same button.
I’ve
outlined the contours with different colors for better clarity. So, the
border point of the open path should either touch or cross the other
path. Otherwise, if you use the Shape Builder Tool, it won’t close or
will be closed wrong. Look at the figures.
On
the left figure everything is done right, and on the right figure-
wrong. Below you can see the "right” and "wrong” behaviors of the Shape
Builder Tool.
Step 5
After
we’ve outlined all the contours, paying enough attention to the
intersections, you should get approximately the following result.
The
photo layer is temporary of no need to us, so turn off its visibility
in the Layers panel. Now select everything (Cmd / Ctrl + A); select the
Shape Builder Tool (Shift +M) and start closing the contours in the
places where paths are open. On this stage our goal is to get closed
paths for further coloring. We will get rid of the inevitable trash
later. Check it out on the example of the shadow on the display.
Step 6
On
the figure below you can see the results of our work from our previous
step. You won’t see much of a difference if you compare it to what we’ve
got in the previous step, but you’re able to see differences more
clearly in the Layers panel.
We
have a lot of unnecessary objects after work with the Shape Builder
Tool, and we should get rid of this trash. Surely, we can fully expand
the Layers panel and delete all the unnecessary elements manually, but
we will do it the other way.
Download an excellent script ExtendedSelect here
and unpack it in Adobe Illustrator CSx.x\Presets\en_US\Scripts. By the
way, it works well in AI CS6. After we restart Adobe Illustrator the
scrip is available in the menu File (File > Scripts >
ExtendedSelect)
Start the scrip and in the dialog box select the Unfilled Open Path.
The
result of the script work will be selection of all open paths without
fill. Your number of open paths can differ from mine. Delete them. Also
you can close paths not only by using this technique, with the Shape
Builder Tool, but also with the Divide command from the Pathfinder
palette. But you should be very careful with the joints, they should
clearly be adjusted to one another, otherwise it would be very difficult
to get rid of "trash” which will become a part of the Compound path.
The work with the forms of calculator is done, we only need to color
them and add some highlights and shades.
Step 7
Turn
on the visibility of a layer with a photo in the Layers panel and make
sure that all the paths that we’ve created are ungrouped. Now adjust the
Eyedropper Tool - by double clicking on the proper tool in the Tools
panel we got a dialog box with the settings; select the value 3x3
Average.
The
thing is, when taking the color from the raster original the averaging
is obligatory, because the brightness of the neighbor pixels can be very
different. The averaging size should be chosen depending on the quality
and size of original, in our case 3x3 is enough, but if the resource
file, for example, has the size 10Mpix, you can choose 5x5. Switch in
the Colors panel from the RGB to the HSB.
For
an ordinary person the numerical values of Red, Blue and Green don’t
mean much, it is more understandable when the colors are represented as
the Hue, Saturation and Brightness. I also recommend clearing the
Swatches panel; we won’t need the standard colors.
Step 8
On
the stage of outlining the contours we started working with big units
and then proceeded to small ones, in this case we do vice versa- we
start coloring the smallest forms and slowly proceed to the bigger units
which lay usually lower.
Now let’s talk about the light. The
reference image was made in condition of uniform illumination - it is
good for the photo- there are no highlights and reflections of the
environmental objects. But for the illustration you don’t need to follow
the same principles, everything might turn out not expressive enough.
Therefore, we introduce two conventional light sources - one in the
upper left corner of the workspace (this light source is obligatory
since it imitates the sunlight), second- in the bottom of the workspace
in order to add some contrast.
Let’s start with black buttons, the
lower part of which have a solid almost black fill on the photo; we
will color it with the linear gradient in dark-grey tones to highlight
the edge.
We
take the main color with the help of the eye-dropper from the photo; it
will be placed on the edges of the gradient without changes; the edge
should be brightened while changing the Brightness parameter.
Fill the upper part of the button with radial gradient in grey tones.
Fill the space between the buttons with black.
Turn off the contour in all the objects to which we add fill.
Step 9
To all the rest of the buttons we take color from corresponding parts of buttons from the previous step.
We work with the light buttons of the calculator accordingly, but instead of dark-grey we use light-grey.
Exactly the same technique is used for the orange buttons.
Step 10
Let’s
proceed to a small but very important group of buttons on the case of
our calculator. Whether they look realistic or not, it depends on the
correctness of creation of gradients, check it out
Color
the second switcher similarly to the first, three planes with linear
gradient, and the upper part with solid color. Use the Eyedropper Tool
(I) as earlier and the Color panel in the HSB mode.
Now color the space around the switchers
Create a shade made by the lower light source. It is a form filled with black and 5% opacity.
Step 11
I
won’t describe the acquisition of light and gradient for every object
in the illustration, I will only show you a screenshot after the
coloring of the calculator’s display and the area around it. Here mostly
the solid fills are used.
that’s how the calculator’s case looks like.
Now you can again hide a layer with our photo, we won’t need it temporary.
Step 12
Let’s
work with highlights which come from the upper light source. Create a
form as on the figure below; fill it with the linear gradient form
light-grey to black, set the Screen blending mode for this object.
Fill
the forms which are created on the surface of the buttons with the
gradient fills; apply the Screen blending mode to them as well.
Take a look at the whole calculator with the highlights from the upper light source.
In the next steps we will work with the highlights made by the bottom light source.
Step 13
In the free workspace create 2000pt wide and 24pt high ellipse without contour with the black fill.
Double it (Cmd / Ctrl + C; Cmd / Ctrl + F), change the color of the fill to white and the size to 1000pt wide and 1pt high.
Select
both ellipses and press the combination of keys (Cmd / Ctrl + Opt / Alt
+ B), then without removing selection, change the number of blend to
20.
Drag the resulting blend into the Brushes panel and save it as the Art Brush.
Press OK and in the next dialog box agree to the default values. Delete the blend object, which served as a basis of a brush.
Step 14
With the Pen Tool (P) create a path on the case of the calculator; it is highlighted with red on the figure.
Apply to this path the brush which we’ve created before
Apply the Screen blending mode with 80% opacity
Step 15
Now
we need to create the same highlights on every button of the calculator
as they are on the case of it. Similarly, we create a bush from the
blend which consists of two 200pt x 8pt and 100pt x 1pt ellipses.
Then draw a path on each button consisting of two straight and one curved segment.
Apply
to every curve a brush and the Screen blending mode with 40% opacity on
the orange buttons, 20% on the dark buttons and 60% on light buttons.
Step 16
Any
object has a shadow, that’s why our calculator will look more realistic
when we draw some shadow. Create a blend consisting of two simple
figures with rounded corners.
And place it underneath our calculator.
Step 17
On
this stage we can say that we’re done with our work with some abstract
calculator which is off. It looks already great, but if we want to get
more realistic illustration of our calculator let’s add some
inscriptions on the buttons and figures on the display.
If up to
this moment you are not tired of the Pen Tool, the best solution will be
to outline the button labels, which will look more authentic. I’ve done
so as well.
There
is also the other solution - to use the Type Tool and the 3D Rotate
filter. But keep in mind, our calculator has a perspective location and
the Rotate parameter should be set for every button individually; it
will be also difficult to set a fond which has all the symbols from a
calculator.
Now let’s "turn on” our calculator and type some figures on the screen. To do so,
download the DIGIT fond and install it in the OS. With the Type Tool (T) type twelve eights.
Select the text and create outlines (Shift+Ctrl+O), ungroup the group and set 10% opacity.
Next,
keep the Shift selected and with the Selection Tool (V) select the
blocks, which correspond to any figures, I’ve chosen 1234 and set back
the 100% opacity.
Group
up all the figures, place this group under the highlight on the screen
of the calculator and finally with the Shear Tool add a completed form
in perspective.
Conclusion
