Hi Friends,

Here's a new challenge suitable for beginners and up.  It's a good chance to use or learn techniques for putting depth in a drawing, or even simulating 3d.

Draw some kind of container.  Here are some examples.

It could be as simple as this.  (SVG file attached)

Or see next message for more examples.  (This tiny editor makes me crazy!)

Here's something I made some time ago.  A shampoo bottle.  This uses all the tricks to make depth or 3d or photorealism.  If there's any interest, I could share the SVG file.

Next, I got fascinated by drawing an egg shape one day, a while back.  Well, the shell is a container.  But I'm sharing this because it shows a way to simulate depth or 3d without using highlights and shadows.  It's all by drawing it at the right angle, and placement of parts.

Well, I was going to show a coffee mug I made a while back.   But now that I look at it a couple of years later, I see it needs a few tweaks.  But a coffee mug is another good example.  And I'm sure everyone gets the idea by now.

However, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.  And beginners, please don't hesitate to ask questions.  I love helping newbies learn!

Oh!  Just thought of another container I made. 

Hhmm, not liking the shadows anymore.  But I probably won't tweak it anymore.

oh I really like both of them Brynn.

ok, just realized I did this 10 yrs ago, needs some work, but that'll have to wait.  This was one of the first things I made, followed a tut.  It has A LOT of errors, but was a good learning experience in how to draw. 

brynn

It could be as simple as this.  (SVG file attached)

FYI that shadow is messed up. 

Lazur/anyone - Beyond the basic shadow, I get messed up with creating proper shadows.  Can anyone recommend some good tuts (tuts for dummies type thing)? Nothing too complex.

flamingolady

Beyond the basic shadow, I get messed up with creating proper shadows.  Can anyone recommend some good tuts (tuts for dummies type thing)? Nothing too complex.

Can't really recommend, would need to make some from scratch or look it up. Usually creating proper shadows come after knowing how to draw 3D shapes properly. 

That being said, there are 2 kind of shading -one with a point light source and one which comes in "parallel rays", like an "idealised" sun.

The latter is easier to start -the principals are the same.

Found this one:

http://www.student-resource-jaime-treadwell.com/shadow-02.jpg

For the easier understanding use a distant light source and a parallel projection on the drawing -no vanishing point, no perspective.

Basically the shadow casting equals a projection of the object's points onto another object -you cannot see cast shadows in an empty space.

The easiest and most common shading would be with using a horizontal plane, like the ground. 

First you need to project each and every point of the object onto the plane. Every part outside that area is "lit" on the plane.

Raytracing renderers would do that automatically -project every point-, but in "proper drawing" the construction is simplified down. 

The shadow of a point is a single point; a shadow of two points is two points. 

If there is a line going through those two points, a line should go through the two point's cast shadows -thus the cast shadow will be a line as well.

If the point casting shadow is on the plane it is casting shadow onto, the cast shadow is in the same position.

Now, if there is a vertical pole on the ground, it's shadow will be a line segment starting from the bottom of the pole. 

If you draw such, it'll depict a triangle. One edge is the pole, the other one is the shadow, and the third side will be defined by the ray of light projecting the other end of the pole.

The two angles of the ray and the shadow can define the whole shadow casting process. 

Think of your object casting shadows built up by an infinite amount of such vertical poles. Each of those would cast a shadow under the same angles and you'd only need to scale the rectangle up proportionally and reposition it to construct the cast shadow. 

With the cube, drawing only "3 poles" was enough -or better yet 1 only-, knowing that with parallel projection all the edges of the object casting shadows parallel to the plane will have their shadows parallel with them too.

That's about the basics. Deciding which part of the object are lit or shaded, or using a different plane to cast shadows upon needs a deeper understanding of the problem. 

It's something like slicing up the object with parallel planes to that rectangle in the previous construction and constructing on it as a "sideview". 

Then it's about to draw parallel lines with the angle of the projection/sunlight and drawing the intersection points with the planes. 

Edit: found this too:

http://www.delftdesigndrawing.com/uploads/2/0/4/9/20493508/3360727_orig.jpg

-although still can't figure out to embed/hotlink images via url-s in the forum.

Lazur, thanks so much for that info.  Never even heard of raytracing.  Will look up the links you gave me in the near future!  I can do ground shadows sort of ok, the poles and boxes I just haven't grasped as of yet. I see lots of shadow lessons in my future. Again, thanks, that is a lot of info! 

So I've played with the cup just a bit today, still some errors, but used a few coffee cup pics and my own mug from today as a reference.  So, here's an update to the one above, hopefully a lot better!  I haven't grasped containers real well yet, so a good challenge by Brynn!

Lazur

FYI that shadow is messed up.

I only eyeballed it.  Didn't mean for it to be technically correct.

flamingolady

I can do ground shadows sort of ok, the poles and boxes I just haven't grasped as of yet.

If the ground receives cast shadows only and the rays are parallel projected basically you can imagine the objects casting shadows as such a wireframe, where each horozontal plane is fix and sturdy, and the vertical edges are made of somekind of rubber. Then all of this is flattened to the ground. You can pull it around in every direction and scale it, and it will provide an accurate shape for the shadow. 

So there are certain edges of the cast shadow that should look similar to the original object.

With Brynn's cube, with a few different light sources:

I made a little vitamin bottle.  Comments welcome.

I'm not entirely happy with it.  But it's as close as I can get for now.  I've used a "live" model, on the table beside me, with a lamp just to the side of it (not directly overhead, but close).  Yes, the shadow really does have a dark triangular shape in it.

Yeah, putting text or logos on the label would be more effort than I want to give right now, what with the bending it around the curve and all.  But the SVG file is included, for those who want to learn from it, or just look at it.  And if someone wants to add text, that's fine.

The license is CC-BY-NC-SA (which means if you use the image, you can't use it for commercial purpose, you have to credit me, and you have to also provide any results you obtain with the same license). (See License and Metadata tabs in Document Properties)

version 2 - tweaked the shadows and highlights a little

Just realized, that hightlight on the "shoulder" is actually a reflection of the lamp - the bright spot is the bulb, and the edges are the edge of the lamp shade!

Brynn, nice!  really like the cap, and I guess what is the 'shoulder'.  the green label is a bit odd for some reason, but maybe I'm just not used to that color or a label.

Brynn's vit bottle reminded me that I've done one too, many yrs ago. 

This is a copyrighted design by me, UGAD.

Hi. How did you wrap the label around? I am a beginner in inkscape and I can't find a tutto to do it. 

Thanks in advance

Mollinor.  It's an optical illusion, basically you create a rectangle then pull the top and bottom side a bit and leave the sides. 

I like this challenge. Containers are great, so I wanted to show you some. 

The three cups are a little bit older and I know, the label is not quite correct. 
The red mug is one of my favourites vectors and the cardboard box took me quite some time. 

Long time lurker, first time poster. I first saw this post years ago and thought about it but never got around to it until a week ago. I've been using mesh gradients for a while. Very few people seem to use it.

https://inkscape.org/gallery/item/28552/view/