Digital Props

[DutchBoyJr]

Hey Indy Mogulers,

For my marketing class I have to create a new brand of energy drink. I have to design and advertise my product. I already have a label design for my can, which I did in photoshop, but for the commercial that I have to make I would like to actually show a 'real version' of my product. I'm not looking forward to printing out my design at home and taping it to an existing can because, well that wouldn't look too convincing, in my opinion. I always see videos where people have modeled something in 3ds Max and then composted that model into After Effects. I have never used 3ds Max before and I am having a hard time locating any tutorials on what I want to achieve. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I could pull this off? I'm running out of ideas. Could I actually get a personalized design printed on a can? Another idea I had was to paint a can green and just key it out and replace it with my design although I'm afraid that would look very cheesy too, especially when my character is walking with it or holding it in his hand.

[Neoproks]

Ok doing this digitally is definitely not the best solution. Try printing out the label on photo paper and using that instead of just regular printer paper. Does it have to be a can? Because if not, you could make it a bottle, then the photo paper label would look less out of place.

[GraySunProductions]

There is absolutely no way you're going to do this digitally without spending waaay more time producing an inferior result.

You'd first have to buy a bunch of small styrofoam balls for something similar and paint them orange or another bright color, then stick those on the end of a stick the height of your digital prop with another bunch of reference points (more balls) for a tracker to look at. Then you need a reference shot of just the prop itself that can be matchmoved. Then you matchmove both the reference and raw footage, and then you're ready to make a photo realistic model of a can with your logo on it. After that have fun matching lighting and compositing it all together.

In other words it's a really advanced technique. ;)

Under absolutely positively no circumstances would just a green can work. Trust me.

Just print the label out (on photo paper if possible) and put it on the damn can.

Now you could do a hybrid if you really think it's gonna look bad. For shots where the can is farther away or someone's holding the can use the real prop, then for closeups of the can on a white background (or whatever you choose) you can use a 3d model or even just a photoshop mockup.