Help with how to make realview type images.

[Andrea]

It's actually quite hard to create a realview type image for your collection. 

Even with over 100 products, you may not have the exact products required to get a realview image attached to your collection. I remember spending ages, and jumping through hoops, to get just one realview image working. It wasn't the best image available, it didn't match my gothic product line, and I had to make products that were ill-suited to the collection, just to get a realview image. Phew. 

So forget that, how can we create our own? In creating a flatlay, the main bugbear is getting the sizes right, else you are falsely advertising the size of the products against each other. Plus there is the necessity to create transparency too. 

I'm just thinking of how I would do it - maybe use the size given in the product description to crop or stretch my mockup into position against other equally manipulated products. Not everyone has photoshop and I think it's a tall order for creators.

Can anyone contribute to finding a solution to this. Maybe you have some examples of how you have done this in the past.

[Cat · Accepted solution]

Well, I've only done a few of these - you are correct that getting the scale right is important. I use GIMP (opensource knock off of PhotoShop) because I'm too cheap to pay for Adobe products, and it's a pretty simple process - well - I should clarify that it's simple for me partly because I've been using GIMP for 15+ years.

I just choose a decent background (either from a free photo site or use AI to make one) then download images for the products in question. To get the proportions right, I chose a scale and made them relative - like a certain number of pixels per inch. Then once I've got them all as separate layers in the image, I just link them and scale visually - so they all scale together. Then arrange them add some decorations & shadows and voila!

All that being said though... I'm not sure that these types of collection covers are all that helpful since they only display a tiny fraction of the items in the collection, and the individual products end up being so small. Plus, there's no good way to include things that are radically different in size (like a retractable welcome banner and a matchbox.)

When I do get around to making more, I think I'll explore something simpler like a grid with one product cover in each box and a big text banner saying something like "Explore the full collection" or "hundreds of matching products" or something that makes it clear that this is a tiny sample of what's available. 

Something similar to the ones that @Sara_H has made:

[Wildart]

For example, I have artwork for sale(eg canvas), and I create an image through Ai  OR grab a free use image(morguefile is good) I then estimate how large a cushion or sofa is, by mesuring my own sofa and cushions, then adjust the canvas image to size. I also have a program called photobrush (not free) and inkscape(free) to skew the image to match any angled views. I don't know how youcould do it without a photo manip programme.

For flat lays I use the same principle, careful to keep proportions right. 

there are many sites now that can remove backrounds and give you transparent images, such as creativefabrica, or remove.bg. I apply these to my zazz item image, so I can place them in whatever BG I choose, (image or gradient for example.)

Hope this helps