Boxshot 4

What do you like best?

Unlike many 3D modeling applications online, Boxshot was clearly designed for the average user. Although there are some advanced settings for expert users, anyone with basic graphic design experience should be able to get the hang of the app quickly. The rendered output is excellent. (Note: The application is currently listed as Boxshot 4 on this website, but version 5 has been available for some time.)

What do you dislike?

The software is a bit expensive, although not necessarily compared to other commercial 3D software of the same caliber. Boxshot comes with a large library of models, but some fairly common product packaging formats are missing (for example, pizza-box type boxes), and building them by piecing together more generic shapes is tedious and time-consuming. It can be done, but it takes some patience, and it helps to have a good grasp on some more advanced application concepts like groups.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

Download the free trial and test it out. It works well with Photoshop or another image editor, in which you create the package designs and export the faces (front, sides, back, etc.) for the 3D object. My preferred workflow is to create the production designs in InDesign or Illustrator, export to PDF, import the PDF to Photoshop as a Smart Object (linked to the PDF file), and then copy the faces using the selection tool into separate images that I save as separate Photoshop files and import into Boxshot.

What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

At our company we use Boxshot for rendering product mockups. We've created hundreds of book, magazine, DVD, and other products using Boxshot. We also use it occasionally for other projects. Some examples include pop-up free-standing banner display mockups, and even a 3D chart. It is very fast to import graphics from existing product designs, and because of the precise camera controls and being able to save product views, we've been able to make our 3D mockups visually consistent, which is useful for catalog layouts, etc.