Breaking Down The Basics of Mockup Creation Process
Great. You are reading this post, which means that you’re already a mockup designer or are interested in mockup design. Which, at the same time, means that you took the next step and accepted the challenge of creating new designs within the stock world.
Here at Freepik, we want to give you a little push to create high-quality mockups that sell.
So, whether you’re a mockup pro or you’re new in this field, we break down the basic steps of mockup creation so you can control the whole process. This is what we’ll be covering in this post:
1. Come up with the idea
2. Make the replaceable element the focus of your mockup
3. Materialize your idea: the production process
4. Make it real: the editing process
If you want to know more about the editing process, we suggest you read our post on how to Showcase Your Mockups With Different Levels of Editing.
1. Come up with the idea
First of all, it’s important you come up with the idea before developing your design. This will help you be consistent with your creation and offer the user a quality result. So, when finding an idea for your mockup there are some aspects you need to take into account:
- What is the context of your design? As creative people, you may come up with lots of ideas. But it’s essential to narrow it down. Choose a context you want to create and think of the different designs that it can integrate. But most importantly: try not to mix concepts.
- Envision your mockup in the real world. Answering the following questions may help you: which types of pictures are more likely to appear in that scene? and how do you want your mockup to be used for?
- Use reference images as inspiration. These will help you get an idea of potential scenes and represent them as real as possible
- Set the scene in a way that all elements within the mockup reinforce your idea.
2. Make the replaceable element the focus of your mockup
First of all, choose the element you want to be the focus of your mockup, that’s it, the replaceable element. When you’re clear about it, then make sure that your focus of attention is on that element.
Secondary elements are there to reinforce the composition and the overall look. So, try to change its size or position in order to support the composition without overshadowing the main element.
3. Materialize your idea: the production process
Context? Check. Idea? Check. Replaceable element? Check. The next step is to turn your idea into the real stuff.
Before going down to business, it’s important you know which type of mockup you’ll be working with. When it comes to providing a realistic scene, here at Freepik we produce mockups in two different ways: with photographs and 3D creations. But: which one is the best?
It all depends on the elements you’ll be using for your scene. We recommend creating mockups from photos when you work with:
- Real people and animals
- Tangible objects and surfaces
- Real environments
- Fibers (pieces of clothing, grass, hair, etc.) and plants
On the contrary, using 3D creations for your mockups are the best option when the design includes the following:
- Hard surfaces and objects
- Conceptual or unreal environments
- Impossible actions or positions
- Massive objects (vehicles, etc.)
4. Make it real: the editing process
Editing your mockup is as important as creating it. The editing process will determine how the final design will look like and, thus, if it sells. The following are some of the aspects to bear in mind when editing the design:
- Insert a mock design in the replaceable area
At this point, you have to choose the design that will be replaced by the user. This step is crucial as it will determine the user’s engagement. So, make sure the design you select is useful, visually appealing and realistic.
Apart from it, obviously, the replaceable element should suit the overall design of your mockup. If everything works together, your creation is likely to attract more users.
- Pay attention to the technical aspects
It’s crucial that you don’t miss any details. Remember that the ultimate goal of mockups is to look realistic! How can you get that? Pay attention to details. For instance, if your mockup includes a display, ensure that you recreate the light coming out of the screen.
Besides details, you may want to spend time adding lighting effects and color adjustments to get a realistic result. A good idea to enhance your design and offering quality to users is adding editable objects. This requires an extra effort but will surely differ your creation from the rest.
- Layers adjustment
Last but not least, the way you organize the layers is important. This way, users will be able to easily understand and work with your mockup. Here go some guidelines:
⇒ Create a group of layers for every editable object
⇒ Use a blue label for every editable layer (color, effects, and so on)
⇒ Smart Object should have the same title: “Place your design here (Double click to edit)”.
Designing mockups requires expertise and technique to get quality resources. It’s important to know the creation process and follow every step to offer users the best content.
