Mock up ("mocap") is ... What is needed and how to do it?

"Mocap" - this is a narrow special term, which is used mainly by designers. In the literal sense, the word mocap means a mockup . With its help, a professional creates a three-dimensional visualization of anything, for example, packaging or printing. Often it is used in advertising. A simple example: the fast food chain McDonald's. Appetizing hamburger in the image - not a picture, but a visual idealization of what you want to buy and eat. If the offered product is inside the environment, it looks better and more profitable than a normal screenshot (snapshot).

What is it?

Mocap is a mockup that designers use to showcase a product or product to a customer. For example, a future business card, CD cover, photo album, postcard, content or appearance of the book. Due to this method, the customer visually evaluates the design offered by the specialist in the working environment. It turns out not just a flat photograph, but a superimposed layout on the product. позволяет увидеть конечный результат в реальности. Mock up allows you to see the final result in reality. It simplifies the interaction between the customer and the designer. Visual layouts allow you to test products at the design stage, make changes, corrections before printing.

Mock up is good because it's a simple, time-consuming work that everyone can learn without exception. In order to perfectly master this technique, it is important to have an idea of design, a sense of taste, style, measure, knowledge of color compatibility, be able to work in graphic editors. During the development of the mocap look through the work of famous designers, learn from other people's examples and mistakes.

Why is it needed?

Mocapes are needed by professional designers, freelancers, artists who work to order and create amazingly beautiful works. Later they are presented to the client in the best possible way. Mocap is created to demonstrate the history of a picture or an inscription that improves the product and helps customers make a choice in its favor. Technically, mocaps are PSD files with editable smart objects (layers in the Photoshop program that allow you to insert the design into the right place). Mocaps can also be photographs. For example: a notebook lying on a table, or a business card. Mocap can be made independently, buy or free download ready.

How to create it?

Mocap is a mockup from scratch. Make an ideal job easily with the help of the well-known program "Photoshop". For example, if you want to create a logo or an inscription on your business card, it's best to use ready-made files. On special resources there are a huge number of photos with empty business cards, lying on the table.

You should open the photo in Photoshop and the file with the ready-made inscription. It should be correctly placed on the business card so that a sense of reality is created. All available program tools are used for this. For this work, you need an initial knowledge of the graphic editor. If you do not know how to make a mocap yourself, study the theory, and also constantly train.

There is a special algorithm for creating a mocap. Want to show the customer an inscription or a quote? Prepare a camera and objects for the scene: a notebook, a beautiful neutral background. Set the correct lighting, position the objects and take a few pictures.

Applications

Now readers know that mocap is a mock-up of business cards, magazines, books, postcards, to which the designer imposes a specific picture, photo or inscription. This process helps to visualize the work (for example, to make an inscription on the card) and allows the customer to understand what the result will look like. Mocap is used in the creation of sites, web applications, printing, advertising banners, signage, menus and much more. Often, it appeals to interior designers, when they prepare the project premises.

Mocap site

Create a mocap site with knowledge only professional web designers can. The reason is simple - experts do not panic if the customer will require the completion of any details. Mocap helps the designer to see the idea, develop and improve it in the future. A web framework is a schematic outline of a web page. First, the designer draws it by hand on a piece of paper. It is necessary to use tools of graphic editors more effectively.

The site framework is created in black and white, which allows the developer to map out the layout of the main elements: logo, menu, content, ad units. After the skeleton, the designer develops a prototype site: color and style. Eleven useful tools come to the rescue. They will help out when creating all the details of the site. Pay attention to the programs InVision, UXPin, Marvel App, Gliffy, OmniGraffle, Moqups, Axure, JustinMind, Mockingbird, HotGloo, Mockplus.

For example, Mockplus is a simple designer tool. It helps to create a framework, go from a black and white version to a color one. This tool allows you to use more than two hundred components, which greatly simplify the creation of the site. To help the designer come and other programs. With their help, it's easy to create site elements, study details, learn. The most common and easy way to get skills is to make a mocap business card.

Graphics editor

Photoshop - one of the programs that comes to the aid of the designer when creating various projects and layouts. Mockups for "Photoshop" are ready-made PSD files. You can download them on paid, free resources or do it yourself. The easiest way is to find a ready mocap and apply it to demonstrate the main work.

Try to make an inscription for a booklet or postcard. Come up with an idea, decide on the color. Draw a sketch from your hand on a piece of paper. Then embody the idea in the graphics program.

An easy and popular option among beginners is a mocap of business cards. Open the downloaded file, label and text. Go to the finished mocap, click on the icon "Smart Object" (this should be a business card image), select "Edit Content" from the menu. A new object will open in the new tab , ready to be modified. Next, activate the created inscription or text and transfer to the surface business cards. The inscription can transform, change the size, choose the most suitable place of its location. Save the project.

Sources

There is nothing difficult in creating mocaps. They simplify the main job of the designer, save energy and time. If there is a desire, create your own database of such files and sell them. But this will require a good camera, shooting skills, subjects, knowledge of lighting, a sense of well-developed taste and style. Sources of images can be resources that for a fee sell ready-made pictures to showcase the design of something. If there is no available cash to buy mocap, the designer is offered a large number of free sources. There you can easily find thousands of beautiful pictures for any subject to download.

Disadvantages of finished mocaps: uniformity, lack of individuality, stereotypedness. Pros - accessibility, beauty, minimalism, maximum realism, convenience. If you are professionally engaged in design, be sure to have a proven base of mocaps. It should emphasize the style of the author, it is profitable to demonstrate the subject of sale, to attract the customer.