"Mockup" is a technical term used mainly by designers. In its direct meaning, the word mocap means layout. With its help, a professional creates a three-dimensional visualization of anything, such as packaging or printing. Often it is used in advertising. A simple example: McDonald's fast food chain. The appetizing hamburger in the image is not a photograph, but a visual idealization of what you want to buy and eat. If the offered product is inside the environment, then it looks better and more profitable than a regular screenshot (picture).
What is this?
Mockup is a layout used by designers to showcase a product or product to a customer. For example, a future business card, CD cover, photo album, postcard, content or appearance of a book. Thanks to this method, the customer visually evaluates the design proposed by the specialist in the working environment. It turns out not just a flat photo, but an already superimposed layout on the product. Mock up allows you to see the final result in reality. It simplifiesinteraction between the customer and the designer. Visual layouts allow you to test products at the development stage, make changes, amendments before printing.
Mock up is good because it is a simple, low-time job that everyone can learn without exception. In order to master this technique perfectly, it is important to have ideas about design, a sense of taste, style, measures, knowledge of color compatibility, and be able to work in graphic editors. While mastering the mockup, look at the work of famous designers, learn from other people's examples and mistakes.
Why is it needed?
Mockups are needed by professional designers, freelancers, artists who work to order and create amazingly beautiful work. Later they are presented to the client in the best possible way. A mockup is created to show the story of a picture or a caption that improves the product and helps customers make a choice in favor of it. Technically, mockups are PSD files with editable smart objects (layers in Photoshop that allow you to paste the design in the right place). Photos can also be mockups. For example: a notebook lying on the table, or a business card. You can make a mockup yourself, buy it or download it for free.
How to create it?
Mockup is a mockup from scratch. Making perfect work is easy with the help of the well-known Photoshop program. For example, if you need to create a logo or an inscription on a business card, it is best to use ready-made files. Special resources havea huge number of photos with blank business cards lying on the table.
You should open a photo in Photoshop and a file with a finished inscription. It must be correctly placed on a business card so that a sense of reality is created. For this, all available tools of the program are used. For such work, initial knowledge of a graphic editor is required. If you don't know how to make a mockup yourself, study the theory and keep practicing.
There is a special algorithm for self-creating a mocap. Do you want to show the customer an inscription or a quote? Get your camera and scenery ready: a notepad, a nice neutral background. Get the right lighting, position your subjects, and take some shots.
Application areas
Now readers know that a mocap is a layout of a business card, magazine, book, postcard, on which the designer overlays a specific picture, photo or inscription. This process helps to visualize the work (for example, to make an inscription on a card) and allows the customer to understand how the result will look like. Mocap is used in the creation of websites, web applications, printing, advertising banners, signs, menus and much more. Interior designers often turn to him when they are preparing a room project.
Website Mockup
Only professional web designers can create a website mockup with skill. The reason is simple - specialists do not panic if the customer requires the completion of any details. Mockup helps the designer to see the idea, develop andimprove it in the future. A web frame is a blueprint of a web page. First, the designer draws it by hand on a piece of paper. This is necessary in order to use the tools of graphic editors more efficiently.
The site frame is created in black and white, which allows the developer to outline the location of the main elements: logo, menu, content, ad units. After the wireframe, the designer develops a site prototype: color and style. Eleven useful tools come to the rescue. They will help out when creating all the details of the site. Check out InVision, UXPin, Marvel App, Gliffy, OmniGraffle, Moqups, Axure, JustinMind, Mockingbird, HotGloo, Mockplus.
For example, Mockplus is a simple design tool. It helps to create a frame, move from black and white to color. This tool allows you to use more than two hundred components that greatly simplify the creation of the site. Other programs come to the aid of the designer. With their help, it is easy to create site elements, work out details, and learn. The most common and easiest way to get skills is to make a business card mockup.
Graphic editor
Photoshop is 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-made mockup and use it to demonstrate the main work.
Try writing for a booklet orpostcards. Come up with an idea, decide on a color. Make a freehand sketch on a piece of paper. Then translate the idea into a graphics program.
An easy and popular option among beginners is the business card mockup. Open the downloaded file, inscription and text. Go to the finished mockup, click on the "Smart Object" icon (it should be a business card image), select "Edit Content" from the menu. The object will open in a new tab, ready for editing. Next, activate the created inscription or text and transfer it to the surface of the business card. You can transform the inscription, change the size, choose the most suitable place for its location. Save the project.
Sources
It's not hard to create mockups. They simplify the main work of the designer, save time and effort. If you wish, create your own database of such files and start selling them. But for this you need a good camera, shooting skills, subjects, knowledge of lighting, a sense of well-developed taste and style. Image sources can be resources that sell ready-made images for a fee to demonstrate the design of something. If there is no free money to buy mockups, the designer is offered a large number of free sources. There you can easily find thousands of beautiful pictures on any subject for download.
Cons of ready-made mockups: uniformity, lack of individuality, stereotyped. Pros - accessibility, beauty, minimalism, maximum realism, convenience. If aIf you are a professional designer, be sure to have an established database of mockups. It should emphasize the style of the author, demonstrate the subject of sale, attract the customer.
