Illustrator: Shoe Rendering
UPDATE: A newer version of this tutorial is now available in video form here. I hope you find it helpful!
Lets explore some advance AI techniques to make rendering products super simple. Shoes are really easy to render in Illustrator, and I’ve had a special request to show some shoe design techniques, so check out the final image and lets get crackin’.
I’m going to approach this really slowly at first to demonstrate techniques, and then send you off on your own to figure out the rest. I’m supplying the final illustrator file for your reference, and as always, don’t hesitate to ask if you’ve got questions!
Final Image (.png)
Final AI file (.zip)
Here’s my “buck”, just a basic shoe shape I’ll start with.
I highly recommend working with at least a few layers so you can turn them on and off as needed.
I use the brush tool inside AI to sketch in some basic ideas and figure out a plan.
Afterwards I can lock the sketch layer, dim it, and create real lines. At this point the lines are all just open paths.
I highly recommend making all logos and other repetitive elements out of “symbols”. Symbols will a) decrease filesize, and b) allow you to change the logo later as needed. In this case it’s no big deal, but it’s a good habit. Plus you can keep all of your logos in a symbol library for easy access in all of your projects.
At this point we’ve drawn all of our basic lines on their own layer, but they’re open curves: aka not easy to fill.
I like to work fast and sloppy so that I can make adjustments as I go. That said, what we’re going to do here is create a “clipping mask” to put everything in, so that we can go outside our shoe boundaries real-messy-like and everything will stay ‘clipped’ within it. So draw another outline, this time right around the perimeter of the shoe.
Once you’ve drawn your outline, make sure it’s on TOP of all the other open paths, then hit Ctrl+7 (Object>Clipping Mask>Make).
Now that everything’s clipped, you can select the clipping path itself and give it a fill (just to make it easy to see).
As with any group, double-clicking outlines the object in gray lines, signifying that you are working “locally” to the current group. This means you can use the regular-old closed-arrow tool to drag around elements, and you can also draw new ones as needed. This is VERY VERY handy. We’re going to spend most of the remainder of this tutorial double-clicked inside this clipping group.
Go through and close each of your paths, creating points as needed outside the clipping path. Notice that the shapes are automatically clipped! Try your Ctrl+[ and Ctrl+] keys… still work, but within the group! Pretty fancy, huh? Make sure you completely CLOSE all paths, because some of our tricks down the line won’t work if you don’t.
So now that we’ve closed up all of our shapes, lets get to work on some shading!
To make a shape “pop”, I use “inner glow” and “drop shadow” a lot, depending on the situation. Play around with them.
Okay, get ready for this: we can add multiple strokes to a single path, and offset them from each other. You got it: if we do it this way, making changes to the original line will change all of its offsets!! This is a HUGE creativity/productivity boost.
Note the appearance palette. The “offset path” effect can be dragged around to affect different fills and strokes. Option-drag it to duplicate it. Any effect you apply will show up in the appearance palette, and can be applied to any given stroke or fill, or the whole object. Order matters too, as you’ll quickly discover!
So if we were lazy bums, we could just make our stitches this way. We’d do an offset path, and apply a dash to it. But that’s for lazy people :)
What we’ll do is define a quick brush with a more complex stitch look. Make sure to use a global color swatch to color the thread. That will make it MUCH easier to adjust the color later.
When you make a pattern brush, the objects should be horizontal.
Voila! Now you know how to make a stitch.
Drag it to the little “new” icon at the bottom of the appearance palette to duplicate it, and double the offset value.
…And magically we have two strokes!
Make another brush like this.
Starting to come to life, eh? Now we get into some complex light and shadow.
This is a sweet trick. To make complex shadows on an object, I just make multiple gradients via the appearance palette, and make them either multiply (for shadows) or screen (for highlights).
The 3D Extrude & Bevel tool is a great idea, but in my experience it almost never works the way you want it to. It’s actually pretty crappy. But for a simple shape like th is, it works pretty well. The settings are too complex to go over here. Just play with it.
Not bad, eh?
When you start getting all the right highlights and shadows in there, things start to really pop.
That’s all, folks! Tune in next week!
Final Image (.png)
Final AI file (.zip)
This slow illustration (in both sense :) is quite helpful. Thanks for sharing it.
Sure! If you have any topic requests, just let me know.
Thanks again Adam! nice job
Awesome tutorial Adam! :)
Thanks guys! This was a fun one.
Fantastic tutorial Adam. Many thanks.
hey adam!
Nice to read your posting! I am trying to learn AI CS3. Have you gone to school of design before?
At this moment, I am working in a shoes company called Benebis in Japan. I am thinking one day to have my own shoes line. A ballet/flat shoes line.
Nice to know you! I hope you can post more tutorial.
best,
Jasmine
Hi Tasniem:
Yes, I majored in Industrial Design at the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio. Glad you enjoyed the tutorial. Are there any topics in particular you’d like to see more of?
Adam- This tutorial is amazing. I’m having one problem, using CS2, when I try to double a stitch and offset it, it offsets on both sides and makes a square of the stitch around the first stitch. Any idea how to fix that so it’s just the two stitches and not one line of stitch with another box of stitch around it??
Hi Kelly. Thanks! Let me know if there are other topics you’d like to see covered.
As for the offset issue, you’ve discovered one of the most annoying things about AI’s offset tool. When you offset a closed path, it creates a single, closed offset curve in one direction (controlled by positive or negative offset values). If you offset an OPEN path, however, it offsets in both directions. You can get around this by doing what I did in the tutorial: using closed paths to define your stitches, and hiding the undesired “extra” parts of the shape behind the clipping mask.
I hope that makes sense!
Hi Adam,
I’m teaching shoemaking and shoedesign in Belgium.
My students use a manual I made, showing them how to design shoes by hand. In that manual is explained how to work with photoshop, starting from a scanned drawing.
Your rendered shoe looks good, but could be even better if you scan in some real leather or mesh. Your stiches should be touching eachother.
Great work!
Thanks for the feedback, Roel. I’m not a shoe designer, so I really don’t know anything about it! I created this post because a friend of mine asked what AI techniques I would use to draw a shoe. This is probably not what I would do if I were actually rendering a shoe for work. Thanks for the feedback!
Wonderful tutorial, thanks a lot!
it’s really cool.
i’m so glad to find your illustration
Actually, i wanna be a shoes designer someday
it’s very useful for me.
thanks Adam.
Check out my website dedicated to Sketching and rendering techniques. There is a great video on Advanced Illustrator techniques for rendering a soccer shoe. There is a sample clip that you can see of the Tutorial. I hope you like it. http://www.renderdemo.com
Hi , great little tutorial.
Can you help me…when i close the paths and go to add the texture the effects from artistic down as still unavailable.
How can i apply them to the closed path like you have shown?
Thanks
Hi Mark:
What version of AI are you using? Do you think you could snap a screen shot and/or send me the file? I’ve got a hunch, but I’d have to see to be sure. Send it to adam at theoherns.com
its cool, it because i was cymk colour and not rgb!
hello, I’m interested in trying to do technical flats of footwear, but I’m so used to using a croqui for clothingwear. Did you use a foot croqui to make the basic drawing of your shoe? I can’t find one anywhere!
Hi Sarah:
No, I didn’t use anything so sophisticated; I was simply trying to demonstrate basic techniques in Illustrator. I’m afraid I’d be no real help to you in finding what you’re needing, though I suspect you could make one yourself easily enough! I’d go find “measure of man” by Henry Dreyfuss at the library and simply copy whatever they’ve got in there for an average male and female foot, using their dimensions.
Good luck!
thanks adam! I’m definitely going to try out your tutorial! great explanations and easy to follow!
Hi, Nice rendering. Do u have any other tutorals?” Also I’m interested to get into Industrial Design. What are the things I should do?
Hi Dipz:
There are lots of tutorials on the site. You can browse most of them just by clicking “tutorials” at the top of this page.
Getting into industrial design usually starts with a specialized Bachelor’s degree, though some people sneak into the field with Mechanical Engineering degrees and other related fields. If you don’t yet have a degree, I recommend (in no particular order): my alma mater (ccad.edu), University of Cincinnati, Art Center in California, Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, and Cleveland Institute of Art.
Pratt in NYC and RISD in Rhode Island are also prominent players in design education, though in my opinion their programs are much stronger in fine arts and graphic design than industrial design. I’ve seen great designers from both schools, but I’ve also seen great designers from lots of other random schools. There’s a certain amount that a college can give you, and a certain amount you just have to do on your own!
Here’s a good site for ID schools:
http://boards.core77.com/viewtopic.php?t=2389
Hi Adam,
I am looking to get into a shoe design program at a local art school. I have plenty of free hand sketches that I’d like to finally bring to life with some software. I’m not sure where to begin, but I’d like to tinker around with something to see what I can do before I drop 30k for a design program. I know there are CADD programs for shoe design, but I can’t find any for sale online. So far, friends who are designers tell me to play around with AI as you have here. But if there is one specific for shoes, I’d rather start there. Any insight would be very helpful!
Thanks
Hi Santos:
First of all, I wish you the best of luck getting into a design program, and I hope you’ll keep an open mind as you explore the broader field of industrial design. Shoes are a great field, but you may find other fields that you like just as much, and an industrial design degree, the ability to think critically, and the drive to do great work can get you a job in almost any field you like!
Second: a disclaimer. I’m not a shoe designer. I know a few, but I myself have worked primarily in consumer products like electronics, housewares, and power tools. The main reason I chose to do a shoe tutorial on my site was specifically because I had no special knowledge of the shoe industry, and therefor could not be sued by anybody! :)
As for software, AI is a good choice for doing aesthetic shoe designs. All of the specialized software used by shoe designers that I’m aware of is a) mainly for shoe manufacturing and engineering, not design, or b) specially built for a specific company, and therefor unavailable to you.
Here’s my recommendation:
1. Buy a ballpoint, a sharpie, a few colored pencils, and some bright-white inkjet paper. Do 85% of your work with these tools. I’m not kidding: this is where the magic happens!
2. Buy a student license of Adobe CS4. Learn to use Illustrator and Photoshop. Both are powerful, and each is useful in its own way.
3. Design! But never forget this: your end-product is a shoe that someone wears, not a picture of a shoe that you look at on screen. The Illustrator rendering is only important insomuch as it communicates your intent for the real shoe. Design students always want to believe that the right software package will make them great designers, and it breaks my heart to see so many young designers struggling to get jobs because they’ve focused too much on the tools, and not enough on creating great designs!
Good luck, Santos. Keep in touch!
Adam!
Thank you so much for your reply. This is exactly what I needed to hear. I completely concur with you on the fact that one should not rely too much on software to design something that will ultimately be worn by someone! I will definitely take you up on your advice and buy a ballpoint pent, colored pencils and some fine white paper. :)
Thanks again!
Santos
Incredible stuff!
Thanks a mill for this.
This one might be easier to follow:
http://adam.theoherns.com/2010/02/20/aips-shoe-rendering-cs4/
hi Adam i need some help, when i try to apply the the texturizer to the close path it becomes fuzzy and blurry, all my sitting is align to pixel grid and i try to scale it down but that did not help as well.
thanks in advance