Create bottle label with projection

[Dude1x]

I'd like to create a round label for a bottle of beer, but I don't want it to be round when flat (= before sticking it to the bottle), I want it to be the projection of a flat circle onto the round bottle.

In other words, the shape to be cut would be the intersection of two perpendicular cylinders.

Any idea how to do this in Illustrator?

Thanks

[Ton Frederiks]

Is the 3D Revolve effect with a round symbol mapped what you want?

[Dude1x]

Not entirely sure, but thanks anyway.

[federico platon]

Well, if the cylinder sections are circles, the intersection is a circle.

The label (before sticked to a bottle) can have the shape of an ellipse or when axis are equal, a circle.

Maybe your questions is how to and how it will look when sticked in a 3D bottle?

[Dude1x]

Yeah., I'm looking for a solution that would allow the label to look as round as possible when seen straight from the front, but I don't know how to create the correct elipse based on the diameter of the bottle and the circle.

Thanks if you have a solution.

[Jacob Bugge · Accepted solution]

Dude,

It is worse than you believe, but it can be done, undoubtedly easily with other software, or with the aid of external means.

Viewing straight on is presumed.

To give a circular appearance when viewed on the bottle, the label has to be stretched sideways, however not as an ellipse because the stretching increases outwards.

The whole shape including the actual stetching and sideways extension depends on how far the label goes round the bottle. A small label will be almost circular, and a large label going up to halfway round will be strecthed to a high degree.

The exact right appearance also depends on whther you view it with one (dominant) eye or with stereo vision. As an easy, and reasonable, approach closest to the latter, you may work without perspective.

You can, using no other software:

1) On the Artboard Draw the circle at full size and add a number of equidistant vertical guide lines through it from side to side (including one through the centre), maybe 9 lines to give 8 intervals, 4 on both side of the centre, then also add lines at half the bottle width in both sides;

2) Print out 1) on a piece of paper and put it on the table;

3) Wrap another piece of paper round the bottle so it reaches the bottom, then place it symmetrically over the lines (so the bottle width lines are at the sides of the bottle, and mark where the guide lines meet the bottle;

4) Unwrap the second piece of paper and measure how far the outer line marks are from the centre mark on both sides and use the best fit;

5) Back on the Artboard, create a copy of 1) with the centre vertical line going through the origin (at X = 0), then add a wide horizontal line vertically above the original circle;

6) Select the circle and the guide lines except the outermost ones, then use Pathfinder>Divide or the Shape Builder and get rid of all the unneeded bits so you only have (one each of) the shortened guide lines that were inside the circle, then Object>Path>Add Anchor Points;

7) ClickDrag each of the shortened guide lines by the midpoint to snap to the horizontal line;

8 ) ClickDrag the remaining outermost unchanged guide lines and then each of the shortened guide lines horizontally outwards to the distances measured in 4);

Now you have a basis for the unfolded shape, which runs through the ends of the guide lines and reaches the intersection of the horizontal line and the outermost unchanged guide lines

9) Create an ellipse and distort it in whichever suitable ways to get the best possible fit over the guides in 8);

You may print it out and wrap it round the bottle to see whether it is satisfactory;

10) Create/recreate the contents of the label similarly.

.

[Dude1x]

Fantastic!

Thank you a million!

[Jacob Bugge]

You are welcome, Dude,

I just completed the description, so it ends with 10).

[jdanek]

I approach it a little differently.  I would go and buy a few bottles of whatever beer has a round label on it.  I have an old school technique of removing the label using adhesive remover.  Using one of the other bottles,, I would take a digital pic of the front.  You do not have to, but this pic could be used as the "base" layer of your design ( remove all elements except the shape of the label and the bottle itself ).  Using the removed label, you could scan it  against a black background to give you the shape as "flat" which you could then build a "dieline" to be used to cut the label later.  Odds are you will need to warp whatever elelments you build on your "comp" ( your file that has the base layer of the bottle pic ).  You are essentially building a prototype of the entire design using a bottle with beer inside. So, so far, you have two files: 1.) one with a base layer of the pic; 2.) one with the label flat as a dieline.  When you get to the point where you have to generate a production file, the dieline will be put on a separate layer in the production file which will be flat.  The advantage to doing the dieline in the comp phase is the size and shape can be established and used as reference for your comp file ( which is a digital pic of the bottle and label shape as seen from the front [ of an existing bottle you bought at the packy ] ).  Also, there are two ways you could proceed: 1.) use the dieline file ( flat ) as your layout which can be presented or reviewed as printouts; or 2.) comp the 3-D bottle as your comp file to be preented later on.  Either way, elements can be copied and pasted to eachother, but the comp would be warped.  At some point you may have to cut the label and adhere it to a bottle.  The dieline file will work for that purpose.  Preliminary layouts could be printed of the comp file.  Whatever gets approved, you then build using the dieline file.  A few steps, but this would be my approach.  There really is no way that is correct or incorrect, it ends up being what you are comfortable with.  I can remember when we had to do markers by hand.

[Jacob Bugge]

Dude,

Just a follow up, with the way I should prefer to do it myself, in a more forensic geometric way without external means, in case you wish to consider that; it can be reused with small changes for other combinations of bottle and label sizes.

In the image below, I have made a bottle circle W = H = 400 and a label circle W = H = 360, 90% of the bottle width.

Smart Guides are your friends.

1) On the Artboard Draw the apparent label circle at full size with its centre at X = 0, then and add a number of equidistant vertical guide lines through it from side to side (including one through the centre), maybe 11 lines to give 10 intervals, 5 on both side of the centre, all lines extending a sufficient distance above the circle; select all the lines and create a copy below (Ctrl/Cmd+C+B) and Group them, turn them grey, and lock them;

2) Add a bottle size circle a bit under the top of the lines and align it horizontally with the label circle, then move copies upwards, as many as the guide lines to one side; also add dotted lines at the bottle sides; select all the circles and create a copy below and Group them, turn them grey, and lock them;

3) Add a label circle between the circels from 1) and 2) and a horizontal line through its centre; turn the circle grey and lock them both;

Duplicate the Layer, so you have the original Layer as a basis to fall back on, and for other combinations of bottle and label sizes, which can be made by simple scaling (uniform for circles, horizontal for lines); procede in the new Layer;

4) Cut the lowest bottle circle with the Scissors Tool at the intersection with the centre line and then with the first guide line to the right (Smart Guides say intersect when you are within snapping distance), then select the greater part of the circle and delete it so you have a path from the centre to the first guide line; you can see the full grey circle behind the path;

5) Select the following circles and do the same as in 3), only creating paths reaching each of the following guide lines to the right;

6) Select each of the guide lines intersected by the circle and cut with the Scissors Tool by clicking at the top and bottom of the intersection with the label circle from 3), leave the outermost guide line that only touches the circle uncut;

7) Select each of the curved paths from 3) and 4) and use the length from the Document Info to move the corresponding off centre guide lines outwards to that X value (the distance from the centre guide line); move the opposite guide line to the same negative X value (you may copy it from the X box in the Transform palette and add a -);

8 ) Delete the upper and lower parts of the cut guide lines; the original grey lines will still be visible;

Now you have a basis for the unfolded shape, which runs through the ends of the cut guide lines and reaches the intersection of the horizontal line and the outermost uncut guide line;

9) Create an ellipse and distort it in whichever suitable ways to get the best possible fit over the guides in 8); in the image below, I simply created an ellipse with the W = 447.784 (distance between the outermost uncut guide lines) and the H = 360, then with the Direct Selection Tool I selected both side Anchor Points and reduced the Handle Length to 78% (Object>Transform>Scale using 78% Vertical Scale) to get a quite reasonable fit;

You may print it out and wrap it round the bottle to see whether it is satisfactory;

10) Create/recreate the contents of the label similarly.

As you can see, the strethcing is increasing from negligible at the centre to distinct at the sides.

[Jacob Bugge]

Dude,

I have just (re)created an improved version without external means.