Hi there. In the following tutorial you can learn to create a cartoonish popcorn box. The Warp effects play a big role in this tutorial. For the popcorn shapes you will have to use some calligraphic brushes, linear gradients and drop shadow effects.
Estimated Completion Time: 30 minutes
Number of Steps: 7
This is what you’ll be creating:
Create a 256 by 256 px document. First, make the Grids visible (View > Show Grid) and turn on the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid). Next you need a grid every 5px. Go to Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid and enter the data shown in the following image.
Select the Rectangle Tool(M) and create a 15x300px shape. You can simply click on the Artboard and enter these dimensions or you can click and drag to create this new shape. The Snap to Grid option will ease your work. For a live preview with the size of your shape you can use the Info panel (Window > Info). Fill this new shape with white. Duplicate this shape (Ctrl+C > Ctrl+F) and move it 15px to the right. Fill this copy with the R=193 G=39 B=45. Create two new copies for each of these shapes and move them as shown in image #1. Reselect the Rectangle Tool(M) and create seven new shapes, size 5 by 130px. Fill them with the same colors and place them as shown in image #2.
Select the thick shapes, add the Arch effect shown below image #1 and go to Object > Expand Appearance. Select the thin shapes, add the Arch effect shown below image #2 and go again to Object > Expand Appearance. Pick the Direct Selection Tool(A), select all the bottom anchor points then go to the menu bar and click on the “Convert selected anchor points to smooth” and on the “Convert selected anchor points to corner” buttons.
Group the thin shapes then add the Arc effect shown below image #1. Group the thick shapes and add the Arc effect shown below image #2. Select both groups and hit Ctrl + G to group them. Select this new group add the Bulge effect then go to Object > Expand Appearance.
Select the thick red shapes and group them. Add a new fill for this group (from the flyout menu of the Appearance panel) and use the linear gradient shown below image #1. Select the thick white shapes and group them. Add a new fill for this group and use the linear gradient shown below image #2. Select the thin red shapes and group them. Add a new fill for this group and use the liner gradient shown above image #3. Select the thin white shapes and group them. Add a new fill for this group and use the linear gradient shown above image #4. Add a 1px black stroke for the thin shapes and a 1.5px black stroke for the thick shapes.
Let’s continue with the popcorn. Open the Brushes panel, pick the the Brush Tool(B) and use the 2pt Oval brush to create some random popcorn shapes (double click on the Brush Tool if you want to change the behaviour of this tool). Select these paths and go to Object > Expand Appearance. Select the resulting shapes and click on the Unite button from the Pathfinder panel. Next, you need to add some color to the interior of the popcorn. Select the Rectangle Tool(M), create a shape like the one shown in image #3 and move it in the back of the popcorn shapes. Select this rectangle along with the popcorn shapes and click on the Divide button from the Pathfidner panel. Keep only shape shapes inside the popcorn and fill them with the gradient shown in image #4. Now, to ease you work, you should group each popcorn shape and its fill.
Resize, rotate and duplicate the popcorn shapes as you want then put them in the box (do not forget to place them in the back of the box). Place one popcorn outside the box and add a discrete Drop Shadow effect. Select the Pen Tool(P), create a shape at the bottom of the box (image #3) and send it to back. Fill this shape with black, add a 20px Gaussian Blur effect then lower its opacity to 20%. Finally for the background use the radial gradient shown in the final image.
Now your work is done. Here is how it should look like: