Creating Quick Mockups in Illustrator

If you’re creating vector art to use on packaging, apparel, or other branded merch, you can use the Mockup panel in Illustrator to preview what art will look like applied to various items. Here’s how.

Creating Mockups with Your Own Photos

If you have your own photo of the merchandise you want to use in a mockup, place it in Illustrator (File > Place).

Then, take the Selection tool and select both the photo and your artwork.

Open the Mockup panel from the Window menu.

In the panel, click Create Mockup.

When Illustrator is done preparing the mockup you’ll see your artwork on top of the photo.

You can drag the artwork to move, rotate, or resize it. As you do so, the artwork will adapt to the shape of the object in the photo to create a realistic mockup.

To separate your artwork from the photo, click Release in the panel.

Saving Your Own Mockup Templates

After you’ve placed a photo into Illustrator you can save it as the template for a new mockup. Select the photo and click the Plus (+) button in the panel. Then, you can select it from Your Mockups and apply new artwork to it.

Creating Mockups with Curated Templates from Adobe

You can also make mockups using the collections of templates that are preloaded in the panel.

Start by choosing a category (Apparel, Branding Graphics, Digital Devices, Packaging).

Select your artwork and click Preview Mockup. You’ll see the artwork applied to the images in the panel.

Click Place on Canvas to create the mockup, which you can further modify.

Tip: Once you deselect a mockup, it might not be obvious how to get back into editing mode to tweak it. Just select the mockup and click Edit Content in the Contextual Task Bar or in the Properties panel.