Illustrator 3D Text

[KernelB]

I'm a new user to Illustrator CS and am having difficulty finding a tutorial on how to create the same 3D type effect as shown in the attached graphic.

Specificallty I am interested in learning how to create the 3D highlights on the inner text with multiple outlines around the text as shown in the attached graphic.

I really appreciate any assistance offered and look forward to joining this Forum.

Happy holidays folks!

Kernel

[AdobeAce]

Hi KernelB,

Try using a Glow Effect -- Effects menu >Stylize > Inner Glow with the follow settings (see attached)

Hope this helps!

Ace

[AdobeAce]

Now that I look at your sample again, you may want to apply an Inner Glow BUT with the Glow on the EDGE not the Center.

And if your interested in adding the multiple strokes to the outside of the lettering, select your lettering with your Selection tool and convert the type to outline (Command + Shift + O), Now, with the outlined type selected, look in your Appearance palette. You should see a Compound path with a Fill and no Stroke. The Glow should be applied to just the Fill (If the Effect is listed right under the Fill, it's right). If it's applied to the entire compound path, click on the Glow Effect, and then click on the Trash icon at the bottom of the Appearance palette to delete the Effect. Then click on the Fill listing in the Appearance palette and reapply the Glow (which should be the first item listed in your Effects menu) -- "Apply Inner Glow."

Now for the Multiple Strokes -- With the outlined lettering still selected, select the Stroke listing in your Appearance palette and add a color from your Swatches palette. Click on the Stroke listing in the Appearance palette and drag it underneath the Fill listing. This puts the Stroke behind the Fill, so that the letterform is not altered by the Stroke. Then click on what looks like a new page icon at the bottom of the palette to create a duplicate of your Stroke. Make the bottom Stroke listed thicker (in the Strokes palette) and change its color. Repeat to create more Strokes as desired.

The attachment may make this process more understandable.



Ace :)

[The Repro Kid]

KernelB, I was looking at your sample. It's hard to see much detail but it seems like there's some "pillow emboss" going on, which is what I think you mean by "3-d highlights." Some work uses 3-D programs to make this type of lettering, combining shapes and bump maps. Or you can use photoshop's pillow emboss styles. In illustrator you have to work up the blends needed by hand with some fairly involved offsetting, blending, blurring and drawing. "warking" is good at this type of stuff, (where is he anyway?).

Here's a quickie I did for an example. The black & yellow lettering comes from illustrator and goes into photoshop at high res. The black and yellow are put on separate layers and each given a pillow emboss layer style. Experiment with the settings. The bottom layer doesn't need any emboss because an emboss layer will affect any layer below.

If you really wanted to, you could put this back into illustrator and use use it for a template. put the original illustrator lettering on top of the template and draw-in the shapes to use for the blends.

[AdobeAce]

Hi Repro,

Beautiful job!

I've always been a big fan of Pillow Emboss. Most any embossing that I do is in Photoshop images. Whether it's a road sign, a license plate or an embossed gold bar, the soft very dimensional look is far more realistic and also easier to control than in Illustrator.

If KernelB has photoshop, it's definitely the way to go.

I just emailed Warking. Hopefully he'll be back.

Ace

[The Repro Kid]

Hey, thanks Ace, I thought it turned out sweet for a quickie.

KernelB, this can be done in illustrator but I don't know any painless way. Here's a three step example to show you how it's done. If you're new to illustrator then there is loads of work these three steps don't show.

In the first step you can see the outlines of all the shapes involved. It's only the letter plus a few blended shapes laid on top. It's really nothing fancy. The shapes are created by offsetting copies of the same letters and using the pathfinder to create boolean slices of the needed outer shapes of the blend and then crafting the smaller inner shape from the first outer shape. Offsetting the paths to get the inner shape isn't an option because offsetting the paths adds points to the new shape and blending just works better if there are an equal number of points between each shape.

Step two shows two of the four blend shapes highlighted before they are blended.

Step three shows all four blends blended for the final effect. My example looks a little banded but it's just from compressing for the web. The original looks smooth.

KernelB it's really fairly simple but you'll notice my example consists of only the dot from the letter i. That's because for me it's a tremendous amount of work. That's why I mentioned warking may know a faster way to get similar results. But you get all the control you need in Illustrator so if it's a master piece you need to create, this way may work the best for the final, approved piece.