problem with bevel Effect in Illustrator

[nishi.ag]

Hi,
Can some help me out with this problem
I wanted to make a vector graphic text in Illustrator with bevel effect on it. I know its easy in photoshop to do but I tried so many times in Illustrator but could not do it. I also opened Bevel.ai from plugin folder. Can anyone help me out for bevel effect in illustrator.
Thanks

[Fakie]

It depends how long you have, one way is to outline the text ( sorry, convert to outlines ), then go Object>Path>Off set path, you can play about with this to get your desired bevel thickness, then put the shading in yourself, which is always fine for me as the illustrations I produce have to be very accurate, however it is very slow... especially if you have a long name of logo to do. Hope that helps, let us know how you get on, I'm sure other people will post up, there is bound to be a plug in for it somewhere.

[nishi.ag]

Hi Fakie,
Thanks for the reply. I also tried before the way you mentioned above. It didn't work for me. When I go to Offset Path - There is a drop down in Joins with bevel, Round, Miter. Are there any other way to do?
Thanks

[Fakie]

I haven't found any other ways, there must be a plug in out there.

Depending on what you're text is like, very straight use bevel or very round use round then adapt shading to suit.

You could put the original text on an upper layer and the bevel on the layer below and then just draw in pieces of bevel with the pen tool applying a gradient fill for your desired effect. Can be long and tedious but very accurate and looks great when its done !

Below, an absolutely dreadful example I knocked up in 5 mins, probably less than that (and it shows), but you get the idea

[Mrbaseball34]

If it is text, follow this tute:
http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/illustrator/articles/ill11headline.html