3D Typography in Illustrator
IF YOU HAVE FOLLOWED ALONG with the first Illustrator tutorial in the previous issue, you should have picked up a few of the basics within the application and, hopefully, can work your way around it. Like we said before, if you are familiar with the Adobe ecosystem and have used other pieces of software other than Illustrator, don’t sweat too much as it should be fairly easy to pick up. These applications work hand in hand with one another and are pretty similar.
One of the main uses for Illustrator is for graphic design, and one huge sector of that department is typography. I hope we haven’t lost you already, trust us, you can create some nice artwork using type, especially with the handy help of Illustrator. One particularly useful exercise is wrapping text around shapes. Using this skill, you can create tons of attention-grabbing text for your design, artwork, advertisement, or whatever you intend to do with it. It’s tips such as these that can set your style apart from the typical flat text that you see everywhere. Hopefully, with this skill in the bag after this tutorial, you can piece it together with another project to give it more fizz. You can’t go wrong with that, right? –SAM LEWIS
1
SPHERICAL TEXT
To get started with some text wizardry, we need to create a new artboard by opening and creating a new file of your size and color mode. Remember, CMYK is for printing and RGB is for digital files, so pick accordingly. Also, remember to name your file too as it helps to stay organized working on projects. Once all the necessary mundane setup is complete, we need to add some flat text to our work. You can either press the ‘T’ key to open up the type tool or head over to find the type tool icon on the left-hand side. Then you can either click on the artboard or draw out a text box and type what you want. We thought we would be hilariously ironic with this one. Please accept our apology for the awful sarcasm and proceed with the tutorial…
>> For this part of this tutorial, we will be focusing on creating some 3D spherical text. Once you have typed out your text, you can also play around with it first using the preferences towards the top of the application [ Image A]. These include, color, font, font style, text size, alignment, and so on. Then, once you are happy with it, open the symbol preference tab from the righthand tool section on the app and simply drag the text box into it. The symbol tool is the same icon as the clubs suit from a pack of playing cards, which makes it a little easier to find.
2
MAKING 3D TEXT
After creating a symbol, we can remove the text from the artwork by deleting it. No, we aren’t finished yet, if only it was that simple! In fact, this is where the wizardry begins. We now need to draw the shape from which the text will take its form. Head over to the left-hand side and click on the shape tool, select the ellipse tool and draw a circle on the artboard. We actually don’t need the full circle, just a semi-circle so then once the circle is drawn, use the scissor tool to click on two anchor points and split the shape in two. Delete one side and you should be left with a semi-circle like so.
>> Now we are going to delve deeper and make this 3D. Head over to the effect tab at the top, 3D, then the revolve option, this will open up a new window. Once in this window, click the map art button to open up another window. Before we get too confused, let’s just take a second to focus on this new pop-up window. Yes, your screen does look like it’s straight out of a TIE fighter cockpit, but it’s not as complicated as it seems. In this new window, check the invisible geometry box to make sure the sphere is clear [ Image B]. Then at the top, we can see a symbol drop-down menu. Remember earlier when we created a symbol out of our text? Well it’s all starting to piece together now, isn’t it?
3 ADDING SYMBOLS TO THE SHAPE
As you may have guessed, we need to click on the symbol drop-down menu and add our text symbol straight into this shape. This may look a little odd as soon as you place it in, but this is where we can do some tweaking. In the curved line graph chart, we can scale the symbol (text) and move it around to the desired position. Quick tip, in most pop-up windows in the Adobe suite, if it has a preview check box in the bottom corner click this to see the preferences happen in real-time. Make sure this is checked to see how your text will look with a 3D spherical effect. [ Image C]
>> With a little playing around, you can get this exactly how you like and then hit the ok button when you are happy with it. Then in the 3D resolve options window, we
can play around with the XY&Z values to pivot the sphere further to get the correct angle you want [ Image D].
>> For good measure, we have added a colored circle in behind the sphere to give it a ball-like effect and here is the finished project [ Image E]. Using this technique could come in handy for creating product mockups where you have rounded text on a spherical object, such as a ball or a globe.
4
CREATING CUBED TEXT
Right, so we have done spherical text, now let’s add a few right angles and try to create cubed text, sound good? Presuming you have said yes, we will continue with this part of the tutorial. For the cube text effect, we need to start by creating the text again. For this instance, we are going to use the same text over all three faces of the cube that we can see. To make things more interesting, you can create three different pieces of text with various typographic changes to create a hierarchy for your text. Once you have your type ready, drag and drop it into the symbol tab once again. Then we need to create a square which we will be turning into a cube. Go to the shape tool, find the square shape, and draw it out.
5
MAKING A 3D CUBE
To make this 3D, head to the effects bar at the top, then go to 3D and choose the extrude and bevel option this time, instead of the revolve option. This will create a cuboid instead of a perfect cube but depending on your text, it will still work. If your text is square-shaped like ours, it makes sense to create a cube so we need to play around with the extrude depth values in this menu to create this. This will give you more or less depth depending on whether you increase or decrease the value. We chose a depth of 260pt, which gave us a decent-looking cube.
>> Once happy with your cube/cuboid, we need to open up the map art window again by clicking the button at the bottom of the 3D extrude and bevel options window.
6
INSERT SYMBOL HERE
Inside the map art window, we can insert our symbol once again. First, though you need to determine which surfaces you will need, for the purposes of this tutorial, you want to be using all three facing surfaces [ Image F]. In our example that was surfaces 1, 5, and 6. Once on the surface, add your symbol (text) by going into the drop-down menu and selecting it. The little graphic in the center of the pop-up window will show you how this will appear.
>> To make things look neater, we used the scale to fit option to fill the face of the shape but then scaled the symbol down a little to leave a clear gap around the edge of the text. On the top and side surfaces, we applied the same method but had to rotate the symbol for it to read correctly. Then tick the checkbox that says invisible geometry to make the shape transparent and once you are happy with the layout and design, click ok.
7
BUILD YOUR OWN DESIGNS
You should hopefully now have a 3D cube/cuboid shape that somewhat resembles what we have designed. We say somewhat, as it is good to practice loosely on our steps to create unique pieces of work. These tips should be taken as building blocks for your own designs and to be used in conjunction with other techniques to create something amazing. Hopefully, you can take something from this tutorial and keep tweaking it exactly how you like [ Image G].
>> Illustrator is all about taking ideas from your head, or even sketches on your paper and transforming them into brilliant designs and artwork. It takes time and effort, but once you get into the swing of things and learn the ins and outs of the software, it will become second nature. Then you can start combining lots of different ideas to help boost your portfolio of work.