2009-04-08

Illustrator Tutorial - 3D lighted text effect




This tutorial has moved to:


http://transfuchsian.com/illustrator-tutorial-3d-lighted-text-effect/













39 comments:

  1. Hello

    It is a very good work. Teh instructions of using the tool are very easy. A user can easily follow the steps. It will help us a lot in our work. I will use this work on my website. Great help

    webiste http://www.miraztutorials.com

    regards
    Sara raza

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  2. I can't cope with it at all!!! The 3D text is in millions of groups and I can' select one from the others. And I don't understand the slices steps as well. It is too hard for me. :(

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  3. To BonFire: Try starting off with only a few letters to make it easier. Maybe try with one letter on top of one other letter. Before you start step 11, make sure everything is ungrouped (ctrl + shift + G) keep hitting that or go to Object > Ungroup until it is grayed out (that means there are no more groups). Using the scissor tool is just like using a pair of scissors in real life, think of it like cutting a string, you have to click right on the line or else it won't take. Practice with the tool a little bit by drawing out some shapes, give them a stroke with no fill and try cutting them to see how it works. Try the tut with only two letters and let me know if you need more help.

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  4. great work u did ..and the final result looks amazing
    thanks and added to my blog

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  5. What font did you use?

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  6. Awesomeness! Will be tweeting bout this and adding to various other areas.(ie myspace, facebook)

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  7. To Anonymous 1 - The font is called ROBO, which you can find at dafont

    To Anonymous 2 - Thank you very much!

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  8. WOW is espectacula a a a a a ar

    es el punto justo de soda :P

    AMAZING

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  9. This was awesome =]
    Got a li lconfused.. but still great ! well done. good work. ur pro

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  10. Very good! Outstanding!

    I designed it and was very easy with your instructions!

    Sorry abou my english...

    Hugo
    http://learn-fireworks.blogspot.com/

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  11. I tried it out and it's great! learnd a lot! thanks for that!

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  12. I just started to try this out but Im lost the step 3 part. I've done everything else but I don't understand the 'set the mode to color burn at 40%' for the other black box.
    how do you set the mode to that? I tried it through the transparecy option but it doesn't come up anything like yours. Please help!!!
    Thanks

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  13. @Anon-
    You did it right. You set the mode to color burn through the transparency dialog and then lower the opacity to 40%. You may need to raise or lower the opacity if it isn't coming out right. Also remember that it will look different while you are in Illustrator itself. If you were to export to a jpeg or "save for web" it is going to look darker depending on how you have the color set up. The main purpose of the extra black box is so that the text on top picks up just enough of the mesh below for it to have differences in the coloring. Try to make it all the way through the tut to see how your final image comes out and let me know if you still need help.

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  14. Couldn't figure out step 15 (locating the caps), got stuck and gave up. It was my first time ever using Illustrator and was surprised I got that far. The scissors tool was probably the hardest part. I tried to use the help menu which was worthless. Never really worked out how to select certain portions of the lines. If you have any further advice on how to use the scissors tool it would be appreciated. Thank you for the tutorial, it gave me confidence that one day I may actually be able to make something cool with Illustrator.

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  15. @ Shilkytouch
    It sounds like you did very well for not using Illustrator much. The scissor tool can be a little clunky at times. It's best to think of it as a real pair of scissors. You select the line you want to cut and then just click on the line and it will cut it in half where you clicked (keep in mind you have to select the line you want to cut first). As for Step 15. You are looking to select the faces of the text. If you have all of it selected and make sure that you have a fill, it shouldn't be too hard to find it. There are a few reasons why you may have had trouble.

    1. You didn't select the option to have a cap on the text when you did the 3D effect.
    2. The objects are still all grouped, so you can't select only the front.
    3. You didn't switch the objects over to have a fill (makes it alot easier to find the fronts).

    I hope this helps, let me know if you have any other issues.

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  16. I'm confuse on step 14. How can I add the color in?

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  17. @Julia - to add color to the mesh, bring up your Direct Select tool (a) and select each point to change the color.

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  18. the scissor cutting part is just not working...I'm trying to select a line to cut put it wwon't work!!!

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  19. @Anonymous - sometimes it can be tricky to get ahold of the line to snip it. Try to zoom into the line a little bit more and make sure that the dot in the middle of the crosshairs is right on the line. Also, make sure that you have the line you are trying to cut selected first.

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  20. realmente maravilloso, greetings from perú

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  21. Amazing!!
    Just tried to do this and the result was great in just about 20 mins.
    Anyway you have to have a good computer
    I got a little lost in the process but still it looked nice:
    http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/1007/tt101.jpg

    thnks!

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  22. Outstanding!very good illustration.

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  23. I totally missed the setting the color mode to burn and opacity to 40% for the black box until the end, and now illustrator won't let me change that. Gonna try again from the beginning.
    One thing that wasn't included that I think might be helpful is to put each of the copies of the text with the light brushes on separate layers to increase editability.

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  24. Good work, this helped me design the header img for my blog. Please visit when you have time.
    Everything is Everything

    Thanks.

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  25. I got stuck.

    In step 13 you said "Go ahead and move the top plain black square to the side so that we can alter the gradient mesh."

    Upon moving the black square that was created at the beginning, my background is white and my text basically becomes invisible - maybe I'm misunderstanding your instruction here?

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  26. Moving the top plain black square over to the side just makes it easier to work on the gradient mesh that is underneath it. Once you are finished with the mesh you will place the square back and it will show back up. You can also place the mesh on its own layer and just lock all other layers while you work on it.

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  27. @ transfuchsian

    I finally got it done! I was having problems with the mesh, but I messed around with it and I believe the effect didn't come out right because I was using really bright colors.

    Thanks for the help. Great tutorial!

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  28. thank for vailuable infomation
    It's verry useful for my job
    Thank you so much
    regard

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  29. I finally got it done! I was having problems with the mesh, but I messed around with it and I believe the effect didn't come out right because I was using really bright colors.
    One Person Tent

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  30. what a job man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  31. Nowadays everyone like these kinds of 3D lightning text and 3D designs in every business. Your step by step points and tips are very effective to understand the technicalities of this 3D designing.

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  32. I am happy to see this blog keep it up.

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  33. I just learned some tricks from this tutorial. Thanks for sharing and download some free vector swirls here. Thanks.

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  34. dude... THANKS. To show you how archaic I was... I would use SketchUp to do these functions then export them then import them into AI or PS. or I would use CorelDraw 3.0 extrude function and export them then import them. I didn't even know AI had this functions built in... DUH!

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