by Chad Neuman

The 3D Effect in Adobe Illustrator can create some interesting shapes. But you don’t have to use the Effect>3D command to create a 3D-looking effect. Here’s one way to create a neat 3D design using the Transform Each command.

Step 1
In Adobe Illustrator, use the Rounded Rectangle tool and click-and-drag to create a long shape like this. Set the Stroke to None and set the Fill to a gradient. With the Gradient palette open, click-and-drag colors from the Swatches palette to change the two sides of the gradient.

Step 2
Go to Object>Transform>Transform Each.

Step 3
Change the settings to the settings seen here in the Transform Each dialog. Be sure to press Copy and not OK.

Step 4
Next, press Cmd-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to repeat the same transformation to the new copied object. Press it a few times to create something like this.

Step 5
With a Selection tool, click the original shape. Press the left arrow a few times to separate it from the second shape to so it doesn’t touch. Next, click-and-drag around all the shapes to select it. Go to Edit>Copy, then Edit>Paste in Front. We have the new pasted objects in front and selected.

Step 6
Go to Object>Transform>Rotate and change the angle to 180 degrees.

Step 7
It should look something like this.

Step 8
Holding down Shift, press the right arrow a few times to move it so it’s next to the original shapes but not touching.

Step 9
Optionally, go to File>Place (de-selecting Link) and place the image we created in the “layered threshold” tutorial. Go to Live Trace options and use Photo High Fidelity.

Now we have a cool 3D effect with traced art for a website, newsletter or band gig poster.

by Chad Neuman

Sometimes a print or online project needs an outline-type silhouette instead of an actual photo, in order to illustrate a project. By using the Threshold tool and the Gradient tool, we can make a few unique effects to complement a print of online design.

Step 1
Open up an image that has a clearly-defined outline that differentiates elements within the photo. Download one of these two support files to follow along with these examples, which are in the public domain because they were taken by the government.

Download Support Files
CSA-2006-10-10-112726

CSA-2006-10-31-094952

Step 2
Go to Image>Adjustments>Threshold.

Step 3
Drag the arrow so that the subjects in the photo and other areas we want to be visible are black. For the helicopter photo, place the arrow between the two areas of pixels. For this example, I set it to 90. Press OK.

Step 4
We need to make the Background layer a normal layer in order to remove the white pixels. Double-click the Background layer and click OK to name it its default name, Layer 0.

Step 5
There are many ways to select the white pixels, but let’s just use the simple Magic Wand tool.

Step 6
Set the Tolerance to 0 and make sure Contiguous is unchecked. This will ensure that the white pixels that are not adjacent to, or contiguous to, the white area of pixels that we click will still be selected.

Step 7
Click somewhere in the white pixels and press Backspace to delete them

Step 8
Next, click on the New Layer icon on the bottom of the Layers palette to create a new layer. Click-and-drag this layer so it’s below Layer 0.

Step 9
With the Marquee Selection tool, click somewhere on the image to de-select the pixels, if they are still selected. Select the Gradient tool.

Step 10
With Layer 1 selected in the Layers palette, and the Gradient tool selected, double-click on the Foreground Color selector near the bottom of the toolbar. Set it to White. Double-click the Background Color selector and set it to an orange hue. I set mine to #ffa800. This sets the color of each side of the gradient.

Step 11
Click-and-drag from the top of the image to about a fourth from the bottom. Press Shift to maintain a straight vertical line.

Step 12
It should look something like this.

Step 13
For another example, repeat steps 1-11 but with the photo of the soldiers. But before going to step 11, set the gradient type to Radial.

Step 14
Switch the orange and white by clicking double-sided arrow near the bottom of the toolbar. Click-and-drag from behind the second soldier to simulate an area of sunshine. Crop out the extra black pixels we don’t need.

Now we can use this technique to create illustration-like outlines and silhouettes for print and online designs.

by Chad Neuman

Let’s create the layout for planning a website portfolio. By doing so, we’ll learn a few techniques, including applying gradients to simulate a dried paint effect, the Add to Shape command in the Pathfinder palette, clipping masks, and typing on a path.

Step 1
Open a new file in Adobe Illustrator. With the Ellipse tool, click-and-drag out a few overlapping circles. Hold down Shift to draw perfect circles. They should all together form a “cloud” shape.

Step 2
Change the Fill color to an orange swatch from the Swatches palette. Set the Stroke to None.

Step 3
Click-and-drag around all the shapes with a Selection tool to select them all. Open the Pathfinder palette (Window>Pathfinder) and click Add to Shape to combine them all. Press Expand to get rid of the inner edges and make it truly one object.

Step 4
Next, deselect the cloud so we don’t change its color. Draw out a few long, vertical rounded rectangles with the Rounded Rectangle tool. Change its Stroke to None and set the Fill to a gradient. In the Gradient palette, click-and-drag a dark orange and a regular orange to the opposite sides, like shown here.

Step 5
Click-and-drag with the Gradient tool to make the darker orange appear on the bottom side. The effect is accomplished by having a little bit darker orange near the bottom of the paint drips, much like dried paint, which would be a little bit darker.

Step 6
Now let’s add some text for the parts of the website. With the Pen tool, create a curved path that follows the top curves of the cloud. To do this, click first at one point, then let go and then click where the end of a curve is, but don’t let go yet. Drag it to curve the path. After drawing a curve, be sure to click again on the most recently created point to reset the angle so you don’t get awkward curves.

Step 7
With the Text tool, click somewhere on the path and enter in the text.

Step 8
Select the text and go to Edit>Copy and Edit>Paste in Front. Then move the front text for now to select the back text and add some arrowheads to it by going to Effect>Stylize>Add Arrowheads.

Step 9
Make the back arrowhead text a different color from the text in front, like blue. Then move the front text back on top of the arrowhead text.

Step 10
Add a photo by placing it (File>Place). If you’d like it to have rounded corners, just draw a Rounded Rectangle over it and when selecting both the photo and the rounded rectangle, go to Object>Clipping Mask>Make. Add a background black rounded rectangle and Arrange it behind the photo for a border. Add some other decorations, such as stars with the Star tool or birds or arrows with the Pen tool.

Now we have the basic design down for a portfolio website. Using this, we’d use Adobe Dreamweaver or Adobe GoLive along with Adobe Photoshop to layout out the functional website.

One of the coolest aspects of Illustrator’s Text tool is its flexibility once the text is outlined. You can then edit the text just like any other Illustrator path, moving the letters around and even the lines and shapes around.

Step 1
Start out by typing a simple phrase, a company name, or a slogan. Include the ampersand in it for this example. I used the font Rosewood. Click once with the Text tool to make the first word, then click elsewhere with the Type tool and type the ampersand, then click somewhere else with the Type tool for the other word.

Step 2
With the Selection tool, click the ampersand. Click-and-drag a corner to make it bigger.

Step 3
Let’s make the text more editable for our purposes of reshaping (rather than changing the character of the font). With the Selection tool, Control-click (PC: Right-click) over each word as well as the ampersand and click Create Outlines.

Step 4
Next, with the Selection tool, Control-click (PC: Right-click) again over each word and the ampersand and click Ungroup.

Step 5
Zoom in the art to see that we can now edit the text as shapes. With the Selection tool, click-and-drag the letters to move them closer together. Click-and-drag on a corner box to resize specific letters. With the Direct Selection tool, click an Anchor point to stretch the letter or make it conform to another letter.

Step 6
Click-and-hold the Pen tool to get the Add Anchor Point tool. Click on the paths were there should be another anchor point to add one. Then use the Direct Selection tool to move it.

Step 7
In some spots, you can have one letter’s stroke adjacent to another. Be creative with how the shapes of the letters conform to the other letters.

Step 8
Now instead of a boring slogan we have various sizes and shapes for the letters, some flush with each other.

Step 9
Try adding a gradient fill. Click-and-drag with the Selection tool a box around all of shapes (or go to Select>All). Go to Window>Gradient, select colors from the Swatch (Window>Swatches), and choose a gradient to finish the look. You may also want to color specific letters differently. For this just select each letter separately, then choose a color from the Swatches palette.