Adobe Illustrator CS6 Tutorial – Symbol Tools

Adobe Illustrator’s 3D effects can be a used to create quick, yet realistic product mock-ups. While not a full ray-tracing 3D application, Illustrator’s 3D feature is quite sophisticated, and it has some advantages over its more expensive counterparts. For starters, vector objects and effects can be scaled to any size without loss of quality. It’s easy to re-purpose vector art you’ve already created, plus you don’t have to leave the friendly confines of Illustrator. And as you’ll see in the following steps, the learning curve is not nearly as steep. Let’s get started! 1. Draw the Outline of Half a Cup The first step is to draw a path that will form the 3D shape. You might want to use a photograph for reference, or a sketch. Or you can just experiment, modifying the path after you apply the 3D effect. The 3D effect, like all Illustrator effects are “live”. That means it can be edited as many times as you like, without degrading the quality of the image. I used a photo reference to draw a simple path, as shown below. You don’t have to draw the entire cup outline, just the right half of it. 2. Add a Lip to the Top …