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Adobe Illustrator is very powerful tool in the right hands, especially in creating nice 3D effects in the very fast time, later You can easily define those effects as photoshop brushes for later use. Enjoy this tutorial and follow with me to those steps – I will show and give You different ideas how You can use the same technique and get out amazing effects.
At first I will show You technique, how to create effects and after that, I’ll show You my ideas and different ways how to implement them.
Step 1
At first I’ll teach You how to create curvy lines, how to differentiate them and later import them to Adobe Photoshop and convert to brushes for later use.
Open Adobe Illustrator and create a new document.
For the fill color use none color, and for stroke use 1px monochrome colors. If You will use them as brush, select black #000000 color.
Select Pen tool(P) and create two curves, there is no matter what Your shape will be, we will later change it anyway. If You want to modify Your curve later, deselect curve, select Direct Selection tool(A) and click on just one point, drag it later to fit curve Your needs.
Now again select all curve, holding ALT click and drag the curve to duplicate it. Then holding SHIFT+ALT resize it smaller to differentiate it.
Select the top curve, right click on it and send it to the back - Arrange–>Send to back.
My result is like this now:
Step 2
Now Select both curves, and go Object–>Blend–>Blend Options..
I used Specified distance, 2px, You can try different settings using Specified distance or Specified steps.
Now with both curves still selected press CTRL+ALT+B or Object–>Blend–>Make to execute those steps.
Bonus Step 3
Select top curve and adjust transparency to 10% to get cooler and more realistic effect.
Press SHIFT+CTRL+F10, if You don’t see the Transparency.
Step 4
Now We will go to Adobe Photoshop and create our own brush!
Resize Your lines holding SHIFT+ALT and dragging them bigger, You must create ~2500x2500px size (it’s maximal allowed size for brush, if You are using Photoshop CS3). Copy and paste Your effect into Photoshop and hide background color.
Press CTRL+ALT+I and check Your document size – if it’s bigger then resize it proportionally with one one of the values 2500px, use Bicubic Sharper, which is better for document reduction.
Now we are ready to create our Photoshop brush:
Edit–>Define Brush Preset and name Your probably first Photoshop brush!
Different Techniques With Adobe Illustrator and Blending tools
Now I won’t be going in so much deep details, I’ll just give You more ideas, how to use the same technique to get different results.
3D text effect
Create text using just stroke color and bring up Stroke panel and check more details and create dashed line:
Now just go through the same steps as I described in previous example, to get this result:
And then just click with Convert to Anchor Point tool on the Anchor points, to get swirly effects.
After this, You can simply import effect in Photoshop and add some spice to it.
Using Spiral tool:
The same effect using dashed star strokes and simple coloring in Photoshop.
Feel free and experiment with different shapes, spirals, type-faces. You can get really technical and amazing effects doing just those simple steps! If You have any more suggestions, ideas – comments will be appreciated!
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Dainis Graveris is 23 years old blogger and designer, founder of 1stWebDesigner, now more silently managing everything behind the scenes. He usually hangs out in Twitter tweeting design related links and chatting with people. If you have any questions or feedback that's the best place to start! Cheers!
Friday, June 26th, 2009 18:20
thanks for this great “HOw To” article,
Stop Dreaming Start Actions last blog post : Follow Your Dream
Thursday, January 15th, 2009 18:53
Thanks for sharing your work with us! Your theme is just awesome!
Friday, December 12th, 2008 15:47
Interesting effect, I must try this one time. Thanks and keep up the great work.
Michael Stewarts last blog post : Create Lightning in Photoshop
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 06:11
Wow, thanks for all of the responses!! I am glad, You enjoyed this! :)
@Hisoka yeah, You can do something similar in Photoshop, but it takes a lot more time modifying Your 3D effect, while in the Illustrator, You can easily and a lot faster get much better result. I don’t think this is a trick to do in Photoshop really. But, Illustrator haters can try Your way :) Thanks, anyway for sharing – appreciated! :)
Monday, October 20th, 2008 22:46
They look great! I can’t wait till I can afford illustrator :P
Joel Drappers last blog post : How to Comment Like a Pro
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 00:25
You can do this without using Illustrator actually. It will take time to duplicate all the lines though. But if you want to, you can press alt+down key to duplicate the lines until you have enough, merge the layers, and then transform>skew. The effect should be similar to what you could make in the Illustrator part.
Monday, October 20th, 2008 16:59
If there is one thing I lack in.
Then that is DESIGN…..
Photoshop = GGGGRRRRRR (i need to learn)
Monday, October 20th, 2008 22:29
Wow, this is one of the best Illustrator tutorials I have ever followed! Nice props to you. Hope to see more great tutorials.
Sunday, October 19th, 2008 17:39
Beautiful work!!!
Sunday, October 19th, 2008 14:22
Excelent tut! Very goog FX.
adams last blog post : Wyliczanie gniotów
Sunday, October 19th, 2008 08:00
A pretty awesome tutorial, there’s still so much to explore in PS. Thanks!
Brandons last blog post : Alltop – The Ultimate in News Feed Aggregation
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Thomas | Brush King
Sunday, October 19th, 2008 11:00
Wow, great tutorial! Thanks
Hisoka
Monday, October 20th, 2008 22:29
Wow, this is one of the best Illustrator tutorials I have ever followed! Nice props to you. Hope to see more great tutorials.
kosyman
Sunday, October 19th, 2008 17:39
Beautiful work!!!
adam
Sunday, October 19th, 2008 14:22
Excelent tut! Very goog FX.
adams last blog post : Wyliczanie gniotów
Brandon
Sunday, October 19th, 2008 08:00
A pretty awesome tutorial, there’s still so much to explore in PS. Thanks!
Brandons last blog post : Alltop – The Ultimate in News Feed Aggregation
Dainis Graveris
Sunday, October 19th, 2008 17:18
Thank You for kind words and responses!
Justin Leaf-Wright
Monday, October 20th, 2008 16:59
If there is one thing I lack in.
Then that is DESIGN…..
Photoshop = GGGGRRRRRR (i need to learn)
Hisoka
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 00:25
You can do this without using Illustrator actually. It will take time to duplicate all the lines though. But if you want to, you can press alt+down key to duplicate the lines until you have enough, merge the layers, and then transform>skew. The effect should be similar to what you could make in the Illustrator part.
Manga
Thursday, January 15th, 2009 18:53
Thanks for sharing your work with us! Your theme is just awesome!
Stop Dreaming Start Action
Friday, June 26th, 2009 18:20
thanks for this great “HOw To” article,
Stop Dreaming Start Actions last blog post : Follow Your Dream
Michael Stewart
Friday, December 12th, 2008 15:47
Interesting effect, I must try this one time. Thanks and keep up the great work.
Michael Stewarts last blog post : Create Lightning in Photoshop
Ryan G
Sunday, October 26th, 2008 14:29
Great tutorial. I’ll give it a go. Thanks.
Joel Drapper
Monday, October 20th, 2008 22:46
They look great! I can’t wait till I can afford illustrator :P
Joel Drappers last blog post : How to Comment Like a Pro
Dainis Graveris
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 06:11
Wow, thanks for all of the responses!! I am glad, You enjoyed this! :)
@Hisoka yeah, You can do something similar in Photoshop, but it takes a lot more time modifying Your 3D effect, while in the Illustrator, You can easily and a lot faster get much better result. I don’t think this is a trick to do in Photoshop really. But, Illustrator haters can try Your way :) Thanks, anyway for sharing – appreciated! :)