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| If you've found an error in this tutorial (or elsewhere on the site) or you feel that something's not quite right with it, I'd like to know so I can address it. Send me the details. When writing, please include the tutorial name and where you believe the error lies. Thanks. |
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03 | Pen Tool Scutwork
Over the years, I've found that people LOVE tedious work and this step in the tutorial is no exception. For precision alignment in this step, turn on Smart Guides (MENU > VIEW > SMART GUIDES or CMD/CTRL + U).
Select the Pen Tool, choose a contrasting Stroke color, and connect the offset paths' anchor points with the corresponding anchor points on the original paths (as shown below). Now you see why it's best to use this effect on short words; there's a lot of connecting going on. It's critical that you connect from anchor point to anchor point, otherwise, the Divide command (applied in the next step) will not create the necessary divisions for the type.
On curved areas where no anchor points are apparent, I add lines where I feel my light source will hit and change to a different color. See step 5 for further explanation.
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Note: Once an anchor point to anchor point connection has been made, simply press the "Enter" or "Return" key and move onto the next set of anchor points without continuing the Pen Tool's previous path. |
04 | Divide
Once the anchor points are connected, apply the Divide command from the Pathfinder palette (MENU > WINDOW > PATHFINDER or SHIFT + F9) to each individual letter. You can select all the letters and apply the Divide command, however, you may get some unpredictable results. The offset paths are now divided into individual facets. To work with these further, be sure to Ungroup them (MENU > OBJECT > UNGROUP or CMD/CTRL + SHIFT + G).
05 | Color
Think about where your light source is coming from and color the individual facets appropriately. In the example, the light is coming from the upper-left thus the top facets are lighter than the bottom ones. It's best to have at least 3 to 4 colors different from your text object fill to color with: a light, one or two mid-tones and a dark color. To increase the oooh-aaah factor and amaze friends and family, you can apply gradients to the facets for even greater realism (as shown).
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