3D Mapping in Adobe Illustrator

1. Introduction: Have you ever wondered if you could untangle the mysteries of 3D? Come with me on a journey as we explore the third dimension. Okay, that was ridiculous. We can take that outright. We can take that out. Okay, welcome to 3D mapping and Adobe Illustrator. My name is Jeff, Yes, I'm a graphic designer from Brooklyn, New York. For 20 years. I've designed logos, websites, animation and presentations. I've always been curious about 3D, but I've never found the time or bandwidth to learn a new tool. After all, 3D software can be really complex and slow our computer down. Plus, it's hard to stay inspired when you're navigating unfamiliar interfaces or waiting for renders. If you've checked out my Skillshare class, unlocking creativity in Adobe Illustrator. You know that keeping the flow flowing is an important part of my design philosophy. In this class, you'll learn a simple and fast 3D tool right inside Adobe Illustrator that allows you to take your original vector designs and turn them into stunning 3D without losing your flow, will focus on spheres, and I'll teach you how to make a template and three funds styles. But that's only the beginning. When the class is over. You'll use that template to continue to experiment with styles of your own. You'll learn how to set up your workspace, eliminate distractions, and set up the perfect conditions for 3D. I'll share my tips and tricks along the way, along with my PDF of secret shortcuts and some dummy text to play with all downloadable in the project section below, this class is perfect for anyone that needs a quick refresher in 3D. But for beginners, you'll build your core vector skills. And for experts, you'll finally master a tool you may have long ignored. Discovering this 3D tool and mapping inside of Illustrator has been a real mind-blowing for me. And I'm really eager to share what I've learned. So let's dive right in and started making those spheres 2. The Setup: Welcome to Lesson one, the setup. Let's open Adobe Illustrator, closing all other apps you don't need. Let's make a new document with dimensions of 2000 pixels by 2000 pixels. No bleed. And under Advanced Options, choose RGB color mode, and high 300 DPI in Raster Effects. Now click Create. Let's set up your workspace by closing every panel except for the following. Now let's set up our symbols and Swatches panels. In the swatches panel, choose, Select All Unused from the flyout menu and drag that selection to the trash, leaving only registration, white and black. Then only import a few colors that you'll use. I'm using my library panel off screen to load my brand swatches. Now let's go to the Symbols panel. Hold down, Shift, select all the default symbols, and delete them. We're going to save your workspace when all the panels are exactly the way you would like. So we'll go to Window Workspace and choose new workspace to save this setup. Next, save your document as an EPS file. Next, go to Preferences command or control K for guides and grid settings and set the grid line every 100 pixels with a subdivision of one. Everything else can stay the same, but feel free to change the color of your guides and grids for maximum contrast. Then close preferences. Now turn on the grid and make sure Snap to Grid is on this. We'll confine your shapes to the grid so you don't have to eyeball measurements. Check the View menu to confirm that guides and grids are showing. Snap to grid is on, and guides are locked. Show rulers by hitting Command or Control R. Drag a guide from the horizontal ruler to 1,000 pixels, and drag a guide from the vertical ruler to also a 1,000 pixels. Finally, we're going to create a background layer by hitting Command L. On that layer, we're going to create a 2000 by 2000 pixels square with black fill and no stroke used to transform or aligned palette to center the rectangle on the art board. Lock the layer. Congratulations, you've completed the first lesson, the setup. Now let's move on to the next lesson. We'll create our base object 3. The Base Object: Welcome back. This is lesson to creating the base object. Now, let's make a new layer called sphere one and choose the Ellipse tool holding down shift, click and drag out from the center point where your two guys intersect to create a perfect 1,600 pixels circle. Next, choose none for stroke and 50% gray fill. To make a gray swatch. First choose black, then convert to grayscale and choose 50%. Save your document. Select the point on the right side of your circle, then click Delete to remove it. With the pen tool, connect the two open paths by clicking on one point and hovering over the second until you see a tiny 0 near your Pen tool cursor, click to close the path. Now let's turn off the grid to see our shape. Drag this layer to the duplicate plus at the bottom of your Layers palette and save the new version as template half circle, so you don't have to repeat the steps above. This is your simple pre 3D template to use for practicing and experimentation. Every time you make a new 3D shape, you can duplicate this layer. Next, hide the template half circle layer and save your document. Great job building your base shape. Now let's move on to the next lesson, where we will create the template for all your future spheres 4. The Template: Welcome to the next lesson. Create the sphere template. Now let's severe one layer. You should have a gray half circle. Select it and go to Effects 3D and materials 3D classic, revolve classic changed left edge to right edge and switch plastic shading to diffuse shading. Click Okay, while keeping the stroke color to none, play around with the fill color to see how your favorite colors render. Let's turn off guides to get an even clearer view. To save this sphere for digital use and choose File Export, Export for Screens. Change, export. Wherever your file goes. Enter a prefix for your filename, and select Export Artboard. Because our working file as an EPS file, we can use it for print projects at any scale without changing the size of the sphere in illustrator. However, if you print this file from a commercial printer, it is worth changing its color type from RGB to CMYK under File Document Color Mode, CMYK, this will result in a more muted color palette. The sphere template layer will now be your source layer for all work we do. So label that template severe, lock and hide this layer and save 5. Map One: Welcome to the next lesson. We're going to create our first skin. And this is going to be a grid. So we're going to put a grid on our sphere. We're going to make a new layer and call it a grid one. Your art board should be blank except for you're locked background layer. Make sure your greatest showing and snap to grid is on. Choose the Rectangle Tool and drag a 300 by 300 pixel rectangle in the top left corner. Duplicate this shape by using the move function command shift M. Horizontal should be 300 and vertical zero. Click Copy. And repeat four more times by hitting Command D to have a row of six squares. Select each of them and choose a different color. Next, select all and Command Shift M for move again. This time horizontal is zero, vertical is 300. Click Copy. Give alternating colors to the squares and this new row and save your document. Select all and drag your squares into the Symbols Palette. Label the symbol, symbol one, and choose. Okay, hide and lock the grid layer, duplicate the template sphere layer, call it sphere one and make it visible. Only the background and Sphere one layer are visible and only severe one layer is unlocked. All other layers are locked and invisible. Let's delete that unused layer one at the bottom of the panel using your item tool Command V, select sphere one, find the Appearance palette, and click on 3D, revolve classic to open the classic 3D Control window. Choose Map Art at the bottom left, and choose your new symbol. Cover the gray wave with your artwork. Pulling just beyond the grid boundaries. You can experiment with shade artwork later, but it will slow our machines down for now. Click OK. Then OK. Save your document and hide the grid and de-select. If you want to edit the colors in your sphere to go to the symbols palette and double-click on symbol one. Then select each square to change its color and close the symbol window to see your updated colors on sphere to sometimes you have to open the 3D revolve screen to refresh your updated skin. If you want to save a few versions, duplicate your symbol, give the copies new names and the symbols palette, then duplicates VR2 to make sphere three, sphere four layers, e.g. finally, use the appearance panel to change the map art to your new symbols for each new severe. I'll return to symbol one. Map that to my severe and save. Great job. You've learned the first ever 3D styles. In the next lesson we'll create our second skin stripes 6. Map Two: Welcome to the next lesson, creating our second skin stripes. Hide and lock all layers besides background which should be visible but locked, duplicate severe one, and name this new layer severe four or whatever is next in your Layers Sequence. Stay tidy, keeps veers four locked and hidden for now, and create a new blank layer. Calling it skin too. Create a new rectangle, 100 by 900 pixels at the zero-zero point. Snap to grid is on. Select Move command Shift M to copy the shape with horizontal 100 and vertical zero. With Command D, you can repeat that 16 times. You should have 18 total columns. Turn off guides and create a color pattern with the bars so that no color repeats in a row. Select all and drag to the symbols palette. Hyde and lock the skin to layer. Reveal and unlock your latest sphere layer. For me, it's severe for selecting the shape and clicking 3D revolve classic in the Appearance palette. Choose Map Art and choose your new striped symbol. Shift, drag the artwork over the edge of the gray wave grid. Click Okay, then, Okay, voila stripes. Save your document. You can now create versions of this by duplicating your layer and symbol. Great job creating your second skin stripes. Let's move on to the next lesson. We will create a new type of skin with words 7. Map Three: Welcome to the next lesson and congratulations on making your first two skins. We're going to make our third skin now a word based skin. So duplicate sphere one and call it a sphere eight or whatever the next is in your sequence. Lock and hide all layers except the background, which should be locked but visible. Next, create a new layer and call it skin three, with Snap to Grid on, choose the type tool. Drag a text box sized at 1,800 by 900 pixels and paste in one paragraph of about 375 words with no empty lines or extra spaces. I've provided a sample textblock in the project files. Next, format, the texts to be Helvetica, bold at 48 points and left aligned with the item tool, drag the text object to the symbols panel. Hide skin three, reveal and unlock severe eight layer. Select the shape and click 3D revolve classic. In the Appearance palette. Choose Map Art and choose your new symbol. As usual, shift, drag the artwork over the edge of your gray wave grid. Click Okay, and Okay, now you have a 3D word sphere. Save your document and try duplicating this symbol and changing the language to your custom pros. Create a few new spheres and map those symbols. Select your sphere to change its color. And double-click the symbol and the symbols palette to change the color of the text. Now that we have three different styles of 3D spheres, copy and paste each version into its own new EPS document, keeping our class design file intact. Amazing work. You've made three different skins and in the process, you've started to repeat the steps involved in making a base 3D shape over and over again. So they're starting to become second-hand. Let's move on to the next lesson. We'll wrap it all up 8. Conclusion: We did it. We covered the basic steps of making a 3D sphere in Adobe Illustrator. Please come back to this class for a quick refresh our next month when you have a project that calls for a colorful orb with depth, I'll be checking on the class discussion to answer any of your questions. And as usual, I'm very eager to see your results. So please post your work in the projects area. Remember, this is just the beginning. There are so many exciting 3D tools out there for you to explore, including some in Adobe Illustrator. We didn't even cover. For me when I'm feeling overwhelmed by all the complexity or choices in the 3D space. I go back to a simple sphere in Adobe Illustrator, which reconnects me with my foundational knowledge and really gives me the confidence I need to move forward with the next creative project. My hope is that we've built something core and foundational for you to come back to when you need to get back to basics. Thank you so much for joining me on this adventure. I promise the next course will be just as fun. I'll see you there.