Quick Tip: Make a Tape Measure with Illustrator’s 3D Efects
videos

Quick Tip: Make a Tape Measure with Illustrator’s 3D Efects

on Sep 26th 2011 with 10 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Program: Illustrator CS2 and up
  • Difficulty: Intermediate
  • Length: 3:47 min

In this video Quick Tip, learn how to make a simple symbol and map it to a 3D spiral for sophisticated results.

 
Enjoyed this Post?

Subscribe to our RSS Feed, Follow us on Twitter or simply recommend us to friends and colleagues!

By

Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

Cheryl Graham trained as a traditional artist in drawing and painting. These days she spends more time in front of the computer than the easel. She's been using Adobe Illustrator for over 15 years. Her Illustrator work has been featured in the "The Adobe Illustrator WOW! Book" and "Real World Illustrator."  

Plus Premium
 
 
  • Bill

    Another good tutorial Cheryl.

    I teach the Creative Suite at the college level and my only suggestion would be this… before you delete your tape measure symbol artwork (after dragging it to the symbols panel) would be to flip it vertically and drag that into the symbols panel as well. Map this flipped version of the tape measure symbol on your reflection so the ruler art reflects accurately too. It worked well for me.

    • Cheryl

      Excellent suggestion, Bill — thanks!

  • hchew

    Enjoyed the tut so much!!!!! Thank YOU!!!

  • Dave

    Great tutorial! Quick question – for some reason when I extrude the spiral, the front of the tape becomes 2 surfaces instead of 1 like yours (and it’s proving difficult to map and stretch the symbol onto both). It looks like I have the same number of anchor points. Any ideas? Thanks!

    • Cheryl

      Dave, try adjusting the shading in the 3D dialog box (click More Options if you don’t see the lighting controls). I get an extra surface as well, if I leave the shading at the default setting. Then if I move the light to the left, that extra surface goes away. Hope this helps!

  • marie

    hi i tried doing this and whenever i open map art and place it as you did, it show the tape like on the back part, as if its backwards? it does not show the tape in the front (like normal looking :P) any suggestions :S thanks

    • Cheryl

      Hi Marie –

      You just have to scroll through the different surfaces in the drop-down menu in the Map Art dialog. Especially with a curves surface like this, it can be hard to tell which surface is which. It may take some trial and error, but you’ll get it!

  • jazzpoppy

    Hi cheryl

    Thanks so much for your brilliant tutorials. They are really intelligent and well put together. Quick question: I notice you don’t have numbers on the inside of the tape measure. I’m looking for a way to do this. Say i had to design a wedding ring using extrude, with a text inscription on the inside back of the ring, is there a simple way of getting text there. So far I have only seen tutorials showing how towrap text round on the outside of a 3D object.

    Many thanks

    Jazzpoppy

    • Cheryl

      Hi there – thanks for the kind words. You just have to figure out which surface is which in the Map Art dialog. It may take some trial and error, as I’m sure you’ve seen. The Map Art dialog box needs some updating, IMO. You can map different symbols to different sides. You don’t have to do this all in one go. You can, for example, map the inches to one surface, then close the dialog, then click the 3D effect in the Appearance panel to re-open it and map another symbol. Good luck!

  • brain-e

    When I select the symbol for the overlay. there is no visual. Other symbols work but not the inch tape I had just created. Am I missing something?