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TUTORIALS
23 DECEMBER 2013
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In todays Illustrator tutorial were going to create a comic book inspired text effect your
favourite superhero would be proud of. Learn how to create a basic 3D effect using the
Blend tool and produce cool halftone patterns to give the design that retro screen
printed appearance. These two techniques alone are crucial additions to your Illustrator
skillset and can be used in all kinds of illustration and design work.
The text effect well be creating is based on those retro comic book covers featuring
bold titles, often with strong outlines and 3D style effects. Our example also makes use
of subtle halftone patterns to add variations in colour and to mimic the visible dot pattern
Open up Illustrator and enter some text with the Type tool and choose a tall, bold
Alter the Bend by around 45% and adjust the Horizontal Distortion to around -40%.
Well need to apply this effect permanently to continue editing the text. Go to Object >
copy of the text diagonally to the left then with both objects selected go to Object >
Spacing to Specified Steps then adjust the figure to a crazy high amount to achieve a
option from the Pathfinder tool to blend all the separate pieces into one shape.
The original text should still be copied in your clipboard. Press CMD+F to Paste in Front
then change the colour to create a colourful front face to the 3D effect.
Select the blended portion of the text and apply a contrasting colour. Add a Stroke using
the same colour then adjust the settings to around 3pt aligned to the outside.
Copy and Paste in Front a duplicate of the text face then give it a black to white gradient
fill. Align the gradient to flow vertically by adjusting the orientation to 90.
Go to Effect > Pixelate > Color Halftone and adjust the angles of the various channels to
45 so they all align to form a basic halftone pattern. Alter the Max Radius according to
your document size, but 8 pixels should create a nicely sized dot pattern.
The Halftone pattern created by Illustrator is unfortunately raster based (it would be
amazing if it actually made it in vector format!). This means well need to use the Live
Trace tool to vectorize it. Expand the halftone effect under Object > Expand
Appearance, then go to Object > Live Trace > Tracing Options. Alter the Path Fitting and
In Illustrator CS6 Live Trace is now known as Image Trace (Window > Image Trace).
The settings are named slightly differently but similar configurations can be applied.
Expand the halftone pattern to turn finish turning it into a complete vector object.
Change the colour of the halftone pattern to a slightly darker shade of your text colour to
convert the stroke into a sold shape. Hit the Merge option from the Pathfinder palette to
using the Gradient tool so the colours flow naturally with the angle of the text. This time
off-white colour as the text stroke. Nudge this shape out of place slightly using the
Copy and Paste the element and add a large black to white radial gradient.
Add another Color Halftone pattern, but this time increase the radius to 20px to create a
halftone patterns. These two techniques are definitely worth remembering for your
future projects. The blended text outline can be great for urban style logos, while