By Design Bundles

3D Rounded Text in Illustrator

For this tutorial, you will need a thin script font like Lilypen from Font Bundles.

1 - In Illustrator create a “New Document”.

2 - Select the “Type Tool” (T), choose your font (we used Lilypen) and type your text.

3 - Select your text and center it by using the “Horizontal and Vertical Align Centers” buttons in the upper menu. Make sure you are aligning to the “Artboard”.

4 - With your text still selected go to Object > Expand and make sure that the “Object” and “Fill” boxes are checked. Click “OK”.

5 - Go to the “Pathfinder” Panel and choose “Unite” to fix some overlapping. You can skip this step if you consider that your text separation is fine.

6 - Select the “Scissors Tool” (C) and cut some of the endpoints. The idea is to turn your text into a “Stroke”.

7 - Swap “Fill” and “Stroke” colors by clicking on the “Swap Fill and Stroke” arrow in the “Toolbar” (Shift + X) to get “No Fill” and a colored “Stroke”. Then, keep cutting the portions of your text that you won’t need. Use the “Direct Selection Tool” (A) and the “Delete Anchor Point Tool” (-) to get rid of the unwanted Points.

8 - With the “Direct Selection Tool” (A) select and reposition the “Anchor Points” that need it like the crossing of the “e”.

9 - Once you are happy, select all your text and go to Object > Compound Path > Release. Now you can check your text again and with the “Scissors Tool” (C), “Cut” and then “Join” (Command/Control + J) some paths to turn them into one continuous line. Use the “Direct Selection Tool” (A) to pick the two endpoints you want to “Join”. We did this with the “e” and the “t”.

10 - Select the “Ellipse Tool” (E) and click on your document. Use a 10 mm “With” and “Height” value, then click “OK”. Fill your circle with a “Gradient”.

11 - Drag your circle while clicking the “Shift” and “Alt” keys to duplicate it. Change the “Height” to 5 mm in the upper right menu and position your circles close to the sides of your document making sure they are still aligned. Then, go to Object > Blend > Make (Shift + Command/Control + B). To change the settings, go to Object > Blend > Blend Options.., choose “Specified Steps” and use a value of 1000.

12 - Make as many copies of your “Gradient Line” as pieces of “Text” (In our case we needed four). Then, select one of the lines and some text and go to Object > Blend > Replace Spine. Repeat with all your text. Use the “Direct Selection Tool” (A) to fix some spots where the letters look odd.

13 - If you want to change the colors of your Gradient. Group everything together (Command/Control + G) and then click on the small wheel button in the top-left menu to bring out the “Recolor Artwork” panel.