Text on a cylinder

Design techniques, 3D, Tips and tricks, Tutorials

20/11/2008

This is a technique you can use to create a 3D cylinder with a text frame on its side and place it in your web-to-print template.

Draw a cylinder

Web-to-print top side /

Use the Ellipse tool (F7) to draw an ellipse that will be the top side of the cylinder and convert it to curves (Right click/Convert to Curves).

Web-to-print top and bottom /

Duplicate the ellipse and place the copy where you want the bottom of the cylinder to be.

Web-to-print bottom side outer nodes /

Select the bottom ellipse and use the Shape tool (F10) to select its two outer nodes.

Web-to-print break curve With the two nodes selected, click on the Break Curve icon in the top menu.

Web-to-print break curve apart /

Right click on the bottom ellipse and click Break Curve Apart (or Ctrl+K).

Web-to-print top arch /

This will break the curve into two arched curves. Select the uper arc and delete it. The result should be similar to this.

Turn on the Snap to Objects option by pressing Alt+Z on the keyboard or from the View drop-down list in the top menu.

Web-to-print draw cylinder body /

With the lower arc curve selected, activate the Pen tool from the left tool box menu and draw the lower part of the cylinder by clicking on the nodes.

Add a page frame (Layout/Page Setup/Add Page Frame). This will create a rectangular shape with the exact same size as the paper size of your template and place it as a bottom layer. Assign a uniform black fill to it.

Fountain fill

To achieve a 3D illusion we need to add gradients to the shapes that form the cylinder.

Web-to-print conical fountain fill /

Select the top ellipse and assign a Conical two color fountain fill to it.

Web-to-print linear fountain fill /

Select the cylinder’s body shape and assign a Linear two color fountain fill to it.

Note. The two color fountain fills should be slightly different for the top and the body. For a greyscale cylinder, use different percentage of black for the “From” and “To” fountain fill colors.

Web-to-print cylinder /