-
Illustrator CS4: preserving text effect
Hi,
I’ll do my best to try describe my problem.I’d like to put some text through the center of a few concentric circles. I’ve applied the bulge effect to the text. I have the settings so that it puckers in the middle. GREAT! To get the look I want however, part of the text needs to go on top of the rings. I’ve tried ungrouping the text so I can separate the ones that need to go on top from the ones that need to go under the rings, but as soon as I do, the effect goes away. (what the…). I also tried creating the text as outlines, but I could not get the bulge do do the same thing. erf.
Perhaps I’m going about this the wrong way. Any ideas? 🙁 Thanks so much for your help.
-grace
-
8 Replies
-
Not sure if I understand. Like so?
-
Les!
Thanks so much for responding! Took me a while to get back to you. Our server crashed. Grr… Uploading my picture would have been a good idea, so I’ll do that now. Your graphic is awesome, by the way. 🙂
So in this example, I have two “rings” overlapping the text. The idea was to bring the second “o” and “m” from “boom” in front of the lower part of the ring. (Maybe even part of the first “o”). I’m not sure if this is similar to what you have done, but it illustrates where I’m kind of stuck.Now, hopefully if I get this right… I’ll have successfully uploaded my jpg…
-
Oops, looks like my first attempt to upload the graphic didn’t work. Here’s my second attempt.
-
Ah, actually that’s very easy. See the enclosed CS4 file. You select the rings and the text and Pathfinder > Divide. Then you just either recolor the cut pieces, or you delete the un-needed circle pieces and letter pieces, and copy-paste the original letters into the layer. Then you can arrange which pieces are front and behind. My explanation is hazy. So just look at the file.
The layers ‘EITHER step 3a’ ‘OR step3b’ outlined my explanations above. You can go either way about them. Note that in ‘OR step3’ layer, you can even create interesting effects where part of the leg of the ‘M’ is on front, and the other leg part is behind the circle.
File link:
1820_boom.ai.zip -
Hey Les,
Oh man, I’m so sorry, I should have uploaded my source file. (didn’t think to do that either! Next time I’ll know better) Thanks for recreating the graphic as well. I want you to know that your time and help is greatly appreciated.I looked at your .ai file, and right away I see where I’m not doing something right: When I create my text, I do the following:
1. Select it, create outlines
2. Apply the bulge effect
3. But when I select my text, the letters are not separate objects like yours. (see attachment)How did you do yours?
-Grace -
(I keep doing this wrong. Here it is)
-
Menu:
Object > Expand Appearance -
IT WORKS!! Oh my God, I can’t believe it. Three weeks of agony. Thank you so much, Les. You have been absolutely awesome.
-Grace
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up