how to get PS bevel / emboss type effects in illustrator?

[patrick collins]

Hi everyone,

So, I have a graphic that I’ve made in photoshop and I am deciding that it makes more sense to have it as vector art– And I am not sure how to get my text to look how I have it in photoshop. I was using the layer style bevel emboss, but I don’t see anything comparable to that in illustrator… So I am wondering in Illustrator, how would I go about giving text some highlights similar to this?

https://collinatorstudios.com/www/foobar.png

Thanks.

-patrick

[Mike Gondek]

effect >> 3D >> Extrude & Bevel
position: front
bevel: rounded
extrusion depth: varies: try 4
bevel depth: varies: try 2

ENJOY!

[patrick collins]

Hmmm… I am not feeling like I have the kind of “control” that I am looking for… In photoshop I can easily edit the layer style and tweak and tweak and tweak, where this feels much more permanent and much more difficult to change later… How is something like this normally done? Do artists usually just use something like the pen tool and create lighting shades that way?

-patrick

[les nemeth]

https://www.shinycore.com/products/pathstyler/

[patrick collins]

Ok, I went and bought path styler pro…

Now I am confused why I can’t get anything to look good.. Everything that path styler pro does ends up looking like pixelated trash in AI…

Plain text:
https://collinatorstudios.com/www/path_styler_1.png

Path styler pro settings:
https://collinatorstudios.com/www/path_styler_2.png

I click ok, and pixelated trash:
https://collinatorstudios.com/www/path_styler_3.png

What am I doing wrong???

-patrick

[Vincent Rosati]

I’m not totally sure about that plugin, but I’d try doing an export and see what it looks like. In Illustrator, it’s not so much what you see in the artboard that counts, but what prints or exports.

When I initially saw your post I started putting together a file. I trashed it when I saw the responses. Anyway, what I was going to offer was doing an Offset Path.

Set your type (make it kinda big).
Create outlines.
Then Object/Path/Offset Path. Use a negative value like 2pt or whatever. You can enable Preview while in this dialogue box. This will create the interior structure of the bevel.
Now you will have all of the points and paths you will need to draw the bevel effect.

Total control, and it will look as good as what you put into it.

Vince

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[Mike Gondek]

Never tried pathstyler, and their newest plug-in tryout did not work with my CS4.

You can try changing your Effects >> Document Raster Effects Setting to 300dpi.

[Mike Gondek]

Got it to work, but the detail still is not that great even after going to 300 dpi. Thsi program might be good for web/multimedia graphics.

[les nemeth]

PathStyler Pro uses the same editable raster effects as AI. With “same” I mean, one raster effect looks just as good at 300dpi as another.

The only difference might be if you are using an effect that utilizes an image texture. In that case you need to make sure that you are using a high quality texture (like 300dpi) if you want to make it look god when printed.

[Max Tovar]

Thanks for the tip.