How to Make an editable 3D Line Text Effect in Illustrator

Sometimes complex effects may take a long time to be made if you do not know which tools to use, but if you use the right ones they are very simple to achieve. Illustrator has a wide range of tools available to make the process of creating very complex effects a breeze. In this tutorial, you will learn how easy is to make a 3D Line effect that you can use an unlimited number of times, over any type of objects, paths or a simple line of text while keeping the original object fully editable and in less than 10 minutes.

Step 1

Open Illustrator and make a new file at any size you want. In this case, i will make mine at 1920 x 1080 px in RGB Color Mode with a 72 dpi resolution.

Step 2

Select the Rectangle Tool (M). Make a rectangle of the same size of your artboard (1920 x 1080 in this case) and set the color to #540b3a.

Step 3

Select the Type Tool (T) and type your text using any font you want. In this case, i will be using "Benton Sans" at 400 pt.

Step 4

In the Toolbar, set the text fill to "None" by clicking on the "none" icon in the bottom right corner.

Step 5

With the text selected, go to Window > Appearance.

Step 6

In the Appearance window, click on the "Add New Stroke" icon. Set the Stroke to 2pt and any color you want. In this case, i will be using #ed1e79.

Step 7

With the Stroke type selected, click on the "FX" icon. From the dropdown menu go to Distort & Transform > Transform.

Step 8

In the Transform window, apply the following values and click OK.

Step 9

Again, click on the "Add New Stroke" icon. Set the Stroke to 6pt and any color you want. In this case, i will be using #ff00ff.

Step 10

With the Stroke type selected, click on the "FX" icon. From the dropdown menu go to Blur > Gaussian Blur.

Step 11

In the Gaussian Blur window, set the Radius to 8 px and click OK.

Step 12

To make the effect a bit more appealing, drag the Fill type right above the "Opacity" type in the Appearance window.

Step 13

Set the fill color to the same color of your top stroke, which in this case is #ff00ff.

Step 14

With the Fill type selected, click on the "FX" icon. From the dropdown menu go to Blur > Gaussian Blur.

Step 15

In the Gaussian Blur window, set the Radius to about 80 px and click OK.

Step 16

Next, click on the "Opacity" of the Fill type and set the amount to 50%.

Step 17

In the Appearance window, select the top Stroke and click on the "Add New Fill" icon.

Step 18

Again, set the Fill to the same color of the top stroke color and the other fill color, which in this case is #ff00ff.

Step 19

To finish our effect, click on the "Opacity" of the Fill type and set the amount to 20%.

Step 20

As this effect was made using only the Appearance Panel, you can freely use the type tool and set any other text you want.

Step 21

A good idea, is to save this effect for a future use over any other object you want, strokes, shapes and text. To do that, with the text still selected, go to Window > Graphic Styles.

Step 22

Click on the top right icon and from the dropdown menu select "New Graphic Style". Give this style a name and click OK.

Step 23

Now the new effect is on the Graphic Styles library and we are able to use this effect an unlimited number of times over any other object without having to make it again. Simply select your object and from the Graphic Styles Panel click on the new style to apply it to your selected object.