How to Spin Text Into Ring in Illustrator?

This lesson is exclusive to members

Course contents
SECTION: 4
Keyboard Shortcuts 14:06

Questions

1

Course info

104 lessons / 10 hours 33 quiz questions 31 projects Certificate of achievement

Overview

Hey there, I'm Dan Scott, an Adobe Certified Instructor with over 16 years of design experience under my belt, I'm part of the Adobe Expert program, and my online and in-person classes have been attended by more than a million people, just like you! Join me as we dive into the exciting world of Adobe Illustrator Advanced! In this course, you're not just leveling up in Illustrator, you're transforming into an Illustrator SuperHero!

In this course you will work on a bespoke brief designed to ignite your imagination, coupled with immersive course videos, you'll be crafting jaw-dropping graphics in no time. Throughout our journey together, you'll flex your creative muscles and construct projects that will elevate your portfolio to new heights. So, let's dive in and unleash your creativity!

You’ll learn:

  • - How to use artificial intelligence to boost your creativity in ideation. 
  • - The quick way to take hand-drawn sketches and vectorize and color them. 
  • - The building blocks needed to set you loose on a huge variety of beautiful effects and techniques.
  • - To make beautiful charts and graphs for your documents. 
  • - Color mastery to make quick color adjustments, Pantones, and blend it all together beautifully.
  • - How to master images inside of your illustrator workflow. 
  • - To harness all the secret gems that'll help you level up your typography skills. 
  • - All the tricks of the trade for drawing complex shapes easily. 
  • - To double your creativity with the Transform and Distort section. 
  • - To speed up your personal workflow to get the most out of your creative day.

Explore the full course outline for a comprehensive list of topics that will expand your Illustrator prowess beyond imagination.

If you're already comfortable navigating the basics but want to  unlock the true potential of Illustrator, then this Illustrator Advanced course is your ticket to becoming a master of Illustrator! So join me and the ranks of design superheroes and let's embark on this thrilling journey together.

Requirements:

- All you need is a copy of Adobe Illustrator, you can get a free trial from Adobe here to get started.
- A basic knowledge of Illustrator is required. I recommend watching my Illustrator Essentials course prior to embarking on this epic adventure.

Who this course is for:

- Creative adventurers who already have a basic understanding of Illustrator.
- Self-taught Illustrator enthusiasts yearning for structured guidance.
- Graduates of my Illustrator Essentials Course, hungry for more knowledge and skills.
- Visionaries who have developed their own unique Illustrator approach but crave exploration of the vast universe of tools, updates, and time-saving techniques.

What you'll learn:

- How to use Text to Vector Ai
- How to use Text to Pattern Ai
- How to use Generative Recolor
- When to use the Scissor Tool, Eraser Tool & Knife Tool
- Advanced Shape Builder Uses
- The differences between the Pathfinder Vs Shape Builder
- How to use the Join tool & Joining Path Ends
- Advanced Pen Tool Tricks
- Width Tool Advanced Techniques
- The Curvature Tool
- How to master corners with corner widget effects
- How to work with Compound Paths
- The difference between Expand & Expand Appearance
- How to create Graphic Styles
- How to make Symbols
- How to use the Smooth Tool
- Advanced use of Simplify Path
- What Live Shape Effects are for
- How to make Repeating Grids & Concentric Circles
- How to make Random Objects
- Advanced Keyboard Shortcuts in Illustrator
- How to add a Gradient on a Stroke
- How to add a Gradient in Text
- How to use the Freeform Gradient tool
- How to use Advanced Color Swatches
- How to use Global Color Swatches
- What is the difference between RGB vs CMYK color modes?
- How to proof colors
- How to use Pantone Spot Colors
- Recolor Artwork & Changing all colors at once
- How to use Blending Modes
- How to work with Images & Blending Modes
- How to make Black & White Images
- Learn Advanced Workflow Tricks
- All the Super Selection Mastery
- How to use the History Panel
- Advanced Fonts Tricks & Tips
- Use Retype to know what Font is being used
- How to put Text Inside a Letter or Shape
- How to use the Touch Type Tool
- How to add a Connected Stroke Around Multiple Shapes
- How to Offset a Stroke with Text
- How to make a Bar Chart in Illustrator
- How to make a Pie Chart in Illustrator
- Layer Power Moves
- Advanced Artboard & Pages Tricks
- How to Unlink vs Embedded Images
- How to Crop Images Rather than Mask
- How to Mask Inside Text & Multiple Shapes
- How to you use the Puppet Warp Tool
- How to use the Distort Envelope Shape & Type
- How to use the Envelope Mesh
- How to blend lines together
- How to make a Linocut Effect
- How to make 3D Gradient Lettering Blends
- How to spin text into a ring
- How to turn text into a 3D donut shape
- How to make a Duotone image effect
- How to make a Roughen Stamp Vector Effect
- How to make a Neon Sign Glow Effect
- How to use a Halftone Effect using Plugins
- Advanced Exporting Assets Tricks in Illustrator
- How to use the Dimension Tool

So what're you waiting for? Let's start the course now!
Daniel Scott

Daniel Scott

Founder of Bring Your Own Laptop & Chief Instructor

instructor

I discovered the world of design as an art student when I stumbled upon a lab full of green & blue iMac G3’s. My initial curiosity around using the computer to create ‘art’ developed into a full-blown passion, eventually leading me to become a digital designer and founder of Bring Your Own Laptop.

Sharing and teaching are a huge part of who I am. As a certified Adobe instructor, I've had the honor of winning multiple Adobe teaching awards at their annual MAX conference. I see Bring Your Own Laptop as the supportive community I wished for when I was first starting out and intimidated by design. Through teaching, I hope to bring others along for the ride and empower my students to bring their stories, labors of love, and art into the world.
True to my Kiwi roots, I've lived in many places, and currently, I reside in Ireland with my wife and kids.

Certificates

We’re awarding certificates for this course!

Check out the How to earn your certificate video for instructions on how to earn yours and click the available certificate levels below for more information.

Downloads & Exercise files

Transcript

Hey everyone. Hey, we are going to spin text round in this ring. This kind of like flat ring graphic thing. I like it. It's easy to do. Now that we've got some skills  that we can stack together, let's jump in.

Alright, so I've got a blank document open with the hint  of a gradient in the background for no good reason,  just stick of white, stick of gray. Um, you need to type out some text. Doesn't matter what kind of text. All you need to know is that you need a few of them side  by side to kind of wrap around the ring. It doesn't multiply it. You decide how many versions of this is going to be.

So I'm gonna have a, it's kind of a guess. Do it, test it, maybe make it again. I've already tested mine  and about four works for my kind of lockup. I'm just gonna make sure they evenly space  for no good reason other than it'll look better. Okay? So where we align, fly out menu distribute centers.

Okay? And now the trick is here we need to go to window. We need to go down to symbols. We looked at symbols earlier. One of the many use cases is that in this case  where they're all selected, I gonna pretend like I give them  names, but I don't just click. Okay?

It's kind of grab that and stuck it in there. We don't need this anymore. Okay? The, it's just like a weird trick  to make this ring project work. It applies symbols around the edge. So we've got our symbol that's done.

Uh, let's grab uh, the ellipse tool,  the aie draw out something. Now this works better when there is a stroke and no fill. Okay, so I've got a stroke  and no fill member shift X toggles them. Okay? So stroke, no fill. Don't worry about what color it is  'cause it's gonna get removed.

You can keep it if you like. If you do wanna keep the color,  make sure it's different from your text  that you've used in your symbol. I'll just change it now. There we go. Yep, yep, yep. Cool.

Now we need to revolve this. Okay, we're gonna use the effect  and 3D, we're gonna use the old classic 3D just works  for this um, particular exercise. So effect 3D and materials and go down to 3D Classic. And we're gonna use the one called extrude. Okay? And preview should be turned on, okay?

Make sure it's on. Get yourself a position and don't worry  too much about getting it. Uh, you can move this around in a sec. Let's add this thing called map art. It will map the art in our case,  a symbol to the edge of this. If you have a fill on your um, circuit, it'll try  and map it across the front, which is fine.

Okay? But we want that ring effect. So going up to symbol and there it is there. New symbol very well named. Okay? And actually what ends up happening is you've got a couple  of different um, surfaces to map to.

I'm gonna clear that 'cause at the moment it's applying  to the front of this, which we can't see. So I'm gonna clear that what you have to do is,  in this particular case there's four faces. There's this face, there is the back face of this  and then there's the inside and the outside of this ring. 'cause this ring has two sides. Go  to number three in this case. Play around with the fourth one  or the first one if you've got a fill.

But what I wanna do is I wanna say simple new art. Okay, that should be fine. Let's go to invisible geometry. And there it is there. Cool. Huh?

So you can have the keep the disc if you like. I wanna get rid of it because I want to be able  to see the backside of this in reverse. And what I might do is I'm gonna scale  to fit, scaling to fit. Can you see what it's done with my text? It's kind of stretched it out. You gotta decide how much  of a type problem that is.

I'm gonna kind of just shrink mine down. You might play around with like how long the type is. Okay? So you might get rid of one of the um, Grenada donuts. This will come down to what text you use. But here you go.

We've basically got it. So there is a bit  of trial and error. Uh, other things that we might do. You can hit shade artwork and what it'll do is it'll try  and add darkness and lightness  depending where the light's hitting it. I'll leave this on just for the moment. I don't want it on for my final, but let's click.

Okay. 'cause when I rotate this around, okay,  just grab one of these edges. This is 3D and the space is kind of easy-ish. I like to grab one of these edges. You can grab just anywhere and try and drag it around. You end up in all sorts of place.

You see that um, gradient or at least the darkness  and lightness depending on where the light's hitting it. Okay? That is under map art. And you can turn uh, shade artwork. I won't mine just being nice and flat. You wanna go further into that.

You can click okay and you can go down to the options. It says more options and mess around with  where the light is hitting this thing. Can you see up to you? I'm gonna turn mine off  'cause I'm looking at kind of flat look. Now things you can play around with is, mine's quite thin. My extrude by default is 50 points.

Okay? If you've got like a Granada donuts stacked on top  of each other, so you need some more height,  you can increase the height. You can't really see it here. Oh, I went way too big. Let's go to something like this  and I'm gonna go to map art just to show you the outline. Okay?

So I turn off invisible geometry. Can you see? You might need that width  or that depth to have  whatever graphic you need to fit in there. It's up to you. I'm gonna click okay. I should lower the extrude depth.

It doesn't really matter in my case, you know,  I can't see it so it doesn't really matter. One of the things you can play around with is perspective. Ours is a zero perspective. So it's the back looks exactly like the front. But watch this. I crank this up just a little bit.

Can you see it starts playing around with the perspective. So it's click off. Can you see that? I'm getting a bit of distortion? Okay, you can play around with what you like. You have to adjust this then play with a perspective.

Oh, I wasn't gonna do it, but I quite like that. Now you will have to play around with like  what words at the front, okay? And you can either mix around with a symbol  or just keep spinning this around until you get one  of the words kind of close to the front that you want. You know, I want mine to read Grenada Donuts. Alright? And that's gonna be it.

What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna leave that there. I'm gonna duplicate it because you can go back into it. Remember under effects or under your appear  panel, you can open it back up. But I want this one. I'm gonna destroy it  'cause I wanna play around with the background colors  and I wanna show you what a mess it creates. So if I could outline mode, command y, control Y,  it's this kind of like weird disc  that we can't really see anything.

I wanna be able to grab the letters and mess with them. So if I click on it, okay, over here we can go  to expand shape, okay? Or we can go to object and expand appearance. Okay? And you kind of get the bits of it  that's still kind of locked. Watch this.

That's kind of still locked. So I'm gonna hit Ungroup. Ungroup and then I'm gonna hit ungroup a million times. Still locked ungroup. All right, there's that shape. I'm gonna go command Y again.

So there's bits left over you. So that's all connected. I'm gonna have to ungroup that again. Ungroup. Um, you still connected? I'm gonna hit command.

G, G, G, G, G, G, G. Okay, that's control. G, G, G, G on yours. Just to say everybody ungroup, okay? And it's still probably not gonna be perfect. What do we got?

We've still got some stuff. Okay, so this one here looks like a clipping mask. I can see here it says release mask. Okay, we're kind of good. Are we there yet? Let's go.

You look, it's finally separated. So yeah, I leave this in  because I don't know, it's just part of it. Okay, I'm gonna release mask when you're using 3D  and any of these kind of like fancy effects. Often there can be just like lots of stuff left over. This bottom one's quite good  'cause it's kind of all the bits I need. These are all now individuals, so they're ungrouped.

So when I'm unpicking something I'll be mindful of like, oh,  this is in a good group. So what I'm gonna do is release the mask, hold shift,  click the outside so I've got  everything in here and go group. Now I can delete that part. Do I delete that part? So I've got this and all of these are individual bits. So what I might do is select them all.

Actually it's coming outta this. Now all of  that hoopla was for this. I want to be able to go, all of you hold shift, grab  that group, the front bit, the back bit. I just want to grab my filter to the front, which is X  to toggle it to the front. Click in here and I'm gonna say you are going  to be just a darker version of that color. And the layer order looks good.

Look at us. We made a cool donut ring thing. Stacking our skills. We are using symbols. We learned way back in the beginning of the course, some  of the older 3D effects. And we've learned sometimes things are just grouped  and then grouped again, and then grouped inside masks.

But don't worry. But the powers  of things like the outline mode  and mashing away at the ungrouping,  we can get it to do what we want. There you go. That is how the spin takes around in a ring. Is he gonna make us do a class project doing it? He totally is.

And I'll see you in that video.
  • Powered by Marvin
  • Terms of use
  • Privacy policy
  • © Bring your Own Laptop Ltd 2025