Learn how to draw 3d infographics in this new premium tutorial. I will explain how I made this 3D volcano infographics in illustrator. This tutorial will cover on how to do the cutaway illustration effect . You will also learn the techniques of using effects such as Texturizer, Mezzotint, Smudge Stick to create the texture effects. Hope you like it and find it interesting.



Difficulty: Basic-Intermediate tutorial
Requirements: Illustrator 10, CS, CS2, CS3 and CS4

What will you get?

• Instant download of PDF e-book (29 steps)
• Detailed step by step tutorial
  
• Learn the techniques to rock and earth textures
  
• Learn to create 3d infographics diagram from scratch
  
• Comes with Ai file for easy reference
  

Preview Screenshots

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Creating the Background

1. Open Illustrator (I use CS3 version) and create a new document 500 px wide and 800 px high. Make it RGB color mode. Now, create a rectangle 500×600 px – it will be our background. Fill it with blue color (I chose to use light blue). Lock this layer and name it “BG”. Create new layer named “Shape”.

Creating a Curve

2. On the newly created layer grab a Pen tool (P) and create a curve like in the screenshot below. Make it no fill and whatever stroke. Turn off the BG layer visibility off for now. Your curve has to consist of 4 corner points – in the beginning, in the end, and two points in every extrema – it is very important!

Cutting the Curve

3. Now take a Scissors tool (C) and cut the curve in two points so that you end up with 3 separate open paths. Don’t move the parts, they need to remain together.

Duplicating It

4. Select the entire curve consisting of 3 separate paths and move it to the right holding down both Shift and Alt keys. This will make a copy and align it with original curve. Now, select the upper-right point of duplicate with Direct selection (A) and move it a bit to the right so that the shape is little wider in this area.

Joining Open Points

5. Probably most of you have guessed that we need to end up with 3 closed shapes. To do it we have to join every pair of curves. First, select the upper-right pair of endpoints with Direct Selection Tool (A) and press Ctrl+J to join them, choose “corner” for the join settings. Do the same now for the bottom-left pair of points – see the image for reference. You’ll have them joined with straight horizontal lines.

Creating 3 Closed Paths

6. We still need to close other pairs of points. To do it easily, I recommend you to select the right figure and hit Ctrl+J – the shape will be closed. Do the same with the left one.

Just select the pair of points you want to be joined and hit Ctrl+J, and do the same with the second pair. Now, you have 3 separate closed paths – I offset them a bit just to show the idea.

Organizing the Shapes

7. Now, make sure you did everything properly – try to fill all three shapes with different fill colors. They have to be separate closed paths. Now, you have to send the left part to back (Shift+Ctrl+D) and the right one to front (Shift+Ctrl+]) to have something similar to image below.

Making Patterns

8. The shape has to be filled with two patterns, so let’s create them. Just draw a small rectangle, fill it with white (change the stroke to none!). Now, copy and paste in front (Ctrl+C and Ctrl+F) and reduce the height of copy to about one-third of original. Fill it with blue color you used for background. Select both rectangles and drag it to the swatches panel.

9. Now, change the fill of bigger rectangle to blue and the smaller one to white, and drag it to swatches panel. Don’t forget to choose the blue color that is used for background.

Applying Patterns

10. Now select every shape and apply the appropriate pattern fill for each of them. Change the stroke to none. Use the image below for reference.

Positioning the Shape

11. Okay, the shape is almost ready. Select all three parts and group them (Ctrl+G), and rotate it to get something similar to the image below. To make sure the patterns are transformed along with object, go to the flyout menu of Transform panel and check “transform all” option. Once I positioned the shape, I thought the pattern is too small – in this case select the Scale tool (S), hit Enter and check “pattern” while unckecking “object”. I decided to scale the pattern up to 200%. Unhide the bottom layer to see the background.

Drawing the Ice

12. Once you’re satisfied with shape, lock the layer and create a new one named “Snow”. To create the icy surface, take a Pen tool (P) and draw the irregular shape with diagonal upper part. Make it little wider than blue rectangle, and fill it with white with no stroke.

Applying Effect

13. With shape selected, go to Effects>Distort & Transform – Roughen, and enter 3 for effect and 10 for details. Check corner points and click OK. You’ll have the result as in the image below.

Creating a Symbol

14. To make the snow, it’s better to create a symbol. Create a small white circle and drag it to Symbols panel. Check “graphic” option in symbol settings. You can delete the circle now.

Spraying Symbols

15. Now, grab a Symbol sprayer tool (Shift+S) and spray white circles along the border of icy surface. I’d recommend you also resize and move some symbols if you want with appropriate tools of “Symbolism” group (to make symbols smaller, press Alt while applying Symbol Sizer).

Making Snow

16. To turn circles into snow, select the group of symbols and apply Roughen effect again, this time with 20 for effect and 20 for details. Choose corner points, of course. You can adjust settings to your liking, however.

Creating Olympic Rings

17. Now you can lock the Snow layer and create a new one. All you have to do now is draw 5 Olympic rings (100×100 px each) and position them properly. Change their fill color to none and stroke color to blue, yellow, black, green, and red. We won’t exactly repeat the overlapping rings. But if you wonder how to recreate the overlapping effect, I will tell you in following tutorials of the Olympic series.

Adding Text

18. To finalize the composition, add a text Lillehammer ‘94″ with serif black font. That is the final effect.

Conclusion

Today we recreated a nice piece of design – the Lillehammer’94 Olympic emblem. With help of patterns, effects, and some patience it was rather simple and fun. We’ll continue observing the best Olympic logos of all times in the next tutorial.

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Today, we’ll start the series with a unique op-art emblem of Munich 1972, one of the favourite designers’ logos of all times. This optical illusion is rather hard to create, but we’ll learn how to do it properly. Let’s get started!

Getting started

1. Let’s open Adobe Illustrator (I use CS3 version) and create new document 1000×1000 px any color mode. We will use precise calculations, so turn the grid on (Ctrl+’) and snap to grid option (Shift+Ctrl+’). Now go to Edit>Preferences>Guides and grid, and set your grid to 50px with subdivisions to 10. Customizing a grid this way will make your work more comfortable. Also, turn smart guides on (Ctrl+U). Now, create an ellipse (L) 600×600 px in the center of your document and turn it to a guide (Ctrl+5) – it is used for reference only. You can lock this layer now and create a new one.

Drawing a small segment

2. You can switch off snap to grid option now (Shift+Ctrl+’). We’ll create a segment of 12 degrees now and position it properly. On the new layer create a line (\) that goes horizontally from the leftmost point of circle almost to its center (or you can press Enter and write 270px for length and 0 for angle). The line does not have to touch the circle center! See the 2-A image for reference.

Make sure smart guides are on so that you see points and intersections of every object, in particular the center of circle – it’s important. Now grab Rotate tool (R) and Alt-click right point of line, enter “-6″ degrees and press OK. Again, with rotate tool active Alt-click line’s right point and enter “12″ degrees, now press Copy. See the image 2-B for reference.

Select two touching anchor points of lines with white arrow (A) and press Ctrl+J to join them (choose corner option). Finally, select the two opposite anchor points and press Ctrl+J again to close the path, fill it with black. Look at the 2-C image – that’s what you’ll have for now.

Creating a group of segments

3. Select the segment you created and again grab Rotate tool (R). Now, you have to Alt-click on the center point of circle guide below. We’ll rotate the segment to have a group, but it’s important what angle you enter. If you look at the logo carefully, you’ll see that the angle is a bit irregular, so the segments overlap. Therefore, in the rotation settings window enter 20.7 degrees and click copy. Now you have to press Ctrl+D 15 times so that you end up with 17 segments. Finally, group them (also you can name the group “1″).

Duplicating groups

4. With a group selected again take Rotate tool. Now you can simply click Enter and write “-8.1″ for angle and press Copy. I know these numbers may sound crazy, but believe me – these are the precise angles you have to enter to exactly reproduce the logo. Now press Ctrl+D to transform again. You’ll have 3 groups of segments now, it’s better to organize them properly – name the copies “2″ and “3″. I also suggest that you change the fill for now for convinience – we can change it back to black later. That’s what you’ll have for now.

Creating a spiral

5. The segments we made will be partially masked to create the effect we need – so it’s time to make a mask shape. First of all, I think it’s better to hide segment groups for a while. Take a Spiral tool that is hidden under Line tool. Click inside a circle and enter following values: radius = 290 px, decay = 84%, segments = 8, style = second option (counter-clockwise). Now you have to position the spiral as in the image below – you can scale and rotate it if needed.

Understanding the Shape

6. At this point you’ll have to make sure the spiral is positioned properly. Take a line tool (\) and create a line that connects two open points of a spiral. Smart guides will indicate intersections, make sure it snaps to the exact point. This way the spiral will be virtually divided into 2 parts. Now unhide the second group of segments and make sure they are overlapped by the outer part of spiral. For the third group, it has to be overlapped by the inner part of spiral. You can rotate, scale or move the spiral to achieve it. If everything is ok, duplicate the spiral shape and hide it for now.

Dividing the spiral

7. While the copy of spiral is hidden, select the original spiral and the line you created in the previous step (make sure it touches open spiral ends). Now got to Pathfinder panel and click Divide (first bottom icon) and ungroup (Shift+Ctrl+G). You will end up with two separate shapes – I filled them with different colors for now. You can see the order of objects in the image.

Applying first mask

8. OK, let’s synchronize the elements in our file: bottom locked layer with circle guide, current layer with 3 groups of segments, hidden spiral, and newly created 2 separate parts of spiral. Unhide the 3rd group of segments, select it together with the inner part of spiral (the yellow one), make sure group is below the shape and press Ctrl+7. This will make clipping group with mask created from the shape. I named the group “inner segments”.

Applying second mask

9. Now just repeat the same – unhide the second group of segments and select it together with the outer shape (blue one), and press Ctrl+7 to make clipping group. I named this group “middle segments”.

Applying the last mask

10. Unhide the first group of segments – you’ll see that it also needs to be masked. That’s when the hidden spiral copy will help – unhide it and fill with 100% black with no stroke. Now select both the segments group and the spiral copy (spiral has to be above!) and go to Opacity panel. Here go to the flyout menu and choose “Make opacity mask”, also uncheck crop option. Now the group will be masked – the spiral appears as a masking object.

Adjusting the color

11. If you did everything properly, you’ll end up with perfect shape where the distance between segments is equal. Now just fill all three groups of segments with the same color – in the layers panel open every clipping group an select the group of segments (make sure you don’t select the clipping path) to change its fill color to black.

Conclusion

12. Now, with Type tool (T) write “Munich 1972″ with sans-serif 100pt font – and the logo is ready! This outstanding Olympic emblem was not easy to create, but we used exact measurements and precise calculations as well as some creativity to reproduce this well-known optical illusion. We’ll continue the series of best Olympic Logos very soon – stay tuned!

(This logo is owned by International Olympic Committe. Logo is reproduced for educational puposes only.)

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However, if you want to make specialized graphs and flowcharts then don’t go for illustrator. Instead, go for some other specialized tools or Microsoft excel but if you want to control the presentation of the graph then illustrator is for you.

We will complete the process in 4 easy steps and at the end we will have a 3d stunning graph for your presentation.

1. Key in the data

2. Coloring the chart

3. Making the pie chart 3D

4. Labeling graph data

Project Scenario

I have a site with google analytics installed which show some the users coming on my site everyday and also their browser type. So I had taken this as reference for this tutorial. It includes chrome, Netscape, safari, opera, flock,
firefox and Internet explorer.

Key in the data

1. So let’s get started. Begin with a  new RGB document. Unless you have a specific size in mind, set the size to web default (800 x 600 pixels).

On the Toolbox, click and hold on the Column Graph Tool to reveal the other graph tools behind it. We want the Pie Graph tool (see first figure below). With the pie graph tool, click and drag out a rectangular area to contain the graph and its legend. When you release, the Graph Data window will appear (see second figure below).

2. The Graph Data window looks (pretty much) like any spreadsheet application. This is the brain of your charts, where all data, labels, and categories are entered and modified. The cells may hold values (numbers) or labels and categories (text and numbers). Data may be entered many levels deep to create fiendishly complex graphs, but we’re going to keep it simple with just one row of labels and one row of data.

3. Click in the top-left cell, which will load that cell into the cell entry box above, and type “Internet
Explorer”, our first data label. Press the Tab key after typing to commit the change and advance to the next cell along the top row. Enter the remaining labels the same way: “firefox”, “Flock”, “Opera”, “Safari”, “Nettsacpe”, and “Chrome”. In the end, you should have seven labeled columns along the top row (see figure below).

4. Naturally, if you’re working on your own graph project, replace my labels (and later
data) with your own.

Now that the labels are done, let’s enter the actual data from which our pie
and its pieces will be drawn. Click each cell under each label and enter their numbers.

5. After all data has been entered, click the Apply button. Behind the Graph Data window
you should see something akin to the figure below. Go ahead and close the Graph
Data window and save your document.

Coloring the Chart

6. If you’re content with a graph as boring as the chart above, go ahead and stop working now. In the following steps, we’ll add some colors before giving the graph some depth in the next section (”Making the Pie Graph 3D”).

Grab the Group Selection tool from behind the Direct Selection tool. Click twice on one of the pie sections to select both the slice and its legend. Cool, huh?

Now, using both the Swatches or Color palette, give it a fill—a solid color, gradient, or pattern and/or a stroke. If you plan to make your pie three-dimensional in the next step, don’t give it a stroke. Because of the blessed Group Selection tool, both the slice and the legend can be styled at once without breaking the graph’s link to its data—you can go back and change the dataset at any time.

7. Now, using the Swatches or Color palette, give it a fill—a solid color, gradient, or pattern—and/or a stroke. If you plan to make your pie three-dimensional in the next step, don’t give it a stroke. Because of the Group Selection Tool, both the slice and the legend can be styled at once without breaking the graph’s link to its data—you can go back and change the dataset at any time.

Making the Pie Chart 3D

8. Colors are great but a 3d effect can often (not always!) give a pie chart more impact, making the data easier to stare at going into that third hour of a 20-minute meeting.

The very first thing we need to do is separate the legend. So, grab the Direct Selection tool and drag a selection rectangle around just the legend (labels and colored boxes). Copy them with (Cmd+C/Ctrl+C).

Make a new layer, and paste (in front) the copied legend to it with (Cmd+F/Ctrl+F). Rename the layer to Legend. This legend is now disconnected from the graph. Next, hide the Legend layer.

9. Back to our first layer, select the graph with the Selection tool, and choose Object > Graph > Data, which will get you back to the Graph Data window.

In the Graph Data window, click the first cell in the top row and press Delete on your keyboard to wipe it out. Repeat until you’ve emptied the top row.

Select your second row by clicking in the first cell and dragging to the last. Instead of deleting, however, press (Cmd+X/trl+X) to cut the information. Click once in the leftmost cell of the top row and paste the data in with (Cmd-V/Ctrl+V).

10. Click the Apply button and close the Graph Data window.

11. Select the graph with the Selection tool. If your graph has a stroke, remove it. Now, choose Effect > 3D > Extrude & Bevel.

In the 3D Extrude & Bevel Options dialog below, turn on Preview and begin by choosing a Position preset from the drop-down menu at the top. For most graphs, I would suggest beginning with Off-Axis Bottom and working from there.

12. Click and drag any face, side, or corner of the track cube to change the graph’s rotation in three-dimensional space, or adjust the values in the X-, Y-, and Z-axis measurement fields. The measurement fields accept angles from negative 180° through positive 180°. Changing either the track cube or the axis fields will update the other. The blue face of the track cube is the front surface of your graph.

Changing the Perspective measurement field will distort your graph to create the impression of distance-use this sparingly as it will introduce distortion of your pie that may render the relative size of the pieces difficult to ascertain.

If you’re happy with the thickness of your graph and its lighting, just click OK (see figure below). Otherwise, play with the Extrude Depth to get the thickness you’d like. Changing the Bevel can give you rounded, beveled, or scalloped edges. After rotating the X-, Y-, and Z-axes to 31°, -19°, and 4°, respectively, and leaving all other options at their defaults, my pie graph looks much more interesting than it did flat.

13. Clicking the More Options button will reveal advanced lighting options where you may choose a shading type and modify the light(s) and shadows created from the extrusion and rotation. When you’ve finished setting the options for 3D Extrude & Bevel, click OK.

Turn on your Legend layer. Look at those color key swatches. Are they too big? They were for mine (see below), so I resized them in one swift motion. Unless you’re making a pie chart for the elderly, you may want to do the same. With the Selection tool, select all the colored rectangles. Then choose Object > Transform > Transform Each.

In the Transform Each dialog, turn on Preview in the bottom right, then change the Horizontal and/or Vertical scale to suit your graph. Unlike scaling via the Transform palette, Transform Each will scale each object within its own space rather than treating the individual paths as a group and transforming them relative to one another-which would force you to manually realign each block to its text label after scaling.

Style the type of your labels (if desired), and save your document. It now looks good. Figure below shows my final pie graph. How did I get the labels on the side? Keep reading… we’re almost there…

Labelling Graph Data

14. For a little extra clarity of data presentation, try applying labels directly to your pie pieces-or columns, rows, or whatever in other chart types-in addition to your legend.

Off on the pasteboard or on a new layer, click with the Type tool to create a point type object. Now type in your first legend label. With the pie graph we built, the first item would be “Font”. Style the type as you like, but make it a color that contrasts with the color of the pie pieces.

Hold the Cmd/Ctrl key and click away from the point type object to deselect it. Now click again with the Type tool and make your second label. Repeat this until you have separate point type objects for each of your pie pieces.

One at a time, drag your type labels into the Symbols palette to create new symbols from each of them. I heartily recommend you rename the new symbols to something meaningful like Label – Fonts, Label – 3D Models, and so on. After creating symbols, delete the original path type objects.

Select the 3D graph with the Selection tool, and, on the Appearance Palette, double-click the 3D Extrude & Bevel attribute to reopen the 3D Extrude & Bevel Options.

Turn Preview back on (annoying, isn’t it, that Preview turns off every time you come back?), then click on the Map Art button. In the Map Art dialog, the Symbol drop-down contains the label symbols we just made. Top right is the surface to which they will be applied. The arrows allow you to navigate between all the faces created by 3D Extrude & Bevel. Dominating the dialog is a preview of the object’s surface. A light surface in the current view indicates a face that is visible with the current rotation of the graph; a dark rectangle denotes a surface that is not currently visible.

If you peer around the Map Art dialog, you will see on the 3D graph a red outline revealing which surface is currently shown in the Map Art dialog. Using the arrows, move through the surfaces of your graph until you reach a visible side (see figure below).

15. From the Symbol drop-down, choose the correct label for that slice. It will instantly appear in the main part of the Map Art dialog. If you remembered to check Preview in the 3D Extrude & Bevel Options prior to entering Map Art, your graph should update as well to show the placement of the label.

Is the label where and how you want it? Note that the symbol instance in the Map Art dialog has a bounding box. Use the bounding box to move, resize, and/or rotate the label until it fits your graph where and how you’d like. To rotate, hover your cursor just beyond a corner control point. When the cursor becomes a curved, double-headed arrow, click and drag to rotate (Shift-drag to constrain to increments of 45°).

16. Again using the arrows, move through the 3D graph’s surfaces, applying the labels where needed. If you may at some point rotate your graph, go ahead and apply the labels to surfaces hidden now that may become exposed during a rotation. Doing it now will save on accidental omissions later. Just before you click OK, turn on Shade Artwork-or don’t, as you prefer.

17. Labels add an extra touch to my pie chart, as you can see in our final 3D pie chart below. Incidentally, the pie chart shadow I created Drop Shadow live effect. Once again, here’s our final 3D pie chart.

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In this illustrator tutorial, you will learn how to create a cool photorealistic retro microphone! The author will share with you on how he created this microphone from scratch. You will learn the techniques to create the chrome and metallic texture in this project. This will help you improve and brush up your texture skills in illustrator. The tutorial will teach of how to create the abstract musical waves at the background. So let’s get started!



Difficulty: Intermediate tutorial
Requirements: Illustrator 10, CS, CS2, CS3 and CS4

What will you get?

• Instant download of PDF e-book (46 steps)
• Detailed step by step tutorial
  
• Learn the techniques to create chrome and metallic texture
  
• Learn to create an abstact musical wave background
• Comes with Ai file for easy reference
  

Preview Screenshots

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This is a sponsored review, if you want your product or service reviewed by me send an email to tony[at]vectordiary.com.

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