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If you've always wanted to give your flat vector artwork an extra dimension, then this '3D Revolve Effect' tutorial is for you. By the time you've persevered to the end, you'll be a master of the 3D revolve effect, and be able to produce stunning images - like this red shiny apple - in much faster time than you may have thought possible!

What is the 3D Revolve Effect?
I've always imagined the 3D revolve effect as similar to opening the front cover of a book and not stopping until it goes all the way around to touch the back cover. This circular sweeping motion is exactly what your 2D paths and shapes undergo when the 3D revolve effect is applied. To imagine what kind of 3D objects you can create using this, you are going to have to think of objects that have a symmetrical profile when cross-sectioned vertically in half. Since this circular sweeping action takes place along the y axis, you will only need to draw half of the profile. See examples to the right.

What can I revolve?
You can basically revolve any paths, but I don't recommend revolving paths with a pattern or gradient fill. Theoretically you can, but pattern fills take up a lot of system resources to render and might not work at all. Gradient fills get rasterized when 3D effects are applied. Hence, these two should be avoided.

The best things to revolve are unstroked paths with only a color fill like in the examples above, because they revolve much faster than paths that have a stroke or brush. However, you can still revolve them as we see in the example to the right, where I have revolved two open wavy paths with no fills, but one has a stroke and the other a brush. The results you can get are great for creating beautiful pots, bowls and vases.

To learn how to apply the 3D Revolve effect, see Part 2.

Related Tags: 3D, depth, Illustrator, revolve, three-dimensional, vector