Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

The trick is to simplify the effect. Take a look at the Appearance

panel and notice that Warp appears at the top of the stack and

3D Extrude & Bevel appears at the bottom. In other words—

even though you applied the 3D effect fi rst and the Warp effect

second—Illustrator has elected to bend the type before extrud-

ing it. Better to reverse the order, so Illustrator does the tough

stuff fi rst and the easy stuff second. By which I mean, drag the

Warp: Arch item down to very bottom of the stack, so Illustra-

tor applies it before 3D Extrude & Bevel.

All the old problems go away. But new problems may arise, as

documented at the bottom of Figure 10-70. In my case, the new

problems are fewer, just two instead of fi ve. And all but one go

away in the next step.

9.

Edit the text. Let’s say I’m advertising a DVD-ROM version of

one of the videos that I recorded for my online video publisher,

lynda.com. The thing is, unlike this book, my videos are not

available in stores. So the 3D text, however stunning, is a lie.

Fortunately, the text is editable so I can change it at a moment’s

notice. Unfortunately, because the text has a 3D effect assigned

to it, Illustrator will try to update the rendering each and every

time I enter a new letter. In other words, were I to start editing

the text as is, I’d be in for a world of hurt.

The natural trick might be to switch to the outline mode (Ctrl+Y or -Y) ...