Creating 3D Artwork

If you need an excuse to buy a faster computer, you may find your excuse in the 3D effects that made their debut in Illustrator CS. Similar to the old Adobe application Dimensions®, the 3D effects in Illustrator don’t rival genuine 3D programs, but they do allow you to add dimensionality to shapes through revolving or extruding operations. Such effects can generate very complex files. Since the illusion of dimensionality depends on realistic shading, 3D effects rely on the Document Raster Effects Settings dialog to determine the resolution of that shading. To speed up processing and display, use the default setting of 72 ppi while you’re working on the file.

If you perform a 3D operation on a spot-color object, the default ...

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