Isometric 3D Text Cube with 3D and Materials
This tutorial builds a block of 3D text that looks like it came out of a 3D application, but stays fully editable vector in Adobe Illustrator. You can change the words, colours, lighting and materials at any time and the result re-renders. The video was sponsored by Envato Elements.
What you will use
- Type Tool, several lines of text grouped together
- Effect > 3D and Materials > Rotate with the Isometric Left, Right and Top presets
- 3D and Materials > Extrude with a depth value
- Materials, Render and Lighting settings in the 3D and Materials panel
- Appearance panel to reopen the effect
- Pen Tool and Gaussian Blur for a manual shadow
Step 1: Set up the text
Lock a background rectangle on a BG layer and create a Text layer. Type three or four lines of text, make them the same width and pull the lines close together vertically, then centre-align them. For a perfect cube the text block must be square; otherwise you get an isometric box, which is what the video ends up with.
Step 2: Colour the text
Fill everything with a yellow tone, then pick a few lines and give them a light grey (not pure white). Copy the colour values instead of using the Eyedropper, because the Eyedropper also copies the appearance and would change your text. Remember the final colours shift with lighting and materials.
Step 3: Group and make three copies
Group the text block. This is essential, otherwise the 3D effect applies to each line separately. Make two more copies of the group. Apply Effect > 3D and Materials > Rotate to each: the first with the Isometric Left preset, the second Isometric Right, the third Isometric Top. Arrange the three faces into a box.
Step 4: Add depth
Select each group in turn, open 3D and Materials and switch to Extrude with a depth of 200 px (any value works, but keep it the same on all three). Rearrange and scale the faces so they meet cleanly as a box.
Step 5: Render the materials
What you see on the artboard is a preview. Open the Materials tab, keep the default material, and adjust Roughness and Metallic. Click Render, or hold the render button so it keeps re-rendering as you change settings. Do this for all three groups.
Step 6: Match the lighting across the three faces
Each group has its own light. To make the box look like one object under one light, decide where an imaginary light sits and set each group’s light rotation, height and intensity to match it. Turn on the shadow temporarily to check the light position, then turn it off again (a per-object shadow does not suit a combined object). The left face was too bright, so its intensity was lowered to about 27 percent. If you have closed the panel, select a group, open the Appearance panel and click the 3D and Materials entry to reopen it. Changing the light colour (for example a warm yellow) also tints the material, so change all three lights to the same colour.
Step 7: A manual shadow
Draw a shadow shape with the Pen Tool that follows the imaginary light direction, send it to the back, fill it with a dark tone and apply Gaussian Blur.
Conclusion
The trick is three copies of one grouped text block, each rotated with a different isometric preset and extruded by the same depth, then lit as if they were a single object. Everything stays editable, so you can swap the words later and only re-render.
Links from the video
- Envato Elements (video sponsor): https://bit.ly/30Whw17
