I’m attempting to simulate a ribbon like pattern for lettering, similar to this image:
I’ve already made the outlines for the lettering, however using the blend tool and the width tool doesn’t give me the clean results I was hoping for:
I’ve attached one of the letterforms here, is this just easier done in 3D and then texturing the surface?
Answer
Here’s what I’d do. It’s also quite a lot of work especially for a larger design, but avoids actually drawing the lines manually.
- Draw a line, duplicate it moving it approximately a 45 degree angle from the original
- Create a step blend for these two lines.
- With the Curvature Tool, modify the curves. This is probably the trickiest step and will need some trial and error. You could also use the Pen tool to edit the Bézier curves directly.
- Expand the Blend, and cut the paths with the Scissors tool, then expand again to convert the strokes to filled paths. Obviously if you are working on a larger design, you may need to repeat the path cutting step several times in other places depending on where the ribbon overlaps itself.
- Do a Pathfinder Divide operation, then Select and Delete the little pieces where the ribbon overlaps*
*Note: If step 5 looks a bit too fiddly, then an alternative might be to draw a white filled shape under the lines above, to cover the lines below.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : thel3l , Answer Author : Billy Kerr