{"id":949,"date":"2018-06-14T08:20:10","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T13:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/monkeylogic.us\/blog\/?p=949"},"modified":"2018-06-14T08:20:10","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T13:20:10","slug":"adobe-illustrators-3d-extrude-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monkeylogic.us\/blog\/adobe-illustrators-3d-extrude-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Adobe Illustrator&#8217;s 3D extrude problem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A peculiar problem that has always seemed to exist with Illustrator\u2019s 3D Extrude &amp; Bevel feature is how the shading along a curve won\u2019t always be completely smooth and will occasionally have a harsh transition. The visual bug appears most frequently when extruding fonts and will usually appear on the same characters regardless of the font selected. After asking for help from a group of my fellow Illustrator users, the answer to the problem lies partly with Illustrator but also in the underlying objects.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In the image below, you can see the bug on the left side of the lowercase t on the left. The gradient along the stem of the t doesn\u2019t continue up the letter as it should which it does for the t on the right. I&#8217;ve noticed that the problem occurs most frequently with characters that have a straight stem and terminate in a curve.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_950\" style=\"width: 316px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a name=\"imageclose-950\"><div class=\"lb-album\"><a href=\"#image-950\"><img src=\"http:\/\/monkeylogic.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/01t-306x300.png\"  class=\"wp-image-950 size-medium\"><span><\/span><\/a><\/div>              \r\n<a href=\"#imageclose-950\" class=\"css3lightbox-close\">\r\n\t\t\t\t   <div class=\"lb-overlay\" id=\"image-950\">\r\n                   <img src=\"http:\/\/monkeylogic.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/01t.png\" alt=\"image-950\">\r\n                   <\/div><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-950\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harsh curve transition<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The reason why this bug occurs is due to how the font has been constructed. Using the application FontForge and opening the font to look at the lowercase t, we can see part of the problem.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_951\" style=\"width: 323px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a name=\"imageclose-951\"><div class=\"lb-album\"><a href=\"#image-951\"><img src=\"http:\/\/monkeylogic.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/02FontForge.png\"  class=\"wp-image-951 size-full\"><span><\/span><\/a><\/div>              \r\n<a href=\"#imageclose-951\" class=\"css3lightbox-close\">\r\n\t\t\t\t   <div class=\"lb-overlay\" id=\"image-951\">\r\n                   <img src=\"http:\/\/monkeylogic.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/02FontForge.png\" alt=\"image-951\">\r\n                   <\/div><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-951\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Not wrong, but not great either<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The red circles, squares, and triangles in this image are the three types of points used to construct the letter. The circles are curved points, which are equivalent to Illustrator\u2019s smooth points meaning that the handles of the point always remain opposite each other so the curve will always be smooth. The squares are corner points, which is the same as Illustrator\u2019s corner points, meaning that the handles emerging from both sides of the point can have different angles.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the triangles are tangent points, which are a hybrid of smooth and corner points and are what the 3D Extrude and Bevel filter doesn\u2019t like. A tangent point only has one handle that extends out at the same angle as the straight line. While this type of point is visually the same as a smooth point, Illustrator\u2019s 3D Extrude &amp; Bevel treats it as a corner point despite the angle of the handle perfectly aligning with the straight segment.<\/p>\n<p>The only solution I\u2019ve found to correct the problem is to outline the font, use the direct selection tool to select all the tangent points, and then convert them to smooth points. Converting them to smooth points simply adds an extra handle on the straight segment of the line, which allows Illustrator to calculate the gradient correctly.<\/p>\n<p>In the image below, you can see that the straight segment of the t on the left doesn\u2019t have any handles between the two tangent points, but when the tangent points are converted to smooth points, which then adds the additional handles, the gradient of the t is displayed without any harsh transitions.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_952\" style=\"width: 390px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a name=\"imageclose-952\"><div class=\"lb-album\"><a href=\"#image-952\"><img src=\"http:\/\/monkeylogic.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/03outlined-380x300.png\"  class=\"wp-image-952 size-medium\"><span><\/span><\/a><\/div>              \r\n<a href=\"#imageclose-952\" class=\"css3lightbox-close\">\r\n\t\t\t\t   <div class=\"lb-overlay\" id=\"image-952\">\r\n                   <img src=\"http:\/\/monkeylogic.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/03outlined.png\" alt=\"image-952\">\r\n                   <\/div><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-952\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Smooth points on the right allows for a smooth gradient<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I\u2019m unsure of why 3D Extrude and Bevel doesn\u2019t like tangent points. Simply by the tangent point\u2019s appearance it should work, but obviously there is something in how the effect calculates the math for the gradient that\u2019s resulting in a problem. Additionally, the transition problem only occurs when using diffusion and plastic shading and may only be visible depending on the placement of the light and the light&#8217;s settings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Adobe Illustrator\u2019s 3D extrude effect works pretty well, but it does have a problem when it comes to one specific thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,17,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adobe","category-creativity","category-technology"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Adobe Illustrator&#039;s 3D extrude problem - monkeylogic blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/monkeylogic.us\/blog\/adobe-illustrators-3d-extrude-problem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Adobe Illustrator&#039;s 3D extrude problem - 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