Illustrator: Diamonds Are Forever

You may have noticed that Illustrator happens to be my favourite program. Sure, Photoshop has the power and the ability to produce quick-fix effects using Filters, etc. But Illustrator, to my mind, is the purists' program. Surprisingly, in my opinion, it's not a pre-requisite that you should be able to draw before using Illustrator. Nor, for that matter, should you be an expert in Bezier curves. Of course, these things help but even if you're a beginner you can get a lot out of Illustrator.

Above all, I believe Illustrator to be a problem solving program. It's all about thinking out of the box to achieve a particular end result. Take the following, for example.

A few years ago a student of mine asked me how to create a three-dimensional diamond shape in Illustrator. Naturally, to achieve this there's always the drawing option. But I immediately got to thinking about Illustrator's Rotate feature. This is a ported over version of the old favourite Adobe Dimensions. Problem with this, however, is not matter what shape or profile you begin with you're always basically lathing an object. Try as I might I could not produce the effect I wanted. Then I thought: what not create a custom bevel and extrude the shape?

Here's how I did it:

1. Use the polygon tool to create a six-sided shape. You may not know that while drawing with the polygon tool you can us the up and down arrow keys to intuitively add or remove polygon sides. In this example I've given the shape a green fill – this can always be changed later on. Remember to remove the stroke or you will end up with a black object when you bevel.




2. Select Effect> 3D> Extrude And Bevel and turn on the preview. Choose one of the default bevels and try increasing the bevel and extrude depth. Get a feel for what happens when you do this. It's good fun but you'll find in the end that whatever you try you will not be able to create a diamond shape.



3. Your only option is a custom bevel. Select File> Open... and navigate over to your applications folder. Find the Illustrator CS2 or CS3 folder and inside you will find a folder called Plug-ins. Inside there is a file named Bevels.ai. Open it and you will see a list of all of Illustrator's default bevels. (If you're on a PC you must go to the Programs folder and find the Illustrator Plug-ins folder nested inside the main Adobe folder.)



4. Use the Pen tool to create a bevel shape that resembles the one depicted below. Make sure that both ends of the bevel line up. You can do this by selecting the points with the direct selection tool and making sure that the 'Y' value in the control panel at the top of the screen is identical. Now select the Symbols palette and hit the new button. All bevels must be saved as symbols for this to work. Now save and quit Illustrator.



5. Restart Illustrator and re-open the file you created earlier containing the extruded polygon. Locate the Appearance palette and double click on the 3D Extrude & Bevel layer to edit it. Turn on the Preview and in the Bevels list you will find the bevel that you just created. Now you're cooking!

Play with the setting until you get something similar to what I've created below.





6. You will notice that I've taken the blends steps right down to only five steps. In this type of object you're not really looking for a smooth finish. To complete the job add another light and adjust its position and intensity to your satisfaction.

It's easy, I admit, but an ideal example of how lateral thinking can really achieve good results in Adobe Illustrator. It a real diamond of a program ...Sorry about that.