With this tutorial, you’ll use a couple circles and some rectangles to create a cool looking 3d widget.
STEP ONE
Select the Ellipse Tool, hold down the Control key, and draw out an ellipse shape. Holding down control will keep the ellipse proportional.
STEP TWO
Now select the Rectangle Tool and draw out a rectangle with it’s height just outside the border of the ellipse. Select both shapes and then hit E and then C on the keyboard. This will center the shapes horizontally and vertically. You should have the following so far:
STEP THREE
Now we need to make copies of this rectangle all the way around the ellipse. So click twice on the rectangle or until you see arrows appearing. You can see that there are 8 handles to choose from. While holding down Control, grab the top right handle and drag down. You’ll see a duplicate appear. To duplicate, right click with the mouse. You should have the following:
STEP FOUR
Again, while holding down Control, grab the top right handle of this second rectangle and drag. You’ll see a duplicate appear. To duplicate, right click with the mouse. Keep repeating this until you get the following:
STEP FIVE
Using the Pick Tool select the ellipse. You’ll see 8 handles to choose from. While holding down Shift, grab the top left handle and drag inward. You’ll see a duplicate appear. To duplicate, right click with the mouse. You should have the following:
STEP SIX
Alright now select all the rectangle shapes. You can hold down Shift to select multiple shapes at once. Then go to your Shaping Docker. If you don’t see it, go to Window > Dockers > Shaping. Choose Weld, you don’t need any other options selected, and then click Weld To. Now move your mouse over the larger ellipse and click. You should have the following result:
STEP SEVEN
Now select the smaller ellipse and go to your Shaping Docker. Choose Trim, you don’t need any other options selected, and then click Trim. Now move your mouse over the larger ellipse and click. You should have the following result:
I added a fill and border color as well.
STEP EIGHT
Now let’s make it 3D! Using the Pick tool select your widget. Hit Control + C and then Control + V on the keyboard. This will create a copy and then paste the copy right over the original. Using the arrow keys bump the duplicate over to the left and then up a couple times. You should have the following:
STEP NINE
Select both widgets and then go to your Blend Docker. If you don’t see it, go to Window > Dockers > Blend. You can make changes to the settings if you’d like but I’ll just keep the defaults and click Apply. Your final result should look something like the following:
NOTE: Whatever border color you’re using is what the shadow color will be. So for example, I used black. If I used a dark gray it would look like:
You could also have some fun with it and end up with something like the following:
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