Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ON THE CD
Illustrator’s default graph styles aren’t
You’ll find all the files
exactly inspiring, but one popular way to
you need to complete create a sense of depth is to use Illustrator’s
this tutorial in the folder Extrude and Bevel functions. In this tutorial
marked Tutorial\Cityscape you’ll take this 3D concept a stage further
on this issue’s CD. by importing Illustrator paths into Cinema
TIME NEEDED
4D as splines and extruding them. Finally
you’ll add some realistic textures to
3.5 hours
construct a distinctive infographic that
INFO really stands out from the crowd – visual
Mark
Mayers has
stimulation without the yawn factor! As we
hope to show you, by using infographics in
2 Click on Sheet 1, which holds all the
raw data you will need to extract. Go to
File>SaveAs, select Text (Tab delimited)
worked in and save it to a convenient location. Click OK
the design
industry for
a creative way you can turn a jumble of
numbers into a visual treat. on the following pop-ups and close the
Excel file without saving. Illustrator cannot
4 Select the
chart and
then hit Shift+
over 18 years. He now import Excel files directly, so you’ve just Ctrl/Cmd+G to Ungroup it. The window that
works freelance from his saved the data as a text file. follows will inform you that the graph will be
studio in Cornwall and reduced to regular vector objects and will no
was recently awarded longer be editable as a graph object. This is
Designer of the Year by as expected, so just hit OK.
MetalFX Technology. Visit
www.markmayers.co.uk Tutorial and illustration by Mark Mayers
to find out more. www.markmayers.co.uk
June 2007 | 69
5 Now you can start refining the chart’s fonts and reduce
the point size a little, add dates underneath and enter
8 Lock all layers except for the bars, Ungroup all
and use the Direct Selection tool to alter the top
angles of some bars. Create some small rectangles
values at the top of the bars, using the Align palette to get and place them over a bar, select both and click on
even spacing. Add a legend to the left and delete the two the Subtract from shape area option in the
surplus rules using the Direct Selection tool as shown.
Now create two guides at the top and right of the chart.
Pathfinder palette. Now click the expand button.
Repeat this on some of the other bars.
11 Now you need to separate .ai files for each of
the seven bars. It’s important that you don’t
move their positions at this stage. We’ve supplied all
of the separate .ai files for the previous step as well
as this one to make things clearer.
CHOICE CHARTS
Illustrator has nine
different graphs presets:
Column, Stacked
Column, Bar, Stacked
Bar, Line, Area, Scatter,
Pie and Radar. Each of
these graphs is used to
present different kinds
of data. If you aren’t sure
which type you need,
7 Next use the Pen tool to
join the X and Y-axis
paths and create a closed
rectangular path on the layer
don’t worry, because you
can change graph types
at any time, even after
at the bottom of the stack. It’s
good practice to name your
10 Now you need to save each layer as a
separate .ai file by deleting the other layers
one at a time and going to File>SaveAs. Save as 13 Open Cinema 4D, go to File>Open and
navigate to Bar_1.ai. Add an Extrude NURB
you’ve entered data. layers. I’ve also filled the Illustrator 8 Legacy files because Cinema 4D has and drop Bar_1 into it. Name the NURB Extrude 1.
To do this, just go to paths with shades of grey and issues importing paths from later versions. Give Make sure the NURBS Object Properties are
Object>Graphs>Type. taken off the strokes to make them memorable names to save confusion later. checked as Hierarchical and set the NURB’s
everything easier to see. Do this for all layers except for the bars. Movement to 40. Save the file as Bar_1.c4d.
70 | June 2007
EXPANDING GRAPHS
You can Ungroup a graph
at any time, but be aware
that when you do you
will no longer be able to
make changes to it
through the Graph Data
and Graph Type dialog
boxes. It’s just like
expanding an object’s
appearance. It’s good
practice to save a copy of
MUTI-PASS RENDERS
Cinema 4D has an
extensive toolset when
it comes to Multi-Pass
rendering. You can create
extra Alpha Channels for
all your different objects
in a scene, and even
create separate
I added a 3D model of
a city, then did a Multi-
Pass render using
Object Buffers, which
created Alpha Channels
for trouble-free
postwork in Photoshop,
where the image was
also colour adjusted
and some atmosphere
Now locate your Bar_2.c4d file. Continue supplied on the CD. Next drag and drop on to
merging all of your Cinema 4D files into this a selection of your building extrudes (1-7).
one document, noting how they snap into Click on the texture icon in the Tags window
the exact same location as your original and roughly follow the settings shown. Load
Illustrator artwork. Now go to File>SaveAs the two other textures supplied and apply
and do a test render to see your results. them to other buildings.
June 2007 | 71