Having trouble turning your Illustrator logos into 3D models? Watch this comprehensive tutorial and learn how to turn your vector logos into professional, billable 3D works of art.

Topics discussed:

• Determining which Illustrator vector paths you need to keep in order to create a well made 3D object.

• Organizing paths into layers, and how to move vector paths between layers.

• Why you would leave some paths grouped and some paths ungrouped.

• Cleaning up Clipping Masks, and cropping the shapes correctly with the Pathfinder tools.

• Saving the Illustrator file and importing it into ProAnimator.

• Creating and assigning Materials, and applying multiple materials to a single object in ProAnimator.

Click on the image above, or the link below to watch the video tutorial.

Click to watch the Illustrator Tutorial

Matt Silverman, Creative Director at Bonfire Labs, has a secret weapon. “Nobody seems to know about ProModeler,” he says. “Every time we bring in a new hire they’ve never heard about it and they’re always amazed at what it does.”

Matt typically uses Maya for his 3D work but uses ProModeler to create the title and logo models that go into Maya. “Anything fancy in Maya that’s a cool bevel becomes a hard modeling job. Anytime we hire a Maya modeling pro to do something custom it just never works out and we always end up going back to ProModeler. Holes in the geometry, kinks in the polys, stuff like that is typical when Maya tries to bevel things.”

Matt discovered Zaxwerks’ first product, the EPS Invigorator, when he was working with a different 3D program. “We got our first copy in a hand-made gift box and quickly began to rely on it for most of our motion graphics projects. After moving to Maya I was happy to see Zax turn Invigorator into the standalone app, ProModeler, so we could continue using it with Maya.”

Matt has used ProModeler in thousands of projects since then. Adobe, Apple, Symantec, Electronic Arts, and HBO are all clients who have hired Matt for his creative wizardry.

“We’re not the sort of 3D guys who want to spend oodles of time grinding through a modeling problem. We want to figure out how to get stuff done as absolutely fast as possible. There are a hundred other things I can find to waste my time on besides 3D modeling,” he laughs.

“So Matt,” we asked, “what’s the one thing that really keeps you using ProModeler?”

“The control,” Matt replies. “Pro Modeler’s feature set is streamlined and powerful, allowing us to focus on the details of our models without having to think about the technicalities of how to build them. The ability to control where the bevel is occurring is crucial. Most 3D applications bevel outside the profile, which tends to tighten the letter spacing. Of course this is not a good thing when you have a client’s logo in your hands. ProModeler allows us to quickly control where the bevel is formed, giving us the ability to maintain accurate letter spacing in logos and typography. We also love the tons of preset bevels and the ability to quickly try them out in a procedural, non-destructive UI.”

“The quality of the geometry and the control we get over everything from bevels to pair-kerning are unprecedented in any other app. It’s so fast and the quality’s so good why would you do it any other way?”

Check out Matt’s reel that showcases models created from ProModeler!