Illustrator Tutorial – Creating a building

Posted on by ajayrajnext

Simple steps to create a building using the powerful blend tool

In this tutorial we can see how to create a building in illustrator in just a few steps.

At the end of this tutorial you will get some ideas about

1. 3D Extrude & Bevel

2. Symbols

3. Blend Tool

Step 1:

Open a new document in illustrator. Decide the height of the building so that you can plan the no of floors accordingly.

Turn on the grid by going to (View>Show grid) or keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+”) in the document.

Let us consider the height of the building as 4 inch and it has eight floors. So height of each floor is 0.5 in. Let us make the windows of slightly smaller size than the floor. Select the rectangle tool by clicking ‘M’ and create a square (W=0.375 in ; H=0.375 in).

1-Create a building in illustrator

Step 2:

Creating Windows – Goto Object > Path > Split into Grid… Give the necessary dimensions to create a (3×3) 9 windows.

2-Create a building in illustrator

Select all the windows , Right click and group them so that it can be converted into a symbol.

Step 3:

Converting to Symbol – Drag the windows and drop into the symbols panel to create a new symbol.

3-Create a building in illustrator

Name the symbol and click ‘OK’ to save it.

4-Create a building in illustrator

Step 4:

Constructing the floor – Create a rectangle or a little tapered rectangle like the one I have created below depending on the shape of the building.The height is 0.5 inch.I have given grey color for the building. You can give any color of your choice.

5-Create a building in illustrator

Goto Effect > 3D > Extrude & Bevel . Give 38 pt in the extrude depth field. The 3D effect will create a cube with 6 sides. We have to map the Windows symbol we have created to the 2 sides which are visible

6-Create a building in illustrator

Mapping the Symbol – Click ‘Map Art’ and select the surface 1. Then select the Windows symbol we have created already from the drop down.

7-Create a building in illustrator

Follow the similar steps for the other surface (Surface 5)

8-Create a building in illustrator

Now you will get a building floor like this

9-Create a building in illustrator

Step 5:

We have planned for creating an 4 inch building. So turn on ruler by going to (Windows > Ruler > Show Ruler) or Keyboard shortcut (Ctrl + R) . Then select the building and by holding (ALT+SHIFT) key move the building till the top of the building touches the 4th inch.

10-Create a building in illustrator

Now select both the floors and goto Object > Blend > Make or keyboard shortcut (ALT+CTRL+B). Some floors will be created between the top and the bottom floor.This is the default blend mode.

11-Create a building in illustrator

We have to change the blend options.Select the blend tool keyboard shortcut “W” and select the ‘Specified Steps’  from the drop down and give the no of steps as ‘6’  since we have already two floors(Top and bottom). This will create six floors in between.

12-Create a building in illustrator

Step 6:

It’s time to finish the building. Lets create the lightning conductor. Create a triangle as shown below using the pen tool. Then Goto Effect > 3D > Extrude & Bevel and give 5 pt .

13-Create a building in illustrator

It will look like this.

14-Create a building in illustrator

Adding the final touch – the environments.

15-Create a building in illustrator

Here is another building created using the blend tool.

16-Create a building in illustrator

Conclusion

I hope you would have got some ideas about 3D Extrude & Bevel ,Symbols and most importantly the Blend Tool by the end of this tutorial.

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