Adobe Illustrator help

[CrackedButter]

Hello.

I'm trying to make some of my text look like it has been wrapped around a cylindrical object like in the image shown below.

I've tried various ways of achieving this and they all seem very hard and labourious, can anyone give me a helping hand, is there a simple shortcut I'm missing?

I've already tried various envelope masks which don't help, I've tried converting the text to shape and manipulating it by hand and I've looked into trying various effects as well.

Your help will be much appreciated.

 

[iMeowbot]

I think you may be on the right track.

Try typing out some plain old horizontal text, nice and big to see what's happening, and try Object->Envelope Distort->Make With Warp. For a starter, try Style as Arc (vertical), Bend about 30ish percent, horizontal distortion about 70%.

Does that much at least get you into the general direction of where you want to go?

 

[CrackedButter]

Interesting, I overlooked the fact that I could edit an envelopes shape outside the Warp Tool Dialog box. Okay, I think this can take me somewhere but I'm going to have the letters in their own envelopes so I can develop the curves much more carefully.

Thanks, I'll post back and maybe even with a picture.

 

[CrackedButter]

This is how far I have got. Ignore the 2 images on either side of the main image, they are reference material.

I think the "Thud!" text can do with a little more tweaking and it should be done. My only other issue now is with adding a realistic amount of skin tone and shading to the main character.

The reason why the center image is square is because I'm presenting that piece in a different way to the example on the left.

 

[iMeowbot]

Glad to see that you're past the frustrating part!

Off on a tangent: The first thing that came to mind with your sample image was this old poster. Sometimes I wonder if people who made stuff like that would love or hate the tools we have now.

 

[CrackedButter]

Glad to see that you're past the frustrating part!

Off on a tangent: The first thing that came to mind with your sample image was this old poster. Sometimes I wonder if people who made stuff like that would love or hate the tools we have now.

If only we could go back in time and teach them the CS suite to see what would happen!