March, 2007
In this tutorial I'll show you how to create a billboard and 3D it to make it look realistic. Tutorial Includes project files.
Let's start with a white rectangle with light gray stroke.

I want to import a photo into the document by using the Place command.

I reduced the size of photo using the Scale Tool and then will apply Live Paint Grayscale to it.

Next I need to Expand the converted photo.

At this point I set in some type and readjust the leading.

For all of the text choose Create Outlines.

Once we have all of the text completed, we can add in Symbols which I am doing for this tutorial.

Select all of the artwork and group it. Put it on it's own layer. Create a rectangle for the stand then group the rectangle and the stand.

Now let's choose Extrude & Bevel.

Let's apply the settings below.

For the artwork select Free Distort. After applying, you may have to do some rotating and adjusting it and even go back into Free Distort again.

Here's our final project.

Download the original source files from this tutorial in Zip format Here
Copyright (c) 2007, Jacquelin Vanderwood, All Rights Reserved