3D Gear Tutorial

In this tutorial we will be virtually transmitting torque, that is if you will follow my guide in creating a gear with cogs.

1. Basic Shape:

You can use help of the guides to draw this gear. Turn the Rulers ON, press Ctrl/Command + R (OR View: Show Rulers) and drag out the guides from these rulers (one vertical and one horizontal) and use the intersection point of these guides as the center point of the gear. From the Tools pallet select Ellipse Tool, hold down the Alt/Option + Shift keys and click on the intersection point of the two guides and drag to draw a circle.

Select the Star Tool from the Tools pallet.

With this Star tool click on the intersection point of the guides and drag to draw a star. While dragging, without releasing the mouse key, press UP arrow key on your keyboard to increase the number of points of the star. You can use down arrow key to decrease the points, in case you would need it. You can also try holding down the Ctrl/Command key while dragging to adjust the radius of the star.

Now select the star and the circle both and open the Pathfinder window from Window menu (OR you can press Ctrl/Command + Shift + F9). Hold down the Alt/Option key and click on the Add to shape area icon in the Pathfinder window.

The output should look like this.

The inner edge of the gear is ready. Let’s make the outer edge now. Draw a circle from the same center (holding down the Alt/Option + Shift keys) as you can see on the image.

Select both shapes, hold down the Alt/Option key and click on the Intersect shape area.

You should get this as a result.

To make it look like a gear we need to make a hole in this shape. Let’s draw a small circle (from the same center point) in the middle of this shape again by holding down the Alt/Option + Shift keys. Select both shapes, hold down the Alt/Option key and in the Pathfinder window click on the 'Subtract from shape' icon.

Now fill it in with some color.

2. 3D Extrude:

Now you can see that the face of the gear is ready. Here comes the 3D part. Select the gear face that we have just created and from Effects menu choose 3D Extrude & bevel from the 3D sub menu.

A 3D extrude & Bevel Options window will open up. You can try click and drag on the cube in the circle and see how the gear looks like in different angles (Keep the Preview ON). You can press on the More Options button to expand the window to show the Surface options. In Surface options, select Plastic Shading from the drop down menu and adjust the light source on the sphere to adjust the light on the gear. Try as many options as you like till you get the desired output and then press the OK button.

In case you would like to change the settings of this 3D effect, you can open the Appearance window from Window menu (OR press Shift + F6) and double click on 3D Extrude & Bevel in the Appearance window.

If you did it right, it should look like this.

The 3D gear is now ready, only a few more parts to go until you have a virtual car... :-)