how to create "perspective" in text? 1

[sundemon]

I looked in the FAQs and didn't see anything, so I ask what may be a fairly standard question to you more seasoned users;

Can you skew text in such a way to create a look of "perspective" or exaggerated/forced perspective? Sort of like wrapping the text on a flat plane, and then skewing the plane so the parts of the text nearer to the viewer are proportionally larger?

You know, your basic "Star Wars" credits...

If so, what steps are involved? I use Illustrator 9.

thanks,
sundemon

 

[askIllustrator]

There is a free transform tool, looks just like the closed selectors bounds but it can perspective skew as well if you hold I believe ctrl down while moving one of the corner control points. It might be alt (dont have AI in front of me) too so play around. BEHOLD! As Steve Jobs introduces us the latest in desk-lamp technology!

http://www.apple.com

 

[askIllustrator]

OK I played with it for a bit and it's a little deceiving. First grab the transform tool. Then, without holding down any modifiers, click and hold on one of the top corners. Now you have the option of holding down: crtl, ctrl+alt, ctrl+shift, and ctrl+alt+shift. These each give you different levels of control over the skew and symetry of the object. In your case you'll want to hold all 3, this will constrain the oposite control point (X or Y depending on which way you move your mouse) to mirror the position of the one you're controlling. BEHOLD! As Steve Jobs introduces us the latest in desk-lamp technology!

http://www.apple.com

 

[sundemon]

thanks for your helpful answer, jaquan, I ordinarily hang out in the javascript forum, and mostly use AI in a fairly limited web-related way. I notice that here in the AI forum, the level of discourse tends to be an exchange of advanced technical info among pros, with less newbie input than in the JS forum, so I appreciate you taking the time. I tried to give a star, but when I do it keeps crashing my browser, and I don't want to restart my system right now to see if that clears it up.
thanks again,
sundemon

 

[askIllustrator]

hehe, np BEHOLD! As Steve Jobs introduces us the latest in desk-lamp technology!

http://www.apple.com