How might I be able to re-create this balloon 'A'?

[saraht774]

Hello there! Im somewhat new to illustrator and i've been following a bunch of tutorials but I wanted to be able to re-create some designs, one of them being the balloon 'A' from apple music's A-list pop.

what i have been trying to do to create this effect is by starting off with an A (arial rounded MT bold), and then I round the corners. Next I create an outline and change the colour from black to anything else. then I take the letter and apply the "extrude and bevel" effect, which works fine, but when I try to change the bevel to 'rounded' the shape gets completely distorted, like this:

is there anything I can do to fix this? can anyone tell me exactly why it is doing this? Ive tried using a huge artboard, with a huge shape, a medium artboard and shape, and also a very very small artboard and shape but nothing works. I'm sure with a few hours I could try blending and highlights and come up with something similar but I'm looking for maybe a more simple option that wont take me countless hours.

thanks for any help!

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

Most probably that example has been made using a 3D app, such as Blender, Cinema 4D or 3DS MAX

[c.pfaffenbichler]

You might get a better result if you simplify the Path (maybe manually), but Monika Gause is correct, the reflections and shading look a bit more sophisticated than Illustrator’s »Extrude & Bevel« would produce.

[ceyhun_akgun]

It may not be very simple, but it can be done with Photoshop. Pattern is covered with texture from Photoshop Layer Style effects. Bevel and Stain can help with this effect.

Photoshop 3D Glossy Text Effect