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Inspiring
February 23, 2022
Question

Numeric rotation of single axis in classic 3D without affecting other axes

  • February 23, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 523 views

I want to create an extruded 3D cylinder with text mapped to the extruded surface. Think of a printer roller with text wrapped around the roller that you can read line by line when it rotates (see attached). I want to do this in a controlled way  i.e. evrey 5 degrees so the rotation is smooth and use the images for an animation.

The problem is when I try to rotate the cylinder on the Z axis by entering a new number, the values of  the X and Y axes also change and this randomly changes the angle of view.   I know that I can manually rotate a single  axis by dragging edges of the cube rotation tool in the panel but there is no exact control over rotation angle.  There doesn't seem to be a way of locking two axes and numerically rotating only one axis. Does anyome have a solution?

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2 replies

Anna Lander
Inspiring
February 23, 2022

The problem here is that the rotation around the cylinder's ax is no one around the system XYZ. So to rotate it this way you have to change the values in all three axes. 

What kind of animation do you plan? If it must be, for example, After Effects, you can better put the text into composition and apply the CC Cylinder effect. It allows setting radius, direction, lighting, rotation, etc. without creating lots of images.

tromboniator
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 23, 2022

May I ask what version of Adobe Illustrator you are using? I cannot replicate this behavior — only the values I enter are changed. Have you tried restarting Illustrator? Your computer? Resetting preferences?

 

Peter