Creating Realistic Looking Vase with Illustrator

In this tutorial, I will show you step by step on how to create realistic looking Vase with Illustrator in very fast way. And you also can apply this technique to create many 3D staff. I may spend less than 5 minute to create this vase, you also can do the same after read this tutorial. Let get start:

Download Source File

1-Creating Vase Shape

First, we need to create a shape of the vase (You can try any shape you prefer after this tutorial). Follow the following steps to create shape:

1-Set Stroke Color to None

2-Set Fill Color to what color you like (I prefer light green)

3-Use Pen Tool to draw the shape as you see in the following image:

2-Adding 3D Effect

Add 3D effect to create a full vase.

1-Select the Shape you draw

2-Go to Effect menu > 3D > Revolve, then 3D Revolve Option will open up. (Check on Preview to what real effect is).

(You can try adjusting any other option if you like) but now I prefer keep the same setting.

3-Press Ok

3-Adding Map Art to the Vase

To make Vase look more realistic with some arts on it, in this tutorial I add a flower image on the Vase through Map Art option. To do so, you need:

1-Go to Window menu > check on Appearance (Shift + F6) (if Appearance panel not yet opened)

2-Select the Vase

3-Double click on 3D Revolve in Appearance panel

4-Click on Map Art button (Do not forget to check on Preview to see what happen when adjusting).

5-Select the Image from Symbol drop down box (This flower image is already include in program, you can add any other image you like)

6-Then, press Ok button

4-Adding Shadow to the Vase

The shadow I want create here is not the overall shadow on the vase, it just a small shadow at bottom of the vase. So we can not apply drop shadow effect directly to vase. What we want is:

1-Use Ellipse Tool to draw an ellipse. You can see on the image.