Creating a 3D Banner

Here's a quick way to create a realistic banner using 3D effects. First, envision what the banner would look like if you were looking straight down at it. Easier said than done, we know. The good news is that you can just draw a path as you see here. Set the Fill for this path to None and change the stroke color to whatever color you'd like the banner to be. Next, choose Effects>3D>Extrude & Bevel. Adjust the Extrude setting in the resulting 3D Options dialog to give some depth to the banner, and move the rotate cube so the banner is facing you. Be sure to check the Preview button so that you can see the changes. That's it. Now you've got a shaded banner without going through all of the hassle of drawing each part manually.