In the following tutorial you will learn to create a worms text effect in Adobe Illustrator. You can apply these techniques to various themes after working through this tutorial. Learn to create these creepy crawlers, made up of multiple segmented shapes, and colored highlight and shadow points.
Step 1
Create a 700px by 300px, RGB document. Turn on the Grid (View > Grid) and the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid). Next, you’ll need a grid every 1px. Go to Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid, enter 1 in the Gridline every box and 1 in the Subdivisions box.
You can also open the Info panel (Window > Info) for a live preview with the size and position of your shapes. Do not forget to replace the unit of measurement to pixels from Edit > Preferences > Unit > General. All these options will significantly increase your work speed.
Step 2
Pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 50px by 20px shape and fill it with the color: R=255, G=128, B=133. Continue with the same tool and create a second shape. Make it 20px wide and tall, then place it as shown in the second image. The Snap to Grid will ease your work.
Step 3
For the following step you will need a grid every 0.5px. Go to Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid, enter 0.5 in the Gridline every box. Pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 19px by 19px shape and place it as shown in the first image, then grab the Direct Selection Tool (A).
Focus on this fresh shape, select the top right anchor point and move it 0.5px down. NOw select the bottom right anchor point and move it 0.5px up. Reselect the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 18px by 18px shape and place it like in the second image. Now grab the Direct Selection Tool (A) again. Focus on this fresh shape, select the top right anchor point and move it 1px down. Now select the bottom, right anchor point and move it 1px up.
Again, pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 16px by 16px shape and place it as shown in the third image. Now grab the Direct Selection Tool (A). Focus on this fresh shape, select the top right anchor point and move it 0.5px down. Now select the bottom right anchor point and move it 0.5px up.
Once again, select the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 14px by 14px shape and place it as shown in the fourth image, then grab the Direct Selection Tool (A). Focus on this fresh shape, select the top right anchor point and move it 0.5px down. Now select the bottom right anchor point and move it 0.5px up.
Step 4
Now we’ll continue with using the Rectangle Tool (M). Create a 12px by 12px shape, place it as shown in the first image. Now grab the Direct Selection Tool (A). Focus on this fresh shape, select the top right anchor point and move it 0.5px down. Now select the bottom right anchor point and move it 05.px up.
Reselect the Rectangle Tool (M), create an 8px by 8px shape and place it like in the second image. Now grab again the Direct Selection Tool (A). Focus on this fresh shape, select the top right anchor point and move it 1px down. Now select the bottom right anchor point and move it 1px up. Again, pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 6px by 6px shape and place it as shown in the third image.
Now grab the Direct Selection Tool (A). Focus on this fresh shape, select the top right anchor point and move it 1px down. Now select the bottom right anchor point and move it 1px up. One last time, select the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 4px by 4px shape and place it as shown in the fourth image. Now grab the Direct Selection Tool (A). Focus on this fresh shape, select the top right anchor point and move it 1px down. Now select the bottom right anchor point and move it 1px up.
Step 5
Disable the Grid and the Snap to Grid. Here’s how your work should look so far. Go to the Layers panel, double-click on each of these shapes and name them from 1 to 10, as shown in the following image. It will ease your work in the following steps.
