There are multiple ways to draw text that appears to orbit a sphere in Illustrator (and similar programs), including:
- Text attached to an ellipse using the Skew alignment option
- Envelopes
- 3D Effect surface mapping
It's an effect quite often rendered in 2D vector drawing programs. An important question, though, is whether you require the individual characters to also be extruded. That significantly complicates things. For example, Illustrator's 3D Effect cannot position objects at different orientations in the same coordinate system. Workarounds can be devised for that, too, but again, it complicates things.
That's why it's always best with such questions to provide a sketch of exactly what you have in mind. The Universal Studios logo does extrude the characters. So yes, you can render that kind of thing in Illustrator, but not by any single-click instant-gratification pre-built effect.
JET
