Converting 2D to 3D

You would think it was simple to extrude a 2D black & white image into 3D space.  I tried a number of avenues.  They all pretty much have two large steps: 1) Provide a vector file like SVG or DXF and 2) Extrude in a 3D. I tried out a number of 3D modeling...

Using gradients in Illustrator

It appears that using a gradient in Illustrator is not very straightforward.  More specifically, trying to activate the Gradient Annotator with the mouse simply did not work for text.  Eventually, I found some instructions – the key steps to remember are as...