Lets Get XCTD

Something i made after reading this topic on reddit:
reddit.com/r/AdobeIllustrator/comments/8srz1f/how_would_i_go_about_making_this_text_effect/

Original artwork looks like this:
https://i.imgur.com/9myZyJW.jpg

(theres also a musicvideo, so the original effect might be based on an animation and not so much an extrusion)

For the base effect i used 'ofn-path-inbetweener' and 'ofn-stroke-visible-paths'. You can get both plug-ins here:
sourceforge.net/projects/gimp-path-tools/files/scripts

The workflow goes likes this:
1. Type your text and convert to a path.

2. Duplicate the path and downsize, then move to get the desired extrusion effect.

3. Here comes the tricky part: the path-inbetweener plug-in interpolates the new paths from bottom to top - this is because it was originally written as an animation tool.

To get the correct z-order of the paths, make sure the smaller bottom path is selected.
When you call up the plug-in from the Paths right click menu, the top path will be automatically set as the 'End Path' and after you click OK, the steps are produced from bottom to top.

4. Go to 'Image → Stroke or Fill visible Paths'. This plug-in will stroke the visible (!) paths with a brush, taking the colour from a gradient, starting from the bottom, applying the colours found in the gradient from left to right.

Set up a hard brush to the strokewidth you want (i used 2px) and select a gradient in the Gradient Tool Options.

The plug-in doesnt accept reversed gradients, so either you have to make another custom gradient or edit a copy of the existing one by selecting all stops and applying the 'Flip Selection' option (from the rightclick menu).

I used the multiple layer output option for maximum editability, but it also works with a single layer.