In Keynote 09, can I take an item that I place in a slide and add 3D elements to it as you can in Powerpoint? I am looking to take shapes, give them a beveled look and some depth, and then twist them on their axis.
Not directly. You can give illusion of 3D, sometimes called 2.5D with shading overlays, highlights and adjusting shape to account for perspective. Lots of other drawing apps also do this sort of thing more directly (some shareware) and you can place such artwork in Keynote if that's any help.
From another thread:
To try out drawing tools (I only use other apps to draw and insert the linework into keynote) I made a cylinder or two. You can examine to get an idea from
download file
Blender is an Open Source 3D modeller, renderer, compostior and more. Large community and forums. The learning curve will be significant as for any 3D software, but your needs are humble so you should get there okay. If you have access to Adobe Software, I occasional have done that sort of thing in Illustrator but not good for much beyond bevelling a primitive (basic 3 dimensional shape) or two.
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Adding 3D elements to images/shapes
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