Improved 3D effects and Adobe Substance materials
We have introduced new and improved '3D and Materials' effects in 26.0 this year. These effects have been fully rebuilt using modern rendering technology and apart from being much more stable than classic 3D effects, they also allow you to:
* Apply and edit 3D effects conveniently through a non-blocking panel with real time preview.
* Texture artwork using Adobe Substance 3D materials that are highly adjustable. Choose from built-in materials in the panel or upload your own.
* Light up artwork with environment and directional light along with shadows.
* Create smooth and curvy extrusions using the new Inflate option.
* Rotate artwork more easily using the new on-canvas controls.
* Once you've setup your 3D object, render it using Ray tracing with adjustable quality options.
There are more features we're actively working on bringing to these effects. Please share your feedback and suggestions from your experience of using these new effects.
AdminAkshaya Saxena
(Admin, Adobe Illustrator)
shared this idea
There are now several separate requests made, based on the feedback in this thread:
1. Regarding adjustable color and opacity for 3D shadows:
https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/47054086
2. Regarding presets for each tab in 3D and Materials panels: Object, Materials, Lighting:
http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/47350001
All those who commented on the topic until October 16, 2023, are already added as voters there. If this is something you want to have for 3D and Materials in Illustrator — please upvote it. If possible — create new requests and bug reports about 3D, rather than commenting here inside. This will help the team to better prioritize efforts on making the feature better. As always — thanks for the feedback! It helps.
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Beatrix Berk commented
Being able to create 3D presets would be extremely helpful!
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javaria asif
commented
3d is very good effects
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J A Verboon commented
Converting 3D text to a wireframe often doesn’t show the curves of fonts correctly. During the process, these curves often turn into straight lines or rough shapes, losing the original look of the font or the 3D preview.
New idea from comment
This comment was upgraded into a new idea: Wireframe Conversion of 3D objects distorts the paths, straightens curves -
Anonymous commented
I cannot save my "3D / Materials" as a preset. So when I want to apply to multiple objects in different documents, I have to re-enter all my settings.
Please add presets!!!!
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Jan Vork
commented
I would like to see more vector style 3d-effects: long shadows, isometry, graphical projections, solid shadows, all things we can't do with 3d-software.
All the pixel / 3d rendering / material effects are better done in specialized software, such as Cinema4D or Substance. Ai is the goto vector drawing program, so please keep it vectorish in the first place. (btw, I loved Adobe Dimensions [with an S, hard to find any information on that thing] - bring that back within Illustrator)To bring a complete 3d-rendering system in Ai is a dead end. See how even Photoshop failed with that.
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Susana Smith
commented
There's not enough sbr. options to add and not obvious how to purchase more. I accidentally bought 3D material on Adobe Stock that wasn't compatible. Why not integrate materials to adobe stock.
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Your decal got placed right in the middle of the donut, it seems :)
Drag it away from the middle a bit so that it goes on the sides! -
SmartKh3 Axiata commented
Dear Adobe Team,
Symbol material mapping is not show up in Adobe Illustrator 29.0.1
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WALTER SATTAZAHN commented
I would like to see a simple button that is in 3D and Materials that I can press to remove the 3D effect.
Going to Window > Appearance is fine but its an extra step. It would be quicker and easier to just have a button in the 3D and Materials panel.
New idea from comment
This comment was upgraded into a new idea: Allow to remove a 3D effect directly from 3D and Materials panel -
Sebastián Viera commented
es muy buna la aplicion de d3
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Simon
commented
Iam having truble with this invisible geometry. It just dont work for cross object. Either Iam doing something wrong or I dont know.
New idea from comment
This comment was upgraded into a new idea: Struggling with Invisible Geometry when mapping a 3D object -
Tim
commented
Why do shadows overlap if applied to multiple shapes at the same time? shadows are subtractive and so applying the shadows individually to each shape makes no sense as you end up with a darker patch where the two objects' shadows overlap, which is not how shadows work. There should be an option to toggle to apply shadows as one unified "shape" or effect so that this is not an issue.
New idea from comment
This comment was upgraded into a new idea: Make an option for shadows from separate 3D objects to be unified to avoid overlapping darkness -
Giulia De Pompa commented
SI blocca, non mi fa selezionare tasti una volta che premo "Gonfia", i pannelli giù rimangono bloccati e non mi fa modificare i valori.
New idea from comment
This comment was upgraded into a new idea: Problemi con "Inflate", il pannello si blocca, i controlli sono disabilitati -
Varun commented
Why is the preview for lighting missing? And why is the render so slow? Also why is there no undo option to take you back to the previous rotation position??!!!! This is Illustrator 2025! Horrible.
New idea from comment
This comment was upgraded into a new idea: Lighting preview is missing in 3D and Materials panel in Ai 2025, Undo does not work for 3D rotation, performance is slow -
jana zapak commented
This 3D in Illustrator is just a fantasy Kiddish tool, where you cant integrate into any 3D softwares professionaly,
the main reason is all the color totally washed out or totally behaving differently while exporting to GLTF or USDZ..We have tried all the RGB / CMYK color profiles and all color spaces, its totally unusable and couldnt get the colors, so with this we cant use for for professional purposes...
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Kiid Tee commented
I want to be able to use my 3D and materials, I can't edit or do anything that is 3D
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Nadav Meiden commented
What is missing from the 3-D effect in Illustrator (bevel and extrude), is finer control of the shadows. How soft they are, what service they are, a shadow cast on control, etc..
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Huberty
commented
Hi there,
Since I downloaded 3D materials in the Adobe substance online application, and added them to illustrator. The application crashes. I was able to reach the file (Illustrator Application > Show Package Contents > Contents > Resources > Material Resources > Default_Substance_Materials.) But when I delete them, the textures no longer load, impossible to rebot, other versions, uninstall-reinstall. It always appears like that, I don't know what to do anymore. Impossible to reuse the materials. If you have a solution, I'm interested. Thank for reading :)New idea from comment
This comment was upgraded into a new idea: Illustrator crashes after adding 3D Materials from Adobe Substance. Deleting default materials leads to problems -
Andrzej Misiura commented
Unwanted black outline around object. Cannot remove.
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Ben Morris
commented
In the last two updates I haven't been able to use 3D effects at all. 'The operation cannot complete because of an unknown error [Clr?]' is the error message I get. And when I close that error message I get another: 'An error occurred while processing the appearance of an object.'
Update: I downloaded the update (I'm now using 28.7) and I discovered that 3D Classic works fine, but the new version still won't work for me. Anyone any clues?
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