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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Paul, not for the modern 3D, only for the classic one.
I encourage you to create a separate request for this. -
Paul Cummins commented
Didn't there used to be a no shadows, no lighting no shading option?
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Maria Matvienko commented
Thank you so much for help!
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Maria, there are two options to workaround this.
1. With the extruded object selected, in 3D and Materials panel, click the down arrow button in the top right corner to open Render Settings. Enable 'Render as vector' option and hit Render. This, however, will bake the shading into triangular mesh objects, which you can’t edit with Ai’s tools. The lines though will be available.
2. Instead of modern 3D use the Classic 3D, accessible through Effect > 3d and Materials > 3D (Classic) menu. These generate vector art always, but do not support modern materials and freely applied decals (but support surface mapping). -
Hi! Can someone help me? I wanted to create a coin using 3d effect and expand it to vector to continue working on it. But, when I use function "Expand Appearance" it created an image ;( How can I fix this?
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@Duy Lê Khánh, at the moment Illustrator does not allow to change initial values for the default material.
What you can do is to tweak them the way you want and then save the effect altogether as a graphic style using Graphic Styles panel.
This also saves the type of 3D operation, depth, rotation, perspective, and all other values... but also the material. There is no way to separate them for now to keep as partial presets. -
Duy Lê Khánh commented
How to save the Material Roughness and metallic by default?
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Simone Iacoacci commented
Il Pannello di Illuminazione 3d non funziona, è spento!
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Aleksander Lenart commented
Please reintroduce the ability to apply separate colour/material to the extrusion part of a shape. There are multiple examples where such a feature would immensely help recreating real world objects. For example: laser cut plywood (burned edges), any cut object with painted surface etc. etc. etc.
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Anonymous commented
My text disappears when I apply any 3d effect...just becomes a bounding box with the circle thing in the middle. What's the deal?
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Holly Goodwin commented
Thank you Egor that was very helpful :)
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Holly, you can view an unexpanded 3D object as a wireframe, live.
Select an object, open the 3D and Materials panel, hit the down arrow in the top right corner of it to open Render Settings, enable Wireframe and hit Render button below to apply settings. It’s not ideal, but it works. Please comment back if it helps. -
you cannot view a live 3D object as wireframes from what i can see, like older versions. you can only look at the result once expanded, which is no good for adjusting angles on revolve etc. I use this feature for fake blueprints, not being able to see the rotation as a wireframe, while using revolve etc., makes the function virtually useless for me, make wireframe a property you can apply to a live 3D shape.
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Studio G commented
Now I know why all the online tutorials for creating a 3D world globe avoid the new 3D tools and jump straight into Classic. There is no way to control the mapping style of a graphic onto a sphere. Your world map does not follow normal cylindrical or spherical mapping and gets pinched oddly at the ends. Please fix this!
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Zivi Edri commented
The gold material doesn't look like gold. or metal. It"s not glossy and not shine...
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Kyle Robinson commented
Huge fan of your 3D now! The workflow with this is gonna become a part of my every day. Thanks!
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Jay Borrelli commented
When I try to use any of the 3D and Materials tools in Illustrator I continue to receive the following errors back-to-back. I've uninstalled illustrator and reinstalled but I'm still running into the same issue. Not sure what to do
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Brandy Gibson commented
It would be a great feature to be able to copy the 3D settings to other objects.
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초록 commented
What is wrong with my shape?? I can't make this shape and background into 3d - inflate.. I made the shape by photoshop path tool and converted into smart object, and brought to illustrator.
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Aline Menzel commented
What is happening with 3D rendering?? There are pixels that cannot be seen and it looks horrible!
