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.

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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Tyler Pendzik commented
I apparently don't have enough RAM to do this. I'm trying to add a material to the border of the left file, it's a fill not a stoke...I have 96GB of RAM.... I am apparently using 26GB of memory. 70 Gb of RAM Should really be enough for almost anything I would think. Please let me know if there's a way I can use these tools if not I'll have to go back to my client and say "Adobe can't do it" once again
New idea from comment
This comment was upgraded into a new idea: Applying a material to an extruded object says it’s not enough RAM -
Hugo Miramontes commented
I'm sorry, but this is completely and totally unusable for what used to be fairly simple, although primitive in the old tool. I just want to rotate a flat plane in 3D and manipulate those paths. Instead, I get these scribbles all around the actual shape.
The tool works fast, but it does not produce any usable results.
http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/44732875(Edited by admin) -
Janelle Schneider commented
Seem to be unable to access color parameter of imported sbsars even though it is properly exposed in the ds graph. Is this a known bug? s there something else I should be checking/looking into?
Using Illustrator 29.7.1 64 bit. Thanks! -
Stéphane, a 3D and Materials effect is an effect, and behaves as other effect in Illustrator — you can combine and stack them in the Appearance panel, and you can save the customized appearances inside of the Graphic Styles panel.
Please try this and comment back if it works for you.
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Stéphane GRISOLLE commented
Bonjour, j'ai créé un effet 3d et matières dans illustrator. Je voudrais savoir comment je peux l'enregistrer pour qu'il apparaissent dans une bibliothèque ou autres afin de pouvoir utiliser cet effet après sur d'autres formes sans pour autant refaire les réglages. Merci
Hello, I created a 3D effect and materials in Illustrator. I would like to know how I can save it so that it appears in a library or other so that I can use this effect later on other shapes without having to redo the settings. Thank you.
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Ana Guzmán commented
al colocar un gráfico en un objeto 3D, es muy complicado ajustar su posición porque siempre se coloca en el centro y se mueve junto con el objeto
New idea from comment
This comment was upgraded into a new idea: El gráfico de un objeto 3D se mueve con el objeto -
Ben Morris commented
Ever since it was introduced, I haven't been able to access the new 3d & Materials (only the classic version). With any attempt I make to eg. inflate I get this error message: 'The operation cannot complete because of an unknown error [Clr?]'. I use Illustrator 29.6.1 on a Mac Mini M1.
New idea from comment
This comment was upgraded into a new idea: Using Inflate with 3D & Materials gives a [Clr?] error -
S_R gaming commented
NOT WORK WITH IN A ONE TIME WITH ALL SELECTION . I TRY TO GET SOLUTION BUT I CAN'T FIND HOW TO SOLVE IT ?
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Tyler commented
This new 3d pop up box is horrible.
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ابراهيم كلاوندي commented
I have a problem with the nery and that is that it does not respond, what is the solution?
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Gisbert Glomski commented
Die Änderung der Materialfarben für die 3D-Darstellung in Illustrator funktioniert nicht - insbesondere die Farbänderung ist nicht möglich. Hier muss mann immer umständlich neue Farben in Substance anlegen :/
New idea from comment
This comment was upgraded into a new idea: Allow to change the color of a 3D material without editing it in Substance -
S F commented
What would be useful is to be able to save the settings of the texture/colour created ie. I create a specific woodgrain and colour with various settings etc and I want to apply it to other objects but not as a compound object. Rather than having to recreate all the settings again for a different object, it would be good to save the presets as a new material swatch.
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Robb commented
I just want to know what is happening with the messed up preview. I get a correct preview when moving a slider but a FUBAR one when released.
New idea from comment
This comment was upgraded into a new idea: Object extruded in perspective with 3D and Materials renders with split non-matching tiles -
Piotr Warzyński commented
I wish I could set the opacity and bluriness of the casting shadow of the 3d object...
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Brian Powell commented
Hello,
I like all that you can do with the 3D, I just want to see with lighting that you can choose the distance of the light to the object, or the ability to change how wide the light shines on the object. I wanted to be able to add a light to shine a different color on a more focused area than as much as it does. Thank you. -
Andrew Newman commented
The way that Illustrator adds the bevels is weird.
Height = 50%. 50% of what? If I'm working in inches and I have a 10" x 10" object that I've extruded 1", I should know that I want the bevel to be 0.125", adding ⅛" to my 1" height. Being able to put in 0.125" as my bevel height would make more sense.
If I have an object that I want to extrude 1", then it is really important that I know it is 1". However, if I extrude the object and then apply a bevel, Illustrator begins to add thickness to my object. There's no way to know how thick the object has now become. Instead of growing the bevel off of the object, Illustrator should dig into the object. If I have a 10"x10" object that I've extruded 1" and I apply a slight bevel, I'd expect to see the outer edge tapered away slightly, but the object remains 10"x10" and 1" thick. If I add a more aggressive bevel, all the same. The object should remain 10"x10" and 1" thick with a more dramatic tapered edge. This would only be achieved if Illustrator were cutting away the extrusion edge, rather than adding more on top of it.(Edited by admin)New idea from comment
This comment was upgraded into a new idea: Allow to specify the bevel parameters for objects extruded with 3D & Materials Extrude & Bevel in absolute units instead of a relative value -
Andrew Newman commented
Add an option to draw a profile in Illustrator, and then convert that into a custom bevel profile in the 3D panel.
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Sobirova Iqboloy commented
POWERFULL
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Anna Withey commented
Second request would be to have more extrusion options, it's crazy that you can make a cylinder but no possible way to make cuts through. I have attached examples to where I made the type of structure I'd need in blender. In AI you can create the cylinder but no way to make holes through the structure. You can do this with an extruded rectangle but not cylindrical objects.
New idea from comment
This comment was upgraded into a new idea: Allow more modeling options for 3D extrusions -
Anna Withey commented
Would be great to have better material adjustment tools - the 'metallic' slider doesn't really do very much except make the colour dull, would love to make it super vibrant metallic finish. A lot of the materials in substance don't allow colour editing or more than one colour so this makes it really limited. Would love to achieve a bigger variety of basic finishes e.g. high gloss, matte, shiny metallic or matte.
Would also love to have more extrusion options, it's crazy that you can make a cylinder but no possible way to make cuts through. I dont want to have to move to blender for structures
New idea from comment
This comment was upgraded into a new idea: Bigger variety of basic finishes for 3D materials: high gloss, matte, shiny metallic, matte, etc.