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.
-
Tyler commented
This new 3d pop up box is horrible.
-
ابراهيم كلاوندي commented
I have a problem with the nery and that is that it does not respond, what is the solution?
-
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.
-
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...
-
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.
-
Sobirova Iqboloy commented
POWERFULL
-
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. -
ana c. bahia commented
Hello. I created an inflate shape, but when I click in "expand as wireframes" (see file atached), nothing happens.... What is goin on? Can someone help me?
-
Beatrix Berk commented
Being able to create 3D presets would be extremely helpful!
-
javaria asif commented
3d is very good effects
-
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!!!!
-
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.
-
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.
-
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!