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Question

3D functionality of Illustrator

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
September 6, 2021
3 replies
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This has been mentioned no doubt many times but the 3D functions are great ...if they worked. I am doing much larger scale work, but fairly simple stuff..(simple space based illustrations) I use the images cross platform and bring PSD's into Photoshop. It crashes all the time, and I get the beachball spinning constantly...I want a 3D function that is quick and easy versus using a program like C4D etc. Adobe needs to improve this. Are improvements for 3D/illustrator in the pipeline?

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Mylenium

Legend

Are improvements for 3D/illustrator in the pipeline?

Given that 3D features in AI have not been updated in what equates to cosmic eons, the answer likely is no.

Mylenium

B

Bobby Henderson

Community Expert

I don't expect 3D-based effects to improve a great deal in either Photoshop or Illustrator. There is so much that has to go into a credible 3D application that such a thing really needs to be its own stand-alone program. I wouldn't mind seeing Illustrator and InDesign improve placing 3D objects for flat 2D documents, but really a dedicated 3D application can export a 2D rendered image, even with an alpha channel, that accomplishes the same thing.

Going forward Adobe will have to, at some point, start including a real 3D modeling and animation package for Creative Cloud customers. IMHO the lite version of Cinema4D for After Effects and some of the other niche applications aren't really enough.

Mylenium

Legend

Going forward Adobe will have to, at some point, start including a real 3D modeling and animation package for Creative Cloud customers.

The real question is, though, how that helps Illustrator users. I've been doing "serious" 3D for 25 years, but if I put on my hat as an Illustrator user, I would have completely different requirements. That's the crux of it. What we're talking about is more along the lines of Corel/ Micrografx Designer where actual vector data can be extracted from 3D stuff, but that's a whole other level and in my not so humble opinion even they don't get it right. It only works for them because CAD programs are pretty clunky in the first place and users are conditioned to put up with all those quirks. But I digress... In any case, to really make this something I think it needs to be re-thought from the ground up and Adobe would need to seriously invest into polishing up AI, which is most definitely not going to happen, given its track record.

Mylenium

B

Bobby Henderson

Community Expert

My comment about Adobe needing to incorporate a real 3D modeling/animation package into Creative Cloud was more about the strategy of attracting and retaining CC customers. The needs of Illustrator users are only a portion of that. Creative Cloud is marketed somewhat as a one-stop solution to fill all the needs of creative workers. Plenty of us have to venture out of the Adobe tent of applications to use other programs that fill a specific need. 3D is one of those needs.

I'm aware Adobe acquired Substance and is now offering a variety of their applications as another separate subscription to the Creative Cloud applications. And it's not a complete package either. That situation will have users who need a real 3D solution looking at other alternatives, whether it's free (Blender) or a commercial application like a full version of Cinema4D, Maya, etc.

jane-e

Community Expert

Hi

I am a volunteer and do not work for Adobe, so I do not know future plans about 3D in Illustrator. If you did not see the announcement on the Photoshop forums, 3D is being removed there due to technical reasons with newer hardware.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/3d-faq.html

Blender 3D is one choice. It's excellent and it's free.

Adobe has also added the Substance apps with 3D.

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/3d-augmented-reality.html

You can make feature requests to the product team here:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/

~ Jane

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