3D functionality of Illustrator

 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

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.

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