How to apply 3d and Materials to a pattern on illustrator

[Andrea22016396zzte]

I have created my pattern and I have successfully applied a 3D texture to it with the new tool 3D and materials.

However, I can't seem to save it in order to use it in my swatches, is there a way to do this? or am I being too ambitious with this new feature?

[Laura Coyle.]

Try expanding it first, Object > Expand Appearance. This creates an image - ungroup it, then drag the image to the swatches panel to create a fill swatch. So basically you are creating a pattern from the image, rather than from the live effect object. I also just tried dragging the 3D object into the swatches panel, and it worked for me, but it seemed to convert it into an image first - I would not expect a live 3d effect to be able to live inside of a fill swatch. The image can also be used with Object > Pattern Make. Getting it to repeat with the type of lattice pattern you created is probably the main challenge. Hope that helps!

[Laura Coyle.]

I was playing a bit more an attached a screenshot. I created a rectangle, applied a 3D effect then selected the rectangle and chose Object > Pattern Make. It worked inside Pattern mode - you can adjust the repeat, but the 3D effect is not editable inside pattern mode and then when you save the pattern, the 3D object gets expanded. So back to the artboard, you can drag the fill swatch from the swatches and see the single unit of the pattern swatch - those are all images. It's really pretty cool 😉 

[Andrea22016396zzte]

Thank you Laura,

In the end i ended up expanding it and it worked because i just needed a small sample of it. 

Unfortunately because i am not using a front perspective but the one of my screenshot, when is time to repeat itself it doesnt match with itself. 

However, it still worked and its a cool new feture to keep learning 🙂

Thanks again!