adobe illustrator extrude: remove quaders around objects

[dewid0D4D]

Hey guys as you can see, when i apply the 3D effect on the letters i get this weird looking quaders around the letter. It works fine on the letters "2021" but not the letters above. Does someone now how to remove the quaders or how to fix the problem? I would really appreciate if someone could help me

[Monika Gause]

The base artwork is probably too complex. The strokes add to that.

Also: gradients don't work like this with 3D effects.

I would suggest to make it very simple. Leave out the drops and the stroke. Just extrude the lettershapes. Then Object > Expand appearance. And then add styling: the strokes, the drops, the gradients.

[dewid0D4D · Accepted solution]

thanks for your help, i've found the mistake.

I had a drop shadow and another effect on the letters above that resulted in the quaders. So is just removed the effects by opening the appearance panel and deleting them. 

posting this in case someone else has the same problem