Illustrator

Map artwork to a 3D object

Every 3D object is composed of multiple surfaces. For example, an extruded square becomes a cube that is made of six surfaces: the front and back faces, and the four side faces. You can map 2D artwork to each surface on a 3D object. For example, you might want to map a label or text onto a bottle-shaped object or simply add different textures to each side of an object.

3D object with artwork mapped to each side

A.
Symbol artwork

B.
Symbol artwork

C.
A and B mapped to 3D object

You can only map 2D artwork that’s stored in the Symbols panel to a 3D object. Symbols can be any Illustrator art object, including paths, compound paths, text, raster images, mesh objects, and groups of objects.

When mapping 3D objects, consider the following:

  • Because the Map Art feature uses symbols for mapping, you can edit a symbol instance and then automatically update all surfaces that are mapped with it.

  • You can interact with the symbol in the Map Art dialog box with normal bounding box controls to move, scale, or rotate the object.

  • The 3D effect remembers each mapped surface on an object as a number. If you edit the 3D object or apply the same effect to a new object, there may be fewer or more sides than the original. If there are fewer surfaces than the number of surfaces defined for the original mapping, the extra artwork will be ignored.

  • Because a symbol’s position is relative to the center of an object surface, if the geometry of the surface changes, then the symbol will be remapped relative to the new center of the object.

  • You can map artwork to objects that use the Extrude & Bevel or Revolve effect, but you can’t map artwork to objects that only use the Rotate effect.

  1. Select the 3D object.
  2. In the Appearance panel, double-click the Extrude & Bevel or Revolve effect.
  3. Click Map Art.
  4. Choose the artwork to map to the selected surface from the Symbol pop‑up menu.
  5. To select which object surface you want to map, click the first , previous , next , and last  Surface arrow buttons, or enter a surface number in the text box.

    A light gray color marks surfaces that are currently visible. A dark gray color marks surfaces that are hidden by the object’s current position. When a surface is selected in the dialog box, the selected surface is outlined in red in the document window.

  6. Do any of the following:

    • To move the symbol, position the pointer inside the bounding box and drag; to scale, drag a side or corner handle; to rotate, drag outside and near a bounding box handle.

    • To make the mapped artwork fit to the boundaries of the selected surface, click Scale To Fit.

    • To remove artwork from a single surface, select the surface using the Surface options, and then either choose None from the Symbol menu or click Clear.

    • To remove all maps from all of the 3D object’s surfaces, click Clear All.

    • To shade and apply the object’s lighting to the mapped artwork, select Shade Artwork.

    • To show only the artwork map, not the geometry of a 3D object, select Invisible Geometry. This is useful when you want to use the 3D mapping feature as a three-dimensional warping tool. For example, you could use this option to map text to the side of an extruded wavy line, so that the text appears warped as if on a flag.

    • To preview the effect, select Preview.

  7. Click OK in the Map Artwork dialog box.