Illustrator Looking to make a 3D diagram... for science!

[sancor]

Hi all,

I'm looking to make a 3D diagram of a particle that I'm making in my lab. Basically, I'm looking to make a spherical model that has cylindrical protrusions from the surface. Something vaguely like this:



I'll want to be able to have control over the heights/lengths of the cylindrical protrusions as they'll be representative of different features on my particle. I might also be interested in having a cut out from the sphere to show internal details. Kind of like this:



I'm hoping someone might have an idea of how to do this leveraging Illustrator's 3D capabilities to perhaps make the initial sphere, then somehow incorporating the protrusions. But, I would also like to know if people think this would be too challenging to do on Illustrator.

Cheers,
S

 

[SPWA]

I would say it will take a bit of work, & a good knowledge of the 3D in Illustrator, but it should be possible.

I think being able to alter the height/length etc of the bolts might be pushing it a bit.

3D modeling in Illustrator - This tutorial is a good start to understanding how it works.

 

[Tom Mann]

Take a look at Google Sketch-up -- it may be all you need.

Or, if you want something with more capabilities, and if your university has a site license, ProE, is a very expensive, but very good, 3D drawing / design program. Both can do 3D modeling a lot easier than Adobe Illustrator.

Tom M

 

[sancor]

Thanks Tom,

I'm getting acquainted with SketchUp now, and I think it will serve my purposes really nicely.

 

[Tom Mann]

Great! Glad to have helped. If you can post the results, we would love to see them.

Tom

PS - BTW, after working on a rendering in a program like Sketch-up, a quick final pass through PS often can add some realism to what you just constructed.