: Why does Illustrator make the colors darker with 3D effects? I am trying to adjust colors after I apply a 3D effect (say extrude & bevel) in Adobe Illustrator (I tried in CS2 and CS5)

@Gretchen549

Make sure to click on the whitest spot of the shaded sphere to set your start color.

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@Rivera951

Just click on OK when you are at 3D Extrude & Bevel Options. Then select the object you changed. Go to Object -> Expand Appeareance. Now you can select with Direct Selection Tool (A) the only layer you want in white. Now you can change the off white color to 100% white.

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@Shakeerah625

I've had the same problem, along with Scott's answer, changing stroke colour made the most significant difference.

Changing the fill, stroke and custom colour (in 3D Extrude and Bevel Options) of the object to the same colour; will remove all shading, and make any changes to the lighting options ineffectual.

Hope this helps anyone with the same problem.

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@Alves566

I don't know if you're still dealing with this, but in case you are anyone else could use the help.

I've found adjusting where the light is hitting the object to be of a big help. In the additional options panel (in the above picture) there is a graphic toward the lower left. The large ball represents your object and the white dot represents the light. Click-drag that dot, the highlight center, to your desired location. There is another dot, black by default, that represents your shadows. Adjusting these in multiple combinations as well as ambient light will allow you to brighten, darken, smooth out, and add contrast to your lighting situation.

Hope it helps. I've actually run into another problem where the first character of my text won't display gradient color when the rest of the text will.

Anywho; good luck!

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@Murray976

Change the shading color to something lighter than Black (the default)

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@Vandalay110

You might be working in CMYK mode or have transferred the object from an RGB file to CMYK.

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@Ravi4787994

Go to Effects >> 3D Extrude & Bevel click on More Options(you can find below Map Art) Reduce Light Intensity value, make Blend Steps 1 or 2 (adjust the value).

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