AI-Generated Vectors and 3D Views in Adobe Illustrator

These features are not replacements for Illustrator's traditional drawing and design tools. They are additions to the workflow that solve specific problems, particularly when you need to produce a graphic quickly or generate a view of an object from an angle you do not have. Understanding what they actually do and where they produce reliable results is what lets you use them effectively in a professional context.

Setting Up for Vector Generation

Generate vectors works within an Illustrator artboard like any other object creation tool. You draw a rectangle to define the area where the generated graphic will appear, and then use the generate vectors option from the contextual task bar that appears near your selection. This gives you access to a description field where you enter your text prompt, options for content type and visual detail, and a settings panel with additional controls, including color range and theme.

Having a clear, specific prompt prepared before you start is more efficient than writing one from scratch in the interface. If you are generating graphics for a project, preparing several prompt variations in a text document beforehand lets you move quickly through different options without stopping to think through the language each time. For example, prompts for the same subject at different levels of stylization, in different contexts, or with different levels of detail will produce meaningfully different outputs and give you a range to evaluate.

The prompt itself should describe the subject, the style, the level of detail, and any specific visual qualities you want. More specific prompts generally produce more useful and more consistent results than vague ones. A prompt that describes a specific type of object with specific material qualities and a specific visual character will produce output that is closer to what you are looking for than a general description that leaves most of the interpretation to the tool.

Understanding the Content Type Options

The content type setting is one of the most important choices in the generate vectors workflow, and it significantly changes the output even when the prompt stays the same. The three options are subject, scene, and icon, and each produces a fundamentally different kind of graphic.

Subject generates a single object or figure without a background. It is the most commonly useful option for motion graphics work, where you typically want graphics that can be placed and layered independently rather than images with integrated backgrounds. The generated subject appears without a background, though, as with raster-based AI generation, there can sometimes be unexpected fill areas within the graphic that need to be removed.

Scene generates a complete environment with background elements integrated into the composition. This is less commonly useful for animation work, where elements usually need to be on separate layers, but it can be useful for generating reference images or for specific types of background graphics where a fully integrated look is what you need.

Icon generates simplified, low-detail graphics in a flat visual style. The output is generally more simplified than subject output from the same prompt, and it tends toward a cleaner, more graphic quality. For icon design, app graphics, or simplified motion graphics elements, this mode produces output that is more immediately usable without extensive modification.

Comparing Adobe Firefly With Partner Model Options

Generate vectors uses Adobe's Firefly AI system by default, and Firefly is a good starting point for most generation tasks. If you have a premium Creative Cloud subscription, you also have access to partner models from third-party AI companies. These partner models use premium credits rather than standard generation credits, meaning they cost more to run, but they produce distinctly different outputs that can be significantly more useful for specific types of graphics.

The practical difference between Firefly and partner models is both stylistic and structural. Firefly's vector output tends toward certain visual conventions. Partner models may produce different levels of detail, different approaches to shading and form, or different interpretations of the same prompt. For a prompt describing a detailed antique object, for example, Firefly might produce something clean and moderately detailed, while a partner model might produce something considerably more detailed, more textured, or more stylized in a specific visual direction.

The tradeoff is that Firefly gives you three variations per generation, while partner models typically give you one. At significantly higher credit cost per generation, this matters if you are exploring a range of options before committing to a direction. For a final production graphic where you know what you want and are generating a specific, refined version, the single output from a partner model may be entirely reasonable. For early exploration, the three-variation output from Firefly is more efficient.

Editing Generated Vector Artwork

One of the most significant advantages of generating vector content in Illustrator rather than raster content in another tool is that the output is immediately editable. Generated graphics appear as grouped vector objects, and you can ungroup them to access and modify individual elements. This is straightforward in concept but involves some important practical considerations.

Generated vector graphics from Firefly and partner models are typically structured as deeply nested groups. Ungrouping once breaks the outermost group, but the internal structure may require additional ungrouping steps to reach individual paths and shapes. You can enter the group hierarchy by double-clicking to go deeper into nested groups without fully ungrouping everything, which is useful when you want to modify a specific element while leaving the rest of the graphic intact.

Once you identify the element you want to modify, you can change its fill color, stroke, or size using standard Illustrator controls. Removing an unwanted fill area, for example, is a matter of selecting that element and setting its fill to none. Adjusting colors across the graphic can be done either element by element or using global color editing tools. Because the content is vector, all of these operations preserve the scalability of the artwork.

Ungrouping a generated graphic breaks its connection to the generative AI system, meaning you can no longer use the generate similar or regenerate functions for that specific object after ungrouping. This is a practical consideration worth keeping in mind: do the editing work you need to do, but if you want to keep the option to regenerate variations, preserve the grouped version in your document before making destructive modifications.

Practical Applications for Motion Graphics and Animation

For motion graphics work specifically, the generate vectors feature is most useful when you need to produce specific graphic elements quickly: icons, symbols, decorative objects, or character props that would take time to draw manually but are not so complex that they require the precision of fully hand-crafted vector work. A single distinctive object that appears briefly in an animation, a series of related icons for an explainer piece, or a stylized graphic element that needs to exist at multiple sizes, these are situations where vector generation can save meaningful production time.

The scalability of vector output matters here. A graphic generated at a relatively small size in Illustrator can be scaled up to full screen without any quality loss, which is essential in motion graphics work where you often need to zoom into or enlarge elements as part of the animation. Raster images that look fine at normal size become visibly pixelated when enlarged, but vector graphics maintain their quality at any scale.

• Use subject mode when you need isolated graphic elements that will be layered with other content in your animation or composition.
• Use icon mode when you need clean, simplified graphics at multiple sizes, such as for UI elements, informational icons, or minimalist design assets.
• After generating, ungroup and adjust the graphic to fix any color or structural issues before bringing it into your motion project, but preserve the grouped original if you might need to regenerate variations.

Using Turntable to Create Rotated Views of Flat Vector Artwork

Turntable is a distinct feature, currently available in the Illustrator beta, that approaches a different production problem. When you have a flat, front-facing vector graphic and you need a version of it from a different angle, whether a three-quarter view, a slightly tilted perspective, or a rotated orientation, the standard options are to redraw the graphic from the new angle, use 3D software to create a three-dimensional model and render from a different perspective, or settle for the angle you have. Turntable offers a fourth option: use AI to generate the rotated view based on the existing flat artwork.

Applying Turntable to a flat vector graphic produces a rotated interactive version of the object that you can tilt and rotate within defined limits. The interaction is not unlimited: there is a maximum degree of rotation in each direction. But within those limits, you can find a view that works for your project and use it as the basis for a new version of the graphic. The quality of the Turntable output depends significantly on how well the AI can interpret the original graphic, its visual complexity, and how clearly recognizable the subject is from the flat view.

For clearly recognizable objects, a rocket ship, for example, or a structured logo mark, Turntable tends to produce results that are quite good. The AI has enough information about what the object is to make reasonable inferences about how it would look from different angles. For more ambiguous or abstract graphics, the results can be less convincing or, in some cases, unusable. This is not a limitation specific to this feature but a characteristic of AI interpretation tasks in general: the clearer the input, the more reliable the output.

Working With Turntable Output in Production

Once you have found a rotation that works for your project using Turntable, you can lock that view and then continue working with the graphic in Illustrator. Like generated vector content, the Turntable output exists as a group that can be ungrouped to break the connection to the AI system. After ungrouping, you have a flat vector representation of the rotated view that can be edited, colored, and used in your production exactly like any other Illustrator graphic.

The practical value of this in a motion graphics context is for situations where you have existing artwork at one angle and need it at another without the time investment of a full redraw or a 3D pipeline. For small or medium-sized projects where time is limited and the difference between a front-facing graphic and a slightly rotated version is enough to make the animation feel more dynamic, Turntable can bridge that gap effectively.

Keep in mind that the Turntable feature is in beta, which means its behavior and quality may change as the feature develops. Using beta features in production work carries the usual caveats: the results are not as predictable as established tools, and the feature itself may behave differently across different types of content than you expect. Testing on a range of graphics before relying on it for a specific production task is a reasonable approach.

Why Vector-Based AI Generation Matters for Motion and Video Work

The broader significance of having AI generation capabilities built into a vector environment is that it removes a common friction point in motion graphics production. Previously, if you wanted to use AI-generated imagery in an animation, you were working with raster images that required careful handling to avoid quality issues at scale. You had to manage the resolution of generated content against the resolution demands of your animation, and you had to accept that the content was not natively editable in the vector tools most motion graphics professionals use for graphic creation.

Generate vectors changes this. The graphic that comes out of the tool is a vector object that lives in the same environment as everything else you are building in Illustrator. You can edit it with the same tools, scale it with the same freedom, and export it with the same workflow. It is not a separate raster asset that needs to be managed as an import. It is part of your Illustrator document, which is a meaningful difference in how it fits into a production pipeline.

As these features mature and as more AI capabilities are built into the design tools that motion artists and video producers use every day, the practical distinction between AI-generated content and manually created content will become less significant. What matters is whether the content serves the project. These tools, used thoughtfully and combined with the traditional skills and judgment that production work requires, make that result more achievable more quickly than was possible before.