Creating 3D Patterned Cubes in Illustrator

Question

Anyone have any ideas about how to recreate this image in AICS2?
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1Vfo67fz0YMIhTR5PUm3EVI52IB6zg
I know AI has limited 3D tools, but I thought It would be pretty simple to set up a grid, transform it using rotate and shear to make the cube shape, then lay the balls on top. But I am having trouble getting it to work well. Is there a better way? Would this be easier accomplished in PS?

Answer 1

This thread got me playing around with cube arrays of Symbol Instances. In this:
1. The basic Symbol was made at the rear of the cube.
2. Three copies of the Instance were placed and reduced for one smaller circle adjacent to the original corner one along each of the three axes.
3. That set of four Symbol Instances were saved as another Symbol. Stepping and repeating the Symbol containing four (one large, three small) using Blends gives the alternating large/small circles.
4. One Instance of that Symbol was placed at each end of one axis. One was given a Blur Effect; then the two were blended for a linear array.
5. That Blend was converted to a Symbol.
6. One Instance of that Symbol was placed at each end of the second axis. One was blurred and the two were blended to give a 2-dmensional array.
7. That Blend was converted to a Symbol.
6. One Instance of that Symbol was placed at each end of the third axis. One was blurred and thw two were blended to give a cubic array.
These were done with three Transform Effects applied to a single Symbol Instance:
Being Symbol Instances, after building the basic array, Expand Appearance expands the Transform Effects, leaving nested groups of Symbol Instances. So the Symbol can be swapped out in one whack, and the Symbolism tools can be used on the whole thing. If ungrouped completely, Transform Each can add a little controlled randomness.
For anyone else who might have never played with Transform Effect this way, A PDF is here:
http://www.IllustrationETC.com/AIbuds/SymbolCubes/CubicArray01.pdf
24 pages. 5MB.
JET