Help making a 3D cut sphere in Illustrator?

Question

Hello!
So I'm a novice at making 3D objects in Illustrator. I'm attempting to make a cut sphere in Illustrator. I'm not sure if what I want to achieve is best done through pen tool and gradients or 3D revolve. Here are some screenshots of my attemps thus far:
This one is with the pen tool:
This is as far as I got with the 3D Revolve:
I'm trying to have a sphere within a sphere, with the outer sphere being cut revealing some of the inner sphere. The outer sphere will have a lower opacity.
Any tips, tricks, guidance, video tutorials, etc, are appreciated! I will send you cookies in return for your help     

Answer 1

You can apply transparency to the paths to which 3D Effect is applied.
You can "nest" paths inside each other.
However, Illustrator's 3D Effect cannot apply different revolve or extrusion parameters to individual paths in the same model. Note that in the top example below, the green tube is translucent, the red is opaque. But they are both revolved to the same degree, and they are both aligned about the revolve axis. You can't do anything about that. That's one of the debilitating limitations of the dumbed-down Dimensions functionality upon which 3D Effect is based.
The green "atom shells" below are not made with 3D Effect at all. They are simply circles with gradient fills and transparency applied.
You can't do what you describe in a single 3D Effect model. You can either use multiple 3D Effect objects and simply overlap them, or you can just draw the thing normally without 3D Effect, or you can construct a combination of the two. For example:
The above is just a stack of three 3D Effect objects. The largest semicircle is set to 50% transparency and revolved 270°.
That object was duplicated, given a blue fill with no transparency, revolve changed to 360°, and sent to back.
That object was duplicated, revolve changed to 90° and sent to front.
JET