Distort with Envelopes


Imagine an elephant stuffed into an envelope. Having trouble? Figure 15-1 might help. It s a painful image to evoke, but the vision helps demonstrate how Illustrator uses the envelope metaphor.

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Figure 15-1: Cramming an elephant into an envelope shape

Figure 15-1 is an example of stuffing an object into a custom-defined shape (in this case, an elephant into an envelope). You can also warp an object into a predefined path (such as an arc or a waving flag). Figure 15-2 shows a squirrel enshrined painfully in a waving flag warp.


Figure 15-2: No real animals were harmed or mistreated in warping the squirrel into a flag.

There is a third type of envelope option available. You can impose a mesh on an object. Meshes, and their more powerful cousins ”gradient meshes ”are quite different in their use, you ll explore them separately in the next section of this chapter. First you ll learn to work with the more conventional envelope tools ”warps and shapes .

Many Ways to Distort Objects

Illustrator provides at least three ways to apply envelopes or warps to objects. All three produce similar results ”but with some significant differences.

Envelope and Warp options available from the Object Envelope Distort menu each generate a new shape that servesas a container for the old object.

In contrast, warp effects (applied from the Effect Warp menu) work like all effects; transformations you make using warp effects do not change the underlying path structure of your object. So after you apply a warp effect, your object s path is not easily editable. Figure 15-3 shows an arc warp applied twice to the same object, once as an effect from the Effect menu, and once as an envelope from the Object menu. The Outline view in the lower part of this figure shows the different effects of the options on the paths.


Figure 15-3: Using an Envelope Distort menu option generates a new path, while a warp effect does not transform the underlying path.

The liquify tools (on the Warp tool tearoff in the Toolbox) provide yet another way to distort objects. The liquify tools work interactively ”you click and drag to distort objects. Figure 15-4 shows the fish s nose being distorted with the Warp tool.


Figure 15-4: Distorting a section of the fish interactively with the Warp tool ”part of the liquify set of tools

In the following sections of this chapter, you ll first explore the options available from the Object Envelope Distort submenu. Then you ll discover the complex and finely- tuned potential of distorting objects and fills with gradient meshes. Finally, you ll learn to use the interactive warping (liquify) tools available in the Toolbox.

Use an Envelope to  Distort  an  Object

The Object Envelope Distort submenu allows you to assign three types of distortion to a selected object. You can select Make with Warp to choose a warp ( pre-set shape) into which you can envelope (stuff) your selected object. The second option is to choose Make with Top Object to distort one object by squeezing it into a second shape that you have created on the artboard . The third option, meshes, are grids with editable anchors. (You ll dive into these in the next section.)

When you apply a warp or second-shape warp, you are actually combining two objects ”the first object is the one you are distorting, and the second object is the envelope into which you are stuffing the first object. If you choose one of the warp options, the second envelope shape is created for you. If you use a Make with Top Object to envelope one shape into another, you create both shapes before you apply an envelope distortion. In either case, you can release your resulting warp into its two components by choosing Object Envelope Distort Release. For example, if the squirrel in Figure 15-2 is released from the envelope shape, the result is the two shapes displayed in Figure 15-5.

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Figure 15-5: Animal rights activists release the squirrel from the warping shape.

To convert a selected, enveloped object into a single object (shaped like the applied envelope), choose Object Envelope Distort Expand. You can also easily edit the content of the original (pre-distortion) object by choosing Object Envelope Distort Edit Contents. This displays the anchors and paths of the original object. Figure 15-6 shows an original path being edited for an enveloped object.


Figure 15-6: Editing the path of the original squirrel shape. The warped squirrel shape is still visible in the background while the paths and anchors of the original are edited.

You can edit envelope options by choosing Object Envelope Distort Options and opening the Envelope Options dialog box. The top options are applicable to raster (bitmap) objects only. The Anti-Alias check box automatically smoothes out jagged edges produced by envelope distortion. The Clipping Mask and Transparency option buttons provide two ways to save the resulting object as a bitmap.

The Fidelity slider determines how accurately the enveloped object will match the envelope shape. Higher values create larger files and more complex paths. The Distort Appearance, Distort Linear Gradients, and Distort Pattern Fills check boxes do not affect the outline shape of the distorted object ”they define only whether or not a gradient fill or pattern fill inside the object will be stretched and distorted along with the object shape.

Tip  

Unless you are distorting a vector object with a linear gradient fill or a pattern fill, you probably won't need to alter the default settings in the Envelope Options dialog box.

Now that you re familiar with the concepts involved in envelope distortion, it s time to dive into the details of how different envelope options work.

Warp

Illustrator CS provides 15 customizable warping shapes. To access them, select an object and choose Object Envelope Distort Make with Warp. The Warp Options dialog box appears.

Use the Style drop-down menu to choose from the various warping options. The dialog box options are the same for each of the styles of warp. The horizontal or vertical option buttons define which way your object will be stretched. The Bend slider determines the intensity of the warp. In the Distortion area, the Horizontal slider allows you to skew the impact of the distortion to the left (negative) or right (positive) side of the object. The Vertical slider adjusts how distortion is applied to the top or bottom of the selected object.

In reality, you ll play with the various sliders and use the Preview check box to see how your object appears with various distortion settings, as shown in Figure 15-7.

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Figure 15-7: Experimenting with warp options

After you find a distortion setting you like, click OK to apply the envelope.

Reshape with a Second Object

Reshaping with a second object requires two objects ”the original artwork, and the second object that will serve as a container or envelope to reshape the first object. For instance, in Figure 15-8, the circle will serve as the envelope into which the bird will be squished .


Figure 15-8: Preparing to use the circle as an envelope for the bird

Before you stuff one object into another, you need to make sure the two objects are set up correctly. The object to be reshaped should be grouped. And, most importantly, the object that will serve as the envelope must be on top of (in front of) the object to be reshaped. You can move the envelope object in front of the object to be reshaped by selecting it and choosing Object Arrange Bring to Front.

When everything is all set, select both the object and the envelope and choose Object Envelope Distort Make with Top Object.

Reshape with a Mesh

Meshes are a tricky way to distort an object. They generate a grid ”a set of horizontal and vertical lines connected by movable points that work something like normal anchor points. Meshes generated from the Object Envelope Distort Make with Mesh option are movable, but there s a better and more powerful way to create Meshes.

Gradient meshes have the same power to reshape an object, but they also allow you to edit the color of the mesh points. So, it will be more productive to explore meshes in detail later in this chapter, in the section Apply a Gradient Mesh.

Distort Type

Envelope distortion also works with type. Just select some type and choose any warp distortion. Or you can select type and a shape object and then choose Object Envelope Distortion Make with Top Object to squeeze the type into a shape, as shown in Figure 15-9.


Figure 15-9: Applying envelope distortion to type
Tip  

Remember, if you are distorting type into a shape, the shape must be in front of the type.

The options, release, and expand features of envelope distortion work the same with type as they do with any other object. However, you cannot edit type while it is distorted into an envelope.




How to Do Everything with Illustrator CS
How to Do Everything with Adobe Illustrator CS
ISBN: 0072230924
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 175
Authors: David Karlins

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