1. Chapter 7 Working with Distortions, Gradient Meshes, Envelopes, and Blends

2. Editing Colors and Distorting Objects Illustrator provides a number of effects that you can use to alter the shape of an object. The Pucker & Bloat effect adjusts the segments between an object’s anchor points. With a Pucker effect, the segments are moved inward, toward the center of the object, while the anchor points are moved outward.

3. Editing Colors and Distorting Objects Before Pucker effect After Pucker effect; segments appear curved inward Original shape of object is evident by bounding box Pucker effect applied

4. Editing Colors and Distorting Objects The Bloat effect is achieved by moving the segments outward and the anchor points inward.

5. Editing Colors and Distorting Objects Before Bloat effect After Bloat effect; segments are moved outward Bloat effect applied

6. Editing Colors and Distorting Objects The Twist effect rotates an object more sharply in the center than it does at the edges, creating a whirlpool effect.

7. Editing Colors and Distorting Objects Before Twist effect After Twist effect; center is rotated more than edges Twist effect applied

8. Editing Colors and Distorting Objects When you apply the Pucker & Bloat and the Twist commands, they will be applied as effects. Effects change only the appearance of the object. Effects are controlled on the Appearance panel.

9. Editing Colors and Distorting Objects The Edit Colors commands on the Edit menu are useful for quickly applying color changes to objects. With the Edit Colors commands, the changes are applied directly to the objects; they are not effects.

10. Editing Colors and Distorting Objects With the Edit Colors commands, you can: –saturate an illustration, which makes colors more intense. –reduce the saturation of an illustration, making its colors duller, with a washed-out appearance. –use the Convert to Grayscale command to completely desaturate an illustration and create the effect of a black-and-white image.

11. Editing Colors and Distorting Objects With the Edit Colors commands, you can: –use the Edit Colors commands to make color blends between objects. –Use the Blend Front to Back command to create a color blend through all the objects in the stacking order, using the front most object as the starting color and the backmost object as the ending color.

12. Editing Colors and Distorting Objects Blending colors front to back

13. Editing Colors and Distorting Objects Illustration with saturated colors Illustration with the Convert to Grayscale command applied

14. Working with Gradient Meshes The Mesh tool and the Create Gradient Mesh command can be used to transform a basic object into a mesh object. A mesh object is a single, multicolored object in which colors can flow in different directions, and colors transition gradually from point to point.

15. Working with Gradient Meshes When you create mesh objects, multiple mesh lines crisscross the object. Mesh points are diamond-shaped and work like anchor points. –They can be assigned a color. –When a color is assigned, color flows outward from the point.

16. Working with Gradient Meshes The area between four mesh points is a mesh patch. You can apply color to all four mesh points simultaneously by applying color to a patch. Mesh points can be added, deleted, and moved along the mesh line without altering the shape of the mesh.

17. Working with Gradient Meshes Anchor points are also part of the mesh, and they function as they do on simple paths. Just as with simple paths, you can manipulate the anchor points’ direction lines to alter the shape of the mesh.

18. Working with Gradient Meshes Mesh line Mesh patch (with yellow applied) Direction lines Mesh point (with red applied)

19. Working with Gradient Meshes You can create a mesh object from any path. You cannot create a mesh object from compound paths or text objects. You can create a mesh object with the Mesh tool or by applying the Create Gradient Mesh command.

20. Working with Gradient Meshes You’ll be happiest creating a mesh object using the Create Gradient Mesh command, in the Gradient Mesh dialog box, which creates a mesh object with regularly spaced mesh lines and mesh points.

21. Working with Gradient Meshes The Create Gradient Mesh command is always the best choice when converting complex objects. Once a mesh object has been created, it cannot be converted back into a simple path.

22. Working with Gradient Meshes Keep in mind that complex mesh objects are a memory drain and may affect your computer’s performance. Also, it’s better to create a few simple mesh objects than a single complex one.

23. Working with Gradient Meshes You can apply opacity settings to any mesh point on a gradient mesh. Reducing the opacity allows you to make any mesh point or patch on a gradient mesh increasingly transparent, thus adding the option to create even more complex visual effects.

24. Working with Gradient Meshes To affect opacity, select one or more points on the mesh, then drag the Opacity slider in the Transparency panel, Control panel or the Appearance panel.

25. Working with Gradient Meshes The ability to reduce the opacity on a single point or patch on the gradient mesh offers the powerful option of applying transparency effects to specific areas of the mesh without affecting other areas.

26. Working with Gradient Meshes The shape of the mesh is manipulated by direction lines

27. Working with Envelopes Envelopes are objects that are used to distort other selected objects. The distorted objects take on the shape of the envelope object.

28. Working with Envelopes Object to be distorted Object to be used as an envelope Resulting envelope effect An envelope created using a top object

29. Working with Envelopes You can make envelopes with objects that you create, or you can use a preset warp shape or a mesh object as an envelope. You can use envelopes with: –Compound paths –Text objects –Meshes –Blends

30. Working with Envelopes You create an envelope by using the Envelope Distort command on the Object menu. The Envelope Distort command offers you three options for creating an envelope: –Make with Warp –Make with Mesh –Make with Top Object

31. Working with Envelopes The top object is the topmost selected object. Warps are: –15 premade shapes to use as your top object –especially useful when you don’t want to draw your own top object

32. Working with Envelopes An envelope created using a warp.

33. Working with Envelopes Meshes are the same as gradient meshes made with the Mesh tool. Creating an envelope with a mesh allows you to apply a mesh to multiple objects, which is not the case when you create a mesh using the Create Gradient Mesh command or the Mesh tool.

34. Working with Envelopes Envelopes can be used to distort objects that have linear gradient fills or pattern fills, but you must first activate the option to do so.

35. Creating Blends A blend is a series of intermediate objects and colors between two or more selected objects. If the selected objects differ in fill color, for example, the intermediate objects will be filled with intermediate colors. Therefore, in a blend, both shapes and colors are “blended.”

36. Creating Blends In a blend, both shapes and colors are blended

37. Creating Blends Blends are created with either the: –Blend tool –or the Make Blend command

38. Creating Blends You can: –make blends between two open paths, such as two different lines –make blends between two closed paths, such as a square and a star –blend between objects filled with gradients –blend between blends

39. Creating Blends The fewer the number of steps in a blend, the more distinct each intermediary object will be. At a greater number of steps, the intermediate objects become indistinguishable from one another, and the blend creates the illusion of being continuous or “smooth.”

40. Creating Blends In the Blend Options dialog box, select from the following options for specifying the number of steps within a blend. –Specified Steps: enter a value that determines the number of steps between the start and the end of the blend

41. Creating Blends –Specified Distance: enter a value to determine the distance between the steps in the blend. –The distance is measured from the edge of one object to the corresponding edge on the next object

42. Creating Blends –Smooth Color: Illustrator determines the number of steps for the blend, calculated to provide the minimum number of steps for a smooth color transition. –This is the default option, which poses a bit of a problem in that the minimum number of steps will not always give you the effect you desire.

43. Creating Blends Once a blend is created, you can change its appearance by making changes to one or more of the original objects. –You can affect the appearance of a blend by manipulating its spine –You can you replace its spine

44. Creating Blends Anchor point added to the spine of a blend Manipulating the blend’s spine changes the arc of the blend Altering the spine alters the blend