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92  Technique 

01 We’re going to turn a piece ofvery basic artwork into somethingspecial with some simple distortiontechniques. To start with, createrectangles filled with colour. Here I’veplaced four rectangles in a row andcoloured each to create a Braziliancolour scheme. Group all the rectangleswith Cmd/Ctrl+G, then make threeduplicates using Copy and Paste.

Computer Arts August 2008

Illustrator 10 or later

Envelopedistortion inIllustrator

Distortion effects cantake the perfect lines ofyour vector illustrationand give them a moreorganic or hand-sculptedappearance, saysSam Hampton-Smith

On the disc

The Illustrator fileSam worked on canbe found inDisc Contents\Resources\envelope.

Time needed30-60 minutes

02 Illustrator offers threemethods for applying envelopedistortion. The first will be familiar if youuse Photoshop. Select one set ofrectangles and choose Object>EnvelopeDistort>MakeWithWarp. Using thedialog, you can select from a range ofdistortion envelopes and adjust themwith the sliders. I’ve chosen Twist witha horizontal bend of 63%.

Add variety to your artwork with chunky, delicate or

flowing organic shapes. Push and pull artwork into a pre-definedshape, or force text into a wave. Illustrator has advanced mesh-based envelope distortion functions that are often overlooked, butare hugely powerful tools.

Once you understand how the distortion works, a wholenew range of visual effects becomes available to you. Illustratoroffers you the flexibility of three different approaches to distortionnirvana: warp, mesh and object. We’re going to briefly look at all

three in this tutorial.The really clever part of this functionality is that all the

distortion is entirely non-destructive. So you can always get backto your original artwork, giving you freedom to experiment withoutrisking your hard work.

Sam Hampton-

SmithSam runs agraphic designstudio in Scotland.He also teachesgraphics students atHNC and HND level,writes and illustratesfor magazines, andespecially enjoysexploring typography.Find out more atwww.hampton-smith.com.

Skills

UnderstandenvelopedistortionUse the threedistortionmethodsCreate a3D effect

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Computer Arts August 2008

  93

06 The third and final way to add an envelope distortion

is by creating the envelope from another shape. Using the Pentool (shortcut P), draw a shape with many si des. Don’t worryabout the stroke or fill colour. Here I’ve created an object withten sides and no conc ave angles. With your new objecthighlighted, select Object>Arrange>BringToFront.

05 Using the Direct Selection tool you can now selectindividual mesh intersection points, and move them around todistort the artwork inside the envelope. You also have controlover the Bézier handles for each node just like a regular path.Again, you can use the Mesh tool to add points, but here I’veselected and moved the points generated in Step 4.

04 Sometimes it’s easier to havea straight grid. Select your second set ofrectangles and choose Object>EnvelopeDistort>MakeWithMesh. This time you’llbe given a dialog that asks you to enterthe number of rows and columns for themesh. Accept the default four rows andfour columns, and click OK.

07 Select your third set of rectangles, and the object

you created in Step 6, and choose Object>EnvelopeDistort>MakeWithTopObject. The artwork within the envelope adjuststo the contours of your envelope shape. This technique can beused to create chunky 3D-style artwork with simple fills thatshow contours, or organic flowing shapes.

08 Here I have drawn a shape with a black fill over theright-hand side of the envelope-distorted artwork. I’ve set theshape to 50% opacity, and used a blending mode of Mul tiply.This creates the illusion of shadow, giving the design a sense ofdepth and weight. You can develop this further with additionalpanels of solid black and white set to Multip ly or Screen, and ata reduced opaci ty.

03 This approach differs fromapplying Warp through Effect>Warpbecause you can edit the mesh points toalter the effect. Select the Mesh tool(press U) and click anywhere within yourtwisted artwork, adding a mesh point tothe envelope. Select this point and moveit a little with the Mesh tool or DirectSelection tool. As you move the nodalpoint, the artwork distorts.

10 If you need to export to EPSformat, or to software that can’t renderenvelope distortion correctly, you maywant to expand the envelope distortionto ensure the artwork appears as itshould – use Object>EnvelopeDistort>Expand. However, this commi ts yourdesign to the distortion, so only takethis step if you’re sure you won’t want toreturn to your original graphic.

09 You can alter the envelopeoptions by selecting the object andchoosing Object>EnvelopeDistort>EnvelopeOptions. This enables you toset the fidelity (how accurate Illustratoris when distorting), whether or notpatterns and gradients should also bedistorted, and the raster settings. Thehigher the fidelity the cleaner theresults, but performance will be slower.

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