Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
CRESSY
Warp & Distort
Bending Forms to Create Organic Variations
Overview:
Use Envelope Distort and Distort & Transform live effects to shape objects; use
filled rectangles with blend modes to change the time of day.
When Michael Cressy needed to create scenes for an online video game, he turned to
Illustrator's powerful Envelope Distort features and live effects to create a Halloween
world where magic changes the shapes of things. By adding a few additional layers to
colorize his images for different times of the day, his game scenes took on a
consistent look with minimal fuss.
1 Using Envelope Distort to bend branches and trees.
To create the blighted trees, Cressy
used the Rectangle tool to make three adjacent stripes with different fills (no stroke).
He selected them and chose Object> Envelope Distort> Make with Warp. He set the
Style to Arch with a Vertical Bend of 25%. He then used a Distortion amount of 99%
in the Vertical dimension. These settings created a slightly curved set of stripes so
distorted in the vertical dimension that they came to a point. With this horn as his
base element, Cressy duplicated and scaled each horn (holding Option/Alt and drag-
ging the bounding box) to be either branches or the main tree trunks. From the con-
text-sensitive menu, he chose Transform> Reflect, and in the dialog chose Vertical to
flip half of them. And since Cressy used Envelope Distort, his settings remained live
and editable throughout the development of his image.
1
Using Warp Options to bend three rectangles into a curved and
pointed arch
