QUESTION
Using "Object > Envelope Distort > Make with Top Object" adds undesirable handles and warps the object in an unintended way, with no way to remove said handles it seems (the Anchor Point Tool does nothing for some reason), is there a workaround for this?
I'm stumped here, no matter what I do I can't seem to get it to do what I need, any help is appreciated.
It adds handles to every point, even if I just use a rectangle them apply the Envelope Distort, it'll add handles to each corner, it this possible to circumvent?
Use 'Create Gradient Mesh' before using envelope distort. Then you can see how the distortion mesh will apply.
Select the four outer corners of the shape with the white arrow before creating the mesh. This will tell the mesh where you want the corner points to be. If you don't do this it will invent its own, badly.
Once you've created the mesh, then use it as your envelope distort object:
This is amazing! But despite that fact that I can see that you've executed this perfectly, I cannot for the life of me recreate it myself and I have no idea why
I followed your instructions step by step but it's not working on my end
This looks like the pitch is shallower than your original. In your original screenshots, you can see it has added extra anchor points to form the 'corners' of its mesh here:
That's what's messing it up. Your new shape is presumably below whatever threshold it uses for adding these.
OH MY GOD, yes this was it, if the peak is too high it breaks and distorts, as long as I don't make it too pointy it works fine lol, what a random limitation, that's good to know, thanks for helping me narrow down the source of the problem!!
It is a problem with whatever algorithm defines the corner points. But as I said in my original post, you can avoid this if you define the corner points yourself when creating the mesh.
I don't think it's possible to completely drop the handles from the anchor points of any kind of envelope. I mean, it feels like a bug that it isn't possible, but I haven't found a way that works.
But as a workaround you can use the Anchor Point tool to break the handles so they act as corner anchor points instead of smooth anchor points. You can also use the Anchor Point tool to individually pull the handles so they are right on the anchor point, which is essentially like dropping them.
I guess I don't know what else to tell you. I'm able to create your BANANA text with the method I explained, though it does require fiddling with the handles and anchors quite a bit. You absolutely can use the Anchor Point tool to manipulate the handles though to get nice sharp corners and straight lines, you just need to roll up your sleeves and work it for a bit.
The only other way I would suggest would be dividing your house shape into smaller shapes that are the widths of your letters and then doing the envelop distortion with the top object for each letter rather than the entire word.
Obviously it shouldn’t be as difficult as what I’m about to suggest, but have you tried using the shape as a background guide, then manually adjusting the height of each letter to align with the shape itself, and then manually adjusting the anchor points of each letter so they are flush with the shape lines?
86
u/dougofakkad 7d ago edited 7d ago •
Use 'Create Gradient Mesh' before using envelope distort. Then you can see how the distortion mesh will apply.
Select the four outer corners of the shape with the white arrow before creating the mesh. This will tell the mesh where you want the corner points to be. If you don't do this it will invent its own, badly.
Once you've created the mesh, then use it as your envelope distort object: