Creating envelopes

[Cathie_Howell@adobeforums.com]

Can someone show me an example of an envelope with a mesh? And how it is created? Thanks

[Gary_Newman@adobeforums.com]

Select something - an object or any number of objects/images. Go to Object -Envelope Distort - Make With Mesh. A dialog will come up asking how you want your mesh grid. Just click OK. You'll see a selected grid overlaying your object. Deselect. Get the Direct Select tool and click anywhere in the object. The grid becomes visible, and you can now drag around any of its nodes to distort the original object.

[Cathie_Howell@adobeforums.com]

What is the difference between the mesh tool and the envelope distort - make with mesh? I don't ever use the gradient mesh and am just wondering what people use it for.....

[hitpawz@adobeforums.com]

Envelope distort is sort of a standard set of warping shapes and features. Useful for a lot of things but not exactly customizable to exactly what you want.

Mesh gives you the option to reshape the entire contents of your artwork along the same flow. Just try it with a group of objects selected. Keep preview on when setting the UVs (rows, columns) and try setting them to one first. Then adjust the box that you will see and it should be self explanatory from that point. If you need finer adjustment, simply add more UVs in the beginning.

[hitpawz@adobeforums.com]

Ok, I confused the issue. Envelope distort with mesh alters the shape of a group of objects. Gradient mesh is applied to a single object and affects the color. Insert a few points with the gradient mesh tool and with the points selected, pick a different color. It takes getting used to but if you're using Ai10, there is a fine example of a flower created with gradient mesh in your samples folder.

[Cathie_Howell@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for the info! :O)

[James_Talmage@adobeforums.com]

"Can someone show me an example of an envelope with a mesh?"

The advantage of an Envelope made with a Mesh is that you can have control points and handles *inside* the perimeter of what is being distorted.

Look at steps 11-13 on page 1 of this PDF to see a simple example of what a Mesh Envelope lets you do that you can't do with an Envelope that just wraps around the perimeter:

<http://www.illustrationETC.com/AIBuds/AIGoofyGrids.pdf>

The Mesh Grid has only 2 rows and 2 columns. But that one inner point makes it easy to "depress" the center of the radial grid into a cone or tulip shape.

JET

[Gary_Newman@adobeforums.com]

A nice thing about distorting with a mesh envelope is that you can direct select any number of nodes and alter them with any of the transform tools, especially scale and rotate.