- Setting Selection Preferences
- Making Selections
- Using the Clipboard
- Resizing Graphic Elements
- Positioning Graphic Elements
- Flipping, Rotating, and Skewing
- Distorting Graphic Elements
- Modifying Fills and Strokes
- Modifying Shapes: Natural Drawing Tools
- Modifying Shapes: Bzier Tools
- Modifying Primitive-Shape Paths
- Converting Shape Types
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Distorting Graphic Elements
The free-transform tool's Distort modifier lets you distort some graphic elements by changing the shape of the bounding box. You can reposition one or more corners of the box individually; you can manipulate paired corner handles simultaneously to turn the rectangular box into a trapezoid; and you can stretch, shrink, and/or skew the box by moving the side handles of the bounding box. The selected element(s) stretch or shrink to fit the new bounding box. The Distort modifier works only on merge-shapes and single, selected drawing-objects; Distort doesn't work on primitive-shapes, text fields (see Chapter 3), groups (see Chapter 5), symbols (see Chapter 7), or selections containing multiple drawing-objects.
To distort an element freely
Using the free-transform tool, select the element you want to distort.
A bounding box with transformational handles appears.
- In the Tools panel, select the Distort modifier (Figure 4.34).
Note that the center point of your selection disappears, indicating that you are in Distort mode.
Figure 4.34 Choose the free-transform tool's Distort modifier to reposition the corner points of the bounding box containing your selection independently.
Position the pointer over one of the transformational handles.
The pointer changes to a hollow arrowhead.
- To change the shape of the bounding box, do one of the following:
- To relocate one corner of the element's bounding box, position the pointer over one of the corner handles; then click and drag the handle to the desired location. You can position each corner handle independently (Figure 4.35).
Figure 4.35 Use the free-transform tool's Distort modifier to redefine the shape of an element's bounding box. You can drag each corner handle separately.
- To skew the element, position the pointer over one of the side handles; then drag the handle to the desired position. The element skews toward the direction you drag.
- To stretch the element as you skew it, move the selected side handle away from the element's center (Figure 4.36).
Figure 4.36 When the Distort modifier is selected, dragging the side handles of a selected element's bounding box skews the element. To enlarge (or shrink) the element at the same time, move the side handle away from (or in toward) the center of the original shape.
- To shrink the element as you skew it, move the selected side handle toward the element's center.
- To relocate one corner of the element's bounding box, position the pointer over one of the corner handles; then click and drag the handle to the desired location. You can position each corner handle independently (Figure 4.35).
Release the mouse button.
Flash redraws the selection to fill the new bounding-box shape.
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To distort a graphic element symmetrically
- Follow steps 1 and 2 of the preceding task to prepare an element for distorting.
- To taper the element, do either of the following:
- To make the top of the bounding box narrower than the bottom, Shift-click and drag the top-right corner handle toward the top-left corner handle, or vice versa (Figure 4.37).
Figure 4.37 Using the Distort modifier of the free-transform tool, Shift-click and drag a corner handle to taper selected elements.
To make the top of the bounding box wider than the bottom, Shift-click and drag the top-right corner handle away from the top-left corner handle, or vice versa.
As you drag, the two corner handles move in tandem, coming together if you drag in or moving apart if you drag out.
- To make the top of the bounding box narrower than the bottom, Shift-click and drag the top-right corner handle toward the top-left corner handle, or vice versa (Figure 4.37).
Release the mouse button.
Flash redraws the bounding box and its contents. If you dragged in, the box appears to taper toward the top. If you dragged out, the box appears to taper toward the bottom. You can follow these procedures for the sides or bottom of the bounding box to taper the box in any direction.
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TIPs
- To access the free-transform tool's hollow-arrowhead pointer temporarily without selecting the Distort modifier, press
(Mac) or Ctrl (Windows). Then you can drag or Shift-drag to distort selected elements. - If you make a mistake while distorting a graphic, and you choose Edit > Undo so you can fix it, your graphic will be selected with the free-transform tool but the Distort modifier won't be active. You must reselect the Distort modifier in the Tools panel to continue your distortion.
- Although you can use the free-transform tool on text fields, groups, and symbols, the Distort modifier doesn't work on these items. If your selection includes merge-shapes and one or more text fields, groups, or symbols, the free-transform tool's Distort modifier is available, but the distortion affects only the merge-shapes.
- You can use the free-transform tool to distort multiple merge-shapes simultaneously. Select the merge-shapes you want to modify. Then, using the Distort modifier of the free-transform tool, redefine the shape of the bounding box that surrounds the shapes. The shapes change as a unit.
- When you select multiple merge-shapes, clicking one shape with the paint bucket changes all selected merge-shape fills. The ink-bottle tool works the same way on merge-shape strokes (see "To change stroke color with the ink-bottle tool," later in this section). When you select multiple drawing-objects or primitive-shapes, however, these tools can't modify all of the fills or strokes in the selection; you must click each fill and stroke individually, or use a panel to make the changes (see the sidebar "Use Panels to Change Selected Fills and Strokes," below).