Adobe Illustrator Tutorial: Envelope Distort

People have been crying out for more tutorials from us. The truth is we have been so busy working for our clients that finding time for members of the team to write tutorials is tough. However this time we’ve made the effort and hope our budding designers like this one…

Intro

Ever wanted to wrap some text inside a shape? The way you do it is with Illustrators handy “Envelope Distort” which can produce some very creative and exciting shapes to make your designs that extra bit special! “Tell me more” we hear you say – ok we will…

Step 1 / Shape up

Create the shape you want to eventually fill with text. For this example we produced a shape by using pen tool (Hot Key P). Make sure you join the edges of the shape together so its one continuous path. You can also use standard shapes like rectangles (Hot Key M) or ovals (Hot Key O).

Step 2 / Set the type

Next – create the text you wish to fill the shape. You do this selecting the Type Tool (Hot Key T) and then clicking and draging on your artboard to create a text box. Tap in your text and then formate it using the “Character” Pallet (Hot Keys OPTION +T).

Step 3 / Outline

Now “Outline” your text by selecting it (using the “Selection tool” – Hot key V) and then go to Type > Create Outlines (or hot keys Shift + Command + O).

Step 4 / Reorder & Shape

Make Sure your text is ‘behind’ the shape you want it to fill – Select the object and go to Object > Arrange > Send to back (Hot keys Shift + Command [ ). Also select different colors for your text and main object

Step 5 / Enveloping

Now we should be ready for Envelope Distorting! So simply select the text and the shape you wish for it to be fitted into. Go to Object > Evvelope Distort > Make with top object (or hot keys: alt + command + C) and wham – you have yourself a very cool piece of typography!

Step 6 / Finish it off

To finish off go to Object > Flatten Transparency and hit “ok” – you’ll now find that you can see the bezier curves which will allow you to edit or position the object further if you need to.

Conclusion

So – another cracking effect brought to us via Adobe Illustrator! Leave a comments or example of this effect in action! Enjoy enveloping!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 at 12:13 pm and is filed under Tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.