When configuring the blend settings, keep in mind that the size of the final output affects the number of shapes required to make the blend appear smooth. For large posters, you might need to use a lot of shapes, but fewer shapes are required for small illustrations. In addition, objects that you blend must have the same number of anchor points for the blend to appear smooth. Canvas uses the anchor points to calculate the steps and shapes in a blend; an inconsistent number of anchor points can cause unwanted twists and distortions. Using blends to create patterns Although blends are often used to create gradual, smooth transitions between shapes and colors, you can also use the Blend command to create and evenly space a pattern across a layout. By specifying a low number of shapes and widely spacing the front and back objects, you can make each blend object a distinct object. This effect can be useful for creating borders and other patterns. Distorting shapes The Envelope command lets you distort shapes and text, as if an illustration was drawn on a rubber sheet and then stretched. When an object is in envelope edit mode, its bounding box acts like the rubber sheet. Canvas includes several envelope styles that offer various handles you can use to stretch an object’s bounding box. Using this effect, you can create new shapes, add a sense of motion to an illustration, or arrange text so it appears to be painted on a three- dimensional object. Tip To ensure that blended objects have the same number of anchor points, copy an object, edit its shape, and blend between these objects. The artist created this border by first creating a flower-like multigon, copying it, and drawing an oval. To distribute the flowers evenly around the oval, the artist selected the two multigons, turned on the “Bind to a path” option in the Blend palette, specified a relatively low number of shapes (15) for the blend, and chose the oval as the binding path.
Canvas 8 Help: Vector effects (12 of 27)                                                            Page #472