Artists often use blends to create highlights and shadows in vector
drawings that provide the illusion of roundness and lighting. In addi-
tion, you can use blends to copy and evenly distribute objects around
shapes to create borders.
Canvas can blend solid color inks only. If you blend objects with
hatches, symbols, textures, or gradients, Canvas generates the blend
objects but doesnt fill them with an ink.
Using blends for dimensional effects
By specifying a high number of blend objects, you can create gradual
transitions between shapes and colors. With the appropriate settings,
colors seem to fade and mix into each other, and the blend objects do
not appear as distinct objects. This effect is often used to add realistic
highlights and shadows to objects so they appear three-dimensional.
To blend objects
Select two or more vector
objects. If necessary, choose
Blend in the Effects menu to
open the palette. Configure
the settings and click Apply.
# of shapes. The number of
objects Canvas creates for the
blend. Higher numbers result
in smoother blends.
Rainbow colors. Creates a
rainbow-like blend of colors
between objects. This intro-
duces more color variations
than a standard blend, which
uses only combinations of the
original colors. When you turn
on this option, two buttons
appear; choose a clockwise or
counter-clockwise path around
the color wheel.
Bind to a path. Turn on to use
the path of an object (not in
the current selection) to
arrange blend objects. When
you click Apply, Canvas
prompts you to Choose Path;
click the object to which you
want to bind the blend
objects.
Point to point. Available when
blending two objects. This
option lets you rotate blend
objects, creating the illusion
that one object is twisting into
another. When you click Apply,
Canvas prompts you to Choose
1st Point; click an anchor point
on one object. Canvas then
prompts you to Choose 2nd
Point; click an anchor point on
the other object. To reverse
the blend direction, Option-
click (Mac) or Ctrl-click (Win-
dows) when you choose the
two points.
Dynamic. Lets you use the
Direct Selection tool (hollow
arrow) to accelerate, deceler-
ate, expand, contract, and
redirect the blend after Canvas
creates it. Dynamic blends
arent available for specialized
objects, such as multigons, spi-
rals, concentric circles, and
grids.