Can a selection be used to create an arc without clipping art to the selection size?

Question

I need to arc a rectangular shaped piece of art into an arc.
The art has bleed which can't be calculated into the arc, but needs to remain as a bleed. (Just like a clipping path obscures the view of the extraneous art, yet it's still there)
Is there a way to tell Illustrator to designate a selection to use as the starting area…and then arc it into a shape…without first eliminating the art/photo/type hanging off into the bleed?
In the following example, the orange rectangle is the area of the art I need to warp into the shape of the arc laying on top…yet I need the bleed to remain.
[IMG]http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i53/Bug_Nuts/Adobe%20Illustrator%20Forum/Screenshot.png[ /IMG]

Answer 1

Katrina,
The question is how can I make illustrator take this
art...and warp it...making the area that equivalent to the yellow trim
box fit to the warp shape...YET...keep the bleed...and warp evenly.
No, unfortunately not: different shapes are warped quite differently.
My
experience has been that because of the irregular things hanging off
the sides, illustrator uses those when it calculates the arc. I need it
to calculate the warp of this art using the yellow box as "from"...and
the warp shape as "to".
To get things to work properly, you can only apply one warp, and the obvious choice is to get everything inside (by getting rid of outlying parts, hence the Clipping Mask with subsequent snipping off) and then inflate the photograph part and get it as nice and even as possible; this has been the basis for the instructions below.
Referring to the AI file (see bold type) and an amended version of post #17 (I can see that both the photograph(s) and the vector artwork are to be clipped):
If you have some vector/raster artwork (this is the cat and the circles) within a rectangle (this is the upper, smaller rectangle) and a woody photograph in  the background (I can see that the woody photograph to have bleed is only in the right side), all of which are supposed to be warped using Arc, so  that the warped woody photograph extends past the vector artwork to also  function as a bleed (the bleed seems to be 18pt, corresponding to the lower, larger rectangle), the bounding rectangle of the vector/raster artwork  forming the  basis of the Arc, and if you are willing to adjust the  woody photograph which  may have a slight distortion and live with a non  constant bleed, you may:
1) Copy the rectangle (this is the upper path in the first Group), to get a top rectangle and a bottom rectangle (the bottom rectangle replaces the lower path in the second Group which cannot be used here, step 6) is to create a path that can do it);
2)  Select the top rectangle and the underlying vector/raster artwork, Group  them, and reduce the  opacity to 50% (so you can see the woody photograph  beneath;
3) Copy the bottom rectangle to the front, to get a middle rectangle;
4)  Copy the middle rectangle to the front to and  Object>Path>Average, to get an supplementary middle rectangle with  W = H = 0;
5) Select 3) and 4) and Object>Compound Path>Make, to get a middle compound path;
6)  Scale  the bottom rectangle up by a suitable amount, possibly 1.1 times  for W  and 1.2 times for H so that it covers the desired part of the  photograph  including the bleed (see more later);
7) Select the scaled bottom rectangle and the underlying photograph and Object>Clipping Mask>Make;
Now   you need to get rid of the outlying parts of the woody photograph (copy  before these destructive steps and hide the original set):
8) In the Transparency palette/panel dropdown, click Multiply (or just anything but Normal);
9) Object>Flatten Transparency (just keep the defaults, especially if you have vector artwork along with the image(s));
Now  you need to resize the Clipping Mask to match the rectangle/artwork Group:
10)   Scale the Clipping Mask down by the reverse amount of that in 6) (1.1   times for W and 1.2 times for H) so that it has the same size as the rectangle/artwork Group, but with the woody photograph compressed;
The main shaping step:
11) Select everything and Effect>Warp>Arc (this will give the top rectangle the Arc shape, and everything else will be warped correspondingly);
Creating/shaping the woody photgraph/bleed along with the middle compound path:
12)    Select the Clipping Mask and the middle compound path (easy to do by  clicking it in the Layers palette/panel), then Object>Expand  Appearance, then
12a) Click the uppermost Anchor Point (which  corresponds to the inner W = H = 0 path of the middle compound path, and  its says Anchor, if you have Smart Guides on), to set a more correct  centre for scaling and thereby reduce the additional distortion of the  photograph, and then
12b) DoubleClick the Scale Tool and scale up by the  same amount as in 6) (1.1 times for W and 1.2 times for H).
Placing the woody photograph:
8)   Move the woody photograph vertically until the bleed is roughly equal  on all  sides and the photograph is placed correctly behind the   artwork/rectangle Group;
You may need to redo some of the  steps to adjust and get them right. In this process, you may move the  supplementary middle rectangle 4) upwards before creating the compound  path to further reduce the additional distortion of the woody photograph.
When things are right (if they will ever be):
9) Increase the opacity of the artwork/rectangle Group to 100%.
Final note: I believe the exact distortion of the woody photograph is less crucial than it would have been for the cat.