Can I Free Transform/Distort An Object Like Photoshop?

I need to distort an object much the way one would in Photoshop with Free Transform - Distort. That's the one where you can drag the corners wherever it suits your fancy.
The closest thing in Illustrator I can find is Effect - Distort & Transform - Free Distort. But this is a lot tougher because I just get a tiny picture of a grid; you distort the corners, and hope for the best.
Is there a way in Illustrator that will allow me to do this with the actual object?
Thanks.

There's the Free Transform Tool.
Click a corner then hold down Command/Ctrl, Option/Alt, and shift then move the mouse to allow free transformations. The click-modifier-move order is important.

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Applying identical free transform to second object?

Please excuse my lack of techinical knowledge, I am trying to learn my way through AI via trial & error since I don't have time to read a book or so.
I think I understand what paths/anchors are used for and how basic perspective transform works (holding cmd/control and perhaps option and/or shift). I have an object that has already been distorted via Free Transform so that the perspective is changed. I have a logo I would like to add onto the surface of the object.
My assumption is to use Free Distort again, but how to mimick the same distortions to the correct angles? I have experimented with grabbing corners of the bounding box and trying to snap them to corresponding anchor points of the background perspective shape...but it's not really working out.
What am I missing?
I've tried searching for perspective and free transform tool tutorials, but they mostly just show how to distort into a new perspective but not how to 'mimick' or align to an existing perspective.
Thanks!

You did that the wrong way you would first position that which you wish to map to the relative position of the object it is being mapped to then group
the two and then use the free transform.
The other way is to use the #D Effect's Rotate command and rotate and give it some perspective within the dialog. Then you can turn your art that you wish to map into a symbol which then can be mapped by going back to the effect by accessing it in the appearance panel which will allow you to bring up the 3D Rotate Effect dialog.
You then click on Map Art button and then select the surface you need to map the art to and then select from the drop down the symbol you made of your art and you can see liv the preview on your art.
You would actually make the art into a symbol before apply the 3d effect but I wanted you to see that you can keep the effect live and even after you save a close the art you can still remove or remap different art.
Now most important is that this is Illustrator and you are not going to learn it by trial and error and so it is important for you to get a book like Mordy Golding's Real World Illustrator. For certain Mordy writes much better than probably any of us when it comes to methods, techniques and the workings and fundamentals of Illustrator and the other Adobe programs. Otherwise you are going to be very limited in what you ca do and the amount of time you spend trying to figure it out is going to be a lot more than you will spend reading Mordy's book.
The really good thing about the book is that is written in a way so that it is one fast reading and easy to retain.
Do yourself a big favor and read the book.
After all this is Illustrator and not an easy program to learn.

Please help - free transform distort...

Hey.
No matter what I try, I can't get to distort objects using the free transform tool. I know I have to click/hold/drag the anchorpoint first, I've read all the help files, tutorials and sp forth, but none of the modifier-keys has any effect while I'm doing that. I'm a fairly experienced user, and - to put it mildly - about to kick in my screen over not getting something simple as this to work?!
I'm on a Mac, using CS4. And pretty pissed off...
Hans

Make sure Bounding Boxes are visible (View menu.)
Select the object.
Get the FreeTransform tool. Mousedown on a BoundingBox corner.
THEN press and hold the modifer keys.
Then drag.
JET

Can I free transform individual buttons within the menu widget?

When using the menu widget,
1. Is it possible to break individual buttons from their row/column and free transform them?
2. Could I delete an individual button while keeping the other buttons intact and not having to delete the page it was linked to?

Hi
Answering the questions :
1) You can create different menu items for page elements and use as individual buttons with free transform option, you can try using tabbed panel to create menu items.
2) You can if you have created a manual menu. The individual menu item will be deleted without effecting the link.
Thanks,
Sanjit

Can I free transform a shape?

I'm trying to free transform a rectangle drawn within InDesign.
A pretty simple task, I thought. I want to be able to pull one corner point in a certain direction and distort it a bit. But selecting the shape with the direct selection tool doesn't allow me. Is it possible?

When you first selec the shape withthe direct select tool you are really selectin the entire path. Make sure you are selecting only a single point or group of points. I sometimes resort to selecting, then holding Shift and deselecting a single point, then release Shift and select the point I need.

Can't Free Transform Folder

Hi all:
I have a PShop CS3 file in which one of the folders does not allow the "Free Transform"tool to work. I can move w/the move tool, but Edit/Free Transform is grayed out when that folder is selected. Edit/Free Transform will work for all the subfolders inside of it.
Other folders in the same file work fine. Anyone know what could cause this and how to fix?
Thanks.

voxL wrote:
Hi all:
I have a PShop CS....
Seriously, what EXACTLY do you expect????
I mean Photoshop CS is so old school...what exactly do you expect, any sort of reasonable expectation of reality?
God...you really need to downscale your expectations....
:~)

Can we added new time info objects like cal quarter to the 0calyear

hi bw experts,
is it possible to add new time info objects as navigational attributes to the 0fiscperiod or 0 calyear?
Thanks and regards
pedamarla

Hi Pedamarla
As our friendz said itz not feasiable to distrub the standard time chars at all. so typically what you can do is u have to include the copy of the time char and use two different chars to achive example if you copied the fiscalyer char and maintain the data in that and parlelly you can include one more char and palce a routine/formula to achieve the cal quarter..
Hope its clear a little..!
Thanks
K M R
"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." Albert
Einstein.
>
pedamarla wrote:
> hi bw experts,
>
> is it possible to add new time info objects as navigational attributes to the 0fiscperiod or 0 calyear?
>
> Thanks and regards
> pedamarla

Free Transform Envelope function available in Actionscript?

I'm looking for a way to warp or distort an object with
actionscript. I'm aware of the matrix transformation function, but
that isn't what I'm after. The matrix transform only scales, skews
or rotates, but I'm looking to actually distort the object (like
Illustrator warp or envelope function).
Obviously, I can distort an object with the Free Transform
tool by selecting the envelope option, but I'd like to do it
interactively. I've been digging thru the actionscript docs, but I
don't see anything that jumps out at me.
Any assistance or direction someone can give me would be
greatly appreciated.
Sherm

Grant Skinner did some fire-and-distortion-thing. He also
publishes the sources, maybe it helps:
G.Skinner
Fire-Effect
cu Markus

Feathered edges when using free transform

Hello
When I apply a free transform to a raster layer or a smart object, the edges of the layer get slightly feathered (1px on each side). To demonstrate, here is a smart object that contains a rectangle shape. Here it is before applying free transform:
And here it is after being scaled down (bear in mind that the anchor point of the transform is set to top left):
Note how the edges are no longer crisp. Normally, I would have to go to the original image document and use the Image > Image Size panel to resize it to what I want and then repaste it to my document, but this is inconveinient and not particularly elegant. I want to be able to do this in my main document without hassle and particularly, I would like the edges of an image to remain clear if I'm free transforming a smart object.
I know that I can set the image interpolation setting to Nearest Neightbor in Preferences > General, but then the result is even worse as far as image quality is concerned.
Is there a way to get around this problem?
Thank you

To further what Chris has said... You want both high quality resampling AND pixel-alignment? Those are competing goals.
One thing you could consider doing, if pixel-alignment is paramount is to use use a rectangular shape (i.e., via a vector mask) and the Snap To Pixels option:
-Noel

Identifying all TR/UR/Transformations for LOOKUP Object in whole BW System

Hi ,
I have one ODS object ZTEST in BW system. This ODS object is used in many other data flow's Transfer Rules, Update Rules and Transformations as LookUp object like
SELECT * FROM /BIC/AZTEST00 INTO ITAB WHERE DELIVERY = DATA_PACKAGE-DELIVERY
Now how can i findout all the Transfer Rules, Update Rules and Transformations where this ODS object ZTEST is used as the Lookup object in all BW system .
Please let me know the step by step procedure for it .
Regards
Mubeen

Mubeen,
This is kind of hard to do.
One thing that can possibly alleviate your effort would be to look for
/BIC/AZTEST00 in the table RSAABAP.
But this is not a complete output and you will still have to trace back the generated programs to the original TR / UR etc... but thien - this might give you a start.
P.S We tried this in a previous project but gave up because :
1. We could not trace the original transformations effectively
2. The output of RSAABAP is not a complete list - but it gave us an idea..

[CS4] Free Transform doesn't work in some situations

Hello,
I have found a limitation in Photoshop CS4:
Trying to use the free transform tool on an unselected "substracted" vector shape with the move tool will not work and will always display the alert "Could not transform because the initial bounding rectangle is empty".
There are some workarounds to this (using the Path selection tool, or activating the vector mask), however they won't apply if you are trying to transform several layers at once.
Steps to reproduce:
1) Create a new empty document
2) Select the rectangle tool (U) and create a vector mask layer with a single rectangle shape
3) Cmd-click the rectangle to select it
4) In the Options bar, click the 'substract' button to reverse the shape
5) Deselect the shape in the layers panel
6) Select the move tool (V)
7) Invoke the free transform tool (cmd-T)
(MBP 2.8, 10.5.5)

It's because you've got a reversed shape and nothing highlighted so your document edges are truncating the color fill rather than a clearly defined edge. Simply highlight the vector mask in the layers panel then you CAN use Free Transform.

Can't warp pasted AI vector Smart Object using Free Transform in PS CS6

Hi
I pasted a vector object into PS CS6 (13.0.1 x32) today directly from Illustrator CS6 (16.0.1 x32), and selected "Paste as Smart Object" (Windows XP Pro SP3).
I then tried to warp the pasted object using the Free Transform tool by dragging one of the corner handles with CTRL held down (Windows).
This usually warps\distorts the object, but instead, this launched a skew operation.
If I paste as Shape Layer or as Pixels then apply Free Transform, <Ctrl + corner handle drag> performs a warp\distort operation.
Also, if I rasterise the pasted AI object, and then convert to a Smart Object I can warp\distort.
Is it not possible to paste an Illustrator vector in as a Smart Object, and then warp\distort it directly using this technique?
Thanks for your help.
Richard

Your right in that on a pasted vector smart one can't warp, distort or perform perspective transforms.
One workaround would be to right click on the vector smart object layer in the layers panel and
choose convert to smart object.
It depends on what your object is, but you'd probably get better quality from a pasted shape or path, but then you won't be able to open the object
back in illustrator from photoshop.

I am using Illustrator CS6 (Mac). I am using free transform tool. Why can't I use Shift Option Command to distort in perspective?

I am using Illustrator CS6 (Mac). I am using free transform tool. Why can't I use Shift Option Command to distort in perspective?

hong,
You need to ClickDrag just a tiny bit, then apply the Shift Option Command.

When I click on the objects it no longer appears automatically free transform how can I fix it?

When I click on the objects it no longer appears automatically free transform how can I fix it?

Cmd(Ctrl)-Shift-B is the toggle for Show/Hide Bounding Box.

Allow Free Distort like Photoshop

In Photoshop, you can pull an image's control handles around to your heart's content, and fine tune the distortion to line up with a perspective grid. In Illustrator, you can only distort the bounding box of the whole shape, so once you move a single control handle, you lose control of one or more corners of the image, making precise distortions almost impossible. The best we have right now is the Effect > Distort & Transform > Free Distort tool, but there's no preview, so again, you can't line up the shape with a perspective grid.
Please make Illustrator's Free Distort tool like Photoshop's!

OK....so it's three years on from that original post (and the problem was around for years before that). We have seen all kinds of silly unnecessary fluff appear in the versions of Illustrator since then, but this fundamental bug still remains. It's such an important part of any workflow, and is so well implemented by the Adobe folks at Photoshop and After Effects. If anyone who programs Illustrator is reading this, please PLEASE admit that you're really not very good - just go Effect > Distort & Transform > Free Distort to see what I mean (look at that interface! Where's the Preview? Is this chunk of code from the 1980s?). Please swallow your misplaced pride, and ask one of the AE or PS people to do your job for you - properly. They'd probably fix the problem in 5 minutes. Admit it to yourself, your 'O' level in BASIC programming from 1979 just won't cut it any more.
We all know that AI is a piece of junk - old bits of hastily cobbled-together code from various vintages, so please concentrate on just making it NOT SUCK, before you try to add a veneer of shiny new features to distract people from the underlying problems this piece of bloatware has. It really needs re-writing from the ground up, just not in COBOL or FORTRAN.
....not that this will go anywhere...what am I going to do? Use FreeHand instead?! Ugh. The joys of a monopoly.
If EVERYONE who faces this problem in Illustrator submits a bug report (because it IS a bug - surely this is not "as designed"?!), maybe someone might take notice, and in another 3 years' time, the problem might get fixed. We can live in hope.....
I haven't ploughed through every post in this thread, so it might have been mentioned already...but there is a kind-of (not very good) workaround, using Object > Envelope Distort > Make with Mesh (and set the mesh to 1x1). The corners have stupid Bezier handles, which won't go away, even using the Anchor Point Tool, so it will try to warp/bend the thing all over the place. But with some careful faffing around, and assuming you don't mind the artwork ending up a bit bent, you can get almost acceptable results.

Can I Free Transform/Distort An Object Like Photoshop?

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