bulia byak wrote:

On 1/30/07, Alan Horkan <horkana@...44...> wrote: http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~horkana/inkscape/illustrator/Adobe-Illustrator-CS/A...

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(found a better link)

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From the middle to the left, see warp tool, and twirl

http://www.coe.fau.edu/abinder/handouts/Itools.htm

These are taken from Adobe Illustrator CS verison 1

OK, I admit I wasn't aware of this - it wasn't available in my older version which I used until recently. It's indeed a good feature. Different from ours but having its own strengths (and limitations). We need to catch up, not by copying but by thinking how we can do the same better and more flexible.

I fired up my copy of AI10 and played with them. Here are some thoughts:

They have separate tools for warp, twirl, pucker, bloat, scallop, crystallize, and wrinkle... none of which you can configure (at least not that I could find in my version). I don't have my tablet at the office so I don't know if pressure makes a difference either. It seems like overkill (in typical AI fashion) to have SEVEN tools to accomplish these various (but somewhat similar) tasks.

My first question is, do we add this functionality to an existing tool or create a new "distortion" tool? Either way, I propose a bunch of modifiable parameters (including size of affected area, as it seems AI can't do that... at least not with the mouse). Oh and can't forget that if we could enable pressure and tilt interaction for tablets that would totally rock.

Anyway, if we go the parameter route, it also seems like a good time to perhaps look experimenting with a "preset" system. So people can save and load presets. If we make it very flexible we could ship with a bunch of presets and also have community contributed presets on the website that people could download.

I guess I look at this distortion/modification stuff in the way I'd love to see our brush capabilities go (when we can directly paint with objects/patterns/etc). I believe (easily) loadable sets of options, presets, and brushes will really help foster more community contribution. Some people may not know how to contribute, but, they may be very artistic and willing to give back. This seems to be the case for every other program with loadable brushes and such.

I'm not married to any of the above ideas or even believe that this is the best way to go, for the most part I'm just throwing a bunch of ideas out there to stimulate more conversation about this. :) Also, is it my imagination or does this seem like a prime candidate for the live path effects?

I will add items from the discussion to a wiki page once the conversation has built up a little more (and other thoughts/ideas are out there).

-Josh