Bending artwork with Reshaper and Pin bend in Vectornation

Not every change is a straight move or a neat scale. Sometimes you want to take part of a shape and pull it, letting the nearby outline stretch along, or pose a character's arm without redrawing it. Vectornation by Zaweba has two tools for these softer changes, the Reshaper and Pin bend, also known as puppet warp.

Both work on artwork the way you might work on a rubber figure: hold some parts still and move others.

The Reshaper

The Reshaper drags a point or a spot on a path so the nearby part stretches with it. Grab anywhere on the outline, not only an anchor point, and drag. The section of path around where you grabbed follows, while the parts further away stay put.

This is quicker than moving points and handles one by one when you want a broad change, such as making a hill higher, pushing out the belly of a bottle shape or pulling a wave crest further over. The result keeps the character of the original shape rather than becoming a set of separate edits.

Pin bend

Pin bend places pins on artwork, and dragging a pin bends the artwork around the others. Pins work like joints. Put a pin at a character's shoulder, one at the elbow and one at the hand. Drag the hand pin and the arm bends at the elbow while the shoulder holds.

To remove a pin, Alt-click it or press Delete with it selected. Since version 0.9.0, puppet warp pins are saved with the artwork, so you can come back to a figure later and carry on adjusting its pose from the same pins rather than setting them up again.

Jobs these tools suit

Character illustration is the obvious one. A single drawn figure can be posed in different ways for a set of illustrations or for a storyboard, without redrawing it each time.

Lettering and logos benefit too. Bend a word to follow a curve, add a gentle wave to a banner, or give a rigid shape a little life.

Product and object illustration can use the Reshaper to make small adjustments to outlines, such as fattening a bottle or lengthening a neck, while keeping the shape smooth.

Getting natural results

Place pins where real joints would be. In a figure, that means shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips and knees. In an object, it means where you want it to stay put or to hinge. Pins in odd places give odd bends.

Use enough pins to hold the parts that should not move. If a whole area drifts when you drag a pin, add another pin to anchor it.

Move in small steps. Large drags can over stretch artwork. Several small moves usually look better than one big one.

For the Reshaper, grab close to the area you want to change. The further from your grab point, the less the outline moves, so where you start decides how broad the change is.

How they fit with other tools

For corner based distortion, the Free shape tool's Perspective distort and Free distort are better. For warping artwork into an overall shape, envelopes do the job. For exact point by point editing, the Point picker is the right tool. The Reshaper and Pin bend sit between these, offering a natural, hands on way to change shapes that would otherwise need a lot of fiddly work.

Keep a copy of artwork before heavy bending, on a hidden layer, so you always have the original pose. With that safety net, the Reshaper and Pin bend in Vectornation by Zaweba make shaping by feel both quick and forgiving.