How to Curve & Distort 3D Components
This tutorial is a comprehensive guide to teach Aspire users how to curve a 3D component to fit onto any shape and distort it to create unique designs. The tutorial explains how to use the distort tool in Aspire to place a 3D component on a curve between two open vectors. The tutorial also includes tips on how to mirror the component for all four corners using the mirror mode. If you want to learn how to use the distort tool to create eye-catching designs with 3D components in Aspire, this tutorial is perfect for you. This lesson only applies to Vectric Aspire because VCarve does not allow you to distort 3D components.
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Video Transcript:
Hello, everyone. In this quick tip, we're going to learn how to take a regular 3D component and put it on a curve to fit in between these two circles here. So you can see what that looks like if we add that in here. And you can see in the 3D view, the 3D component is curved going along the curvature of the circle.
And it doesn't have to be a circle, it can be any shape you want. And another bonus tip we're going to look at is how to take that component and mirror it for all four corners here. So, let's get started. And just so you know, what I'm about to show you can only be done in Aspire because we are going to be changing the 3D components.
And with VCarve, you're very limited on what you can do with 3D components. So if you have Aspire, you can follow along with this lesson. And we're going to start off by creating a circle. But like I said, this does not have to be a circle. This can be any shape you like. I'm just going to make an 18 inch circle for this example.
And close that. That's going to be our outer shape. And then I'm going to go to the Clipart library. And find a 3D component, and this can be any 3D component you want. Doesn't have to be from the Clipart library, you can import something as well. So I'm going to find this flourish here for this example.
And you can just double click on that to bring it in. And then you can either use the scale tool to scale it up exactly the size you need it. Or you can just grab one of these corners and just manually scale it just by visualizing what it looks like here. And at the top, if we split our view, you can see the 2d and 3d view at the same time.
And you can see this component is in a straight alignment. But what we want to accomplish in this lesson is Putting this on the curve. So normally, when you're dealing with a curve and placing something on it, there's this tool called Text on a Curve, but unfortunately that only works with text. It does not work for 3D components.
Another tool you may think of is the Circular Copy tool. That will place the shape on the circle in a circular copy pattern, but it will not bend your 3D component to the contours of the shape. So the tool we have to use here is called the distort tool. And in order to use the distort tool, we need to put it in between two curves.
So we first need to make two curves that are two open vectors. So let's close that. What I like to do is select the shape that we were working with. In this case, this is the 3d component. And you can go to the scale tool. To find the size of this, we need to know the height of the shape. So that is this number right here.
We can copy that value and close this. And then we can take our outer circle and go to the offset tool. And I'm going to offset this one inwards. And I'm going to paste the value in here and click offset. Now we have a new line representing the same distance apart as the height of the shape. So those are the two lines we are going to put this component inside of.
Now we have to decide an area that we want to place this component in. So what I like to do is use the line tool to section off that area. So I'll show you what I mean by that. Let's first move this component up here out of the way. I'm going to put this down in this lower left corner. So I'm going to use the draw line tool.
And I'm going to mainly draw two lines where I want this to start and stop. So I'm just going to put a line right here, and I'll put a line down here. And I'm just eyeballing this, there's no exact thing I'm doing there. You can get exact if you needed to, but as you can see, that's just an example there.
So once you have your lines where you want them, you're going to use the scissor tool to trim away the rest of the circle, because we only need the bottom and top part of this section. So I'm going to use the scissor tool, I'm going to trim away the remaining parts of those circles, click close, and then I can also delete these lines now.
So we don't need those lines anymore. Now we have a top and bottom line here to distort this object in between and they have to be open vectors. So now we're going to go to the distort tool and we want to select the option that says between two curves. And there is a certain order you have to select these objects in.
So first, select your 3D component. Then hold shift and select your bottom line. And you're going to see it says bottom edge okay. And then you're going to select the top edge. And then it's going to say okay for the top. And then once you have this green check mark, you're going to click apply. And it's going to warn you that The component will be baked first, that's okay, so we're going to click OK.
And you can see now that's going to distort the shape to fit within those two lines there. You can see in the 3D view, it is now distorted to fit. Just keep in mind, if your shape was very long, compared to the length of this shape, it may squish it in there. And if it was the opposite, if it was, uh, if your shape was shorter than the area it was going to fit in, it may stretch it to look a little weird.
So, you might have to play around with your settings first. But once you're happy with the way this looks, you're going to click Bake Distortion. And click OK. That's going to save it as is. And then click Close. And now your component is ready to go. And then for our last tip here is, if you wanted to mirror this...
into different corners or just different sides. You can go to the modeling tab and then on the level that that component is in, you're going to right click on the level, go down to mirror mode, and you can either do left to right, which you can see that will just copy whatever is on the left side to the right side.
But if you want all four corners, you can also right click on this, go to mirror mode. And then go and select whichever quadrant that you made your shape in. So I made the shape in the bottom left. So I'm going to choose bottom left quadrant. And that's going to take whatever is in that quadrant and mirror it to all four quadrants.
And now you can see we have a nice symmetrical design in our 3D view. And there's only one component showing in the 2D view. That's because it only mirrors in the 3d view. And then it's also dynamic, so whatever we do to this lower left corner, if I just move that, you can see all four corners are going to move at the same time.
Same thing if I stretch this, everything will stretch at the same time. Now if you go over the center lines, so you can see if I move this over the center line, it will merge them together where they go overlapping there. And you can see if I click away from that, you can see it kind of merges them together there.
So it will disregard anything that crosses the center lines. And you can bring a guideline in and snap it to the centers just to know exactly where your line is that you're crossing. You can see if I even go up here where I'm crossing both lines, it will merge that stuff together wherever it crosses.
So those are just some fun ways to be able to distort objects and also mirror them to create nice symmetrical designs. Let me know down below in the comments if this tip helped you out. That's all for this video. Make sure you like and subscribe for more. And if you want to master your Vectric software, make sure you check out my Vectric training classes linked right here, where we go much more in depth how to use the Vectric software step by step.
And included with my training courses is weekly Q&A calls where I can answer your questions one on one and get the support you need. And if you want to watch another great Vectric tip, check out this video posted right here.
And it doesn't have to be a circle, it can be any shape you want. And another bonus tip we're going to look at is how to take that component and mirror it for all four corners here. So, let's get started. And just so you know, what I'm about to show you can only be done in Aspire because we are going to be changing the 3D components.
And with VCarve, you're very limited on what you can do with 3D components. So if you have Aspire, you can follow along with this lesson. And we're going to start off by creating a circle. But like I said, this does not have to be a circle. This can be any shape you like. I'm just going to make an 18 inch circle for this example.
And close that. That's going to be our outer shape. And then I'm going to go to the Clipart library. And find a 3D component, and this can be any 3D component you want. Doesn't have to be from the Clipart library, you can import something as well. So I'm going to find this flourish here for this example.
And you can just double click on that to bring it in. And then you can either use the scale tool to scale it up exactly the size you need it. Or you can just grab one of these corners and just manually scale it just by visualizing what it looks like here. And at the top, if we split our view, you can see the 2d and 3d view at the same time.
And you can see this component is in a straight alignment. But what we want to accomplish in this lesson is Putting this on the curve. So normally, when you're dealing with a curve and placing something on it, there's this tool called Text on a Curve, but unfortunately that only works with text. It does not work for 3D components.
Another tool you may think of is the Circular Copy tool. That will place the shape on the circle in a circular copy pattern, but it will not bend your 3D component to the contours of the shape. So the tool we have to use here is called the distort tool. And in order to use the distort tool, we need to put it in between two curves.
So we first need to make two curves that are two open vectors. So let's close that. What I like to do is select the shape that we were working with. In this case, this is the 3d component. And you can go to the scale tool. To find the size of this, we need to know the height of the shape. So that is this number right here.
We can copy that value and close this. And then we can take our outer circle and go to the offset tool. And I'm going to offset this one inwards. And I'm going to paste the value in here and click offset. Now we have a new line representing the same distance apart as the height of the shape. So those are the two lines we are going to put this component inside of.
Now we have to decide an area that we want to place this component in. So what I like to do is use the line tool to section off that area. So I'll show you what I mean by that. Let's first move this component up here out of the way. I'm going to put this down in this lower left corner. So I'm going to use the draw line tool.
And I'm going to mainly draw two lines where I want this to start and stop. So I'm just going to put a line right here, and I'll put a line down here. And I'm just eyeballing this, there's no exact thing I'm doing there. You can get exact if you needed to, but as you can see, that's just an example there.
So once you have your lines where you want them, you're going to use the scissor tool to trim away the rest of the circle, because we only need the bottom and top part of this section. So I'm going to use the scissor tool, I'm going to trim away the remaining parts of those circles, click close, and then I can also delete these lines now.
So we don't need those lines anymore. Now we have a top and bottom line here to distort this object in between and they have to be open vectors. So now we're going to go to the distort tool and we want to select the option that says between two curves. And there is a certain order you have to select these objects in.
So first, select your 3D component. Then hold shift and select your bottom line. And you're going to see it says bottom edge okay. And then you're going to select the top edge. And then it's going to say okay for the top. And then once you have this green check mark, you're going to click apply. And it's going to warn you that The component will be baked first, that's okay, so we're going to click OK.
And you can see now that's going to distort the shape to fit within those two lines there. You can see in the 3D view, it is now distorted to fit. Just keep in mind, if your shape was very long, compared to the length of this shape, it may squish it in there. And if it was the opposite, if it was, uh, if your shape was shorter than the area it was going to fit in, it may stretch it to look a little weird.
So, you might have to play around with your settings first. But once you're happy with the way this looks, you're going to click Bake Distortion. And click OK. That's going to save it as is. And then click Close. And now your component is ready to go. And then for our last tip here is, if you wanted to mirror this...
into different corners or just different sides. You can go to the modeling tab and then on the level that that component is in, you're going to right click on the level, go down to mirror mode, and you can either do left to right, which you can see that will just copy whatever is on the left side to the right side.
But if you want all four corners, you can also right click on this, go to mirror mode. And then go and select whichever quadrant that you made your shape in. So I made the shape in the bottom left. So I'm going to choose bottom left quadrant. And that's going to take whatever is in that quadrant and mirror it to all four quadrants.
And now you can see we have a nice symmetrical design in our 3D view. And there's only one component showing in the 2D view. That's because it only mirrors in the 3d view. And then it's also dynamic, so whatever we do to this lower left corner, if I just move that, you can see all four corners are going to move at the same time.
Same thing if I stretch this, everything will stretch at the same time. Now if you go over the center lines, so you can see if I move this over the center line, it will merge them together where they go overlapping there. And you can see if I click away from that, you can see it kind of merges them together there.
So it will disregard anything that crosses the center lines. And you can bring a guideline in and snap it to the centers just to know exactly where your line is that you're crossing. You can see if I even go up here where I'm crossing both lines, it will merge that stuff together wherever it crosses.
So those are just some fun ways to be able to distort objects and also mirror them to create nice symmetrical designs. Let me know down below in the comments if this tip helped you out. That's all for this video. Make sure you like and subscribe for more. And if you want to master your Vectric software, make sure you check out my Vectric training classes linked right here, where we go much more in depth how to use the Vectric software step by step.
And included with my training courses is weekly Q&A calls where I can answer your questions one on one and get the support you need. And if you want to watch another great Vectric tip, check out this video posted right here.
