How do I fake a perspective with...

When I was using Corel Draw I was able to grab any of the four corner nodes and drag them anywhere, freely distorting the object.

I would often use this to make faux perspectives.

For the life of me I can't find an effective way to do this in Illustrator CS4.

Envelope (with Mesh) doesn't do it.

And Free Distort is kind of a joke. Actually this is exactly what I'm looking for but I'm looking for a way to do it in the drawing and not in a microscopic dialog box. (Even when I tried it, it didn't look like it distorted well.)

Am I missing a tool or effect somewhere?

How do I fake a perspective with...

I'm a Mac user.. so convert the modifiers keys if you're on a Windows system.

The Free Distort effect is a serious joke. Instead use the Free Transform Tool (hit e to select it).

The order of which you use the following modifiers in conjunction with the Free Transform Tool is important.

You must click a handle, then hold the modifier keys.

Hold Command and drag a corner... distort that corner

Hold Command+Option ... distort opposite corners

Hold Command+Option+Shift.... distort in perspective

Hope that helps.

How do I fake a perspective with...

Thanks. When I read your reply it really sounded like that would do it.

But when I tried it I got some really odd behavior. Every time I move a corner the bounding box ''reset'' and all four corners acted like ''corner pins'' which gave unwanted additional distortion on the second move. Very strange. I'm sure this way makes sense to the coders but this is only partly useful and clunky. (In Corel Draw the corner of the bounding box would stay put where you left it so that you could move all four points around fluidly.)

Your perspective modifiers for the Free Transform tool kinda do the job (in combination with the Scale tool and then the Shear Tool (!) ) But then Illustrator doesn't distort properly when your subject is actually a few shapes which have been expanded.

Eh, I should be sounding off on this in the Feature Request section.

Thanks for your time, I will get some use out of your suggestion!

Feature request isn't a bad idea. Illustrator has always needed more perspective tools in my opinion.

Unfortunately, the bounding box ''snapping'' back to square is just how AI works. I do wish it would stay fixated at the object edges rather than always a rectangle, but it just doesn't, never has.

You don't really need the Scale or Shear tool unless you want to distort by numbers.

Command+Shift+A side handle with the Free Transform Tool = Shear

(Add Option to shear both sides symmetrically)

Shift+A corner handle with the Free Transform Tool = Scale

(Add Option to scale from center)

Add to the list of ''perspective'' tools-that-don't-work Illustrator's poor implementation of Envelope distortion. There is no provision for an Envelope to originate with its corner point handles retracted. If there were, one could do the kinds of distortions to which HikaruTV refers in Draw, those which can be done in FreeHand and Photoshop--with a simple 1x1 Mesh Envelope.

Another example of Illustrator providing a confused and scattered set of tools which do related things, none of which adequately perform the most straighforward and commonly needed operations (much like the various cutting tools).

JET

One of Illustrator's weakest points. Definitely a feature request and one made many times.