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Bend Deformer

Pro Feature

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Intro​

Deform Shapes by bending them around the circumference of a circle.

UI​

Common Attributes +

Bend Angle - Set the angle of the bend in degrees. 360° will bend a rectangle into a ring.

Direction - Determine which axis to place the deforming circle along:

  • Horizontal - Align the deforming circle along the X axis.
  • Vertical - Align the deforming circle along the Y axis.

Horizontal Pin - When Direction is set to Horizontal, align the deforming circle in relation to the Shape's bounding box.

  • Centre - Bend from the centre of the Shape's bounding box.
  • Left - Bend from the left edge of the Shape's bounding box.
  • Right - Bend from the right edge of the Shape's bounding box.

Vertical Pin - When Direction is set to Vertical, align the deforming circle in relation to the Shape's bounding box.

  • Middle - Bend from the middle of the Shape's bounding box.
  • Top - Bend from the top of the Shape's bounding box.
  • Bottom - Bend from the bottom of the Shape's bounding box.

Use Levels - When checked, the child meshes can be affected independently.

Level Mode - Choose which level(s) of a Mesh to affect.

  • Custom... - Manually set a Custom Level.
  • Text (Lines) - Used with a Text Shape, this will affect each line.
  • Text (Words) - Used with a Text Shape, this will affect each word.
  • Text (Characters) - Used with a Text Shape, this will affect each character.

Custom Level - Set the level within the Mesh's hierarchy to affect.

Example
  1. Create a Rectangle.
  2. Set its Width to 800.
  3. Click the + button on the Rectangle's Deformers attribute and choose Bend.
  4. Adjust the Bend Angle to increase/decrease the amount of bend applied to the Rectangle.
Multiple Shapes

By default, Bend will deform Shapes based on their individual bounding boxes. In order to bend multiple Shapes as a single deformation, a Custom Shape or Pre-Comp can be used.

Custom Shape

  1. Add several Shapes to a Group.
  2. Create a Custom Shape.
  3. Connect group.id→customShape.inputShape.
  4. Add a Bend Deformer to the Custom Shape.
  5. Ensure the Bend Deformer's Use Level attribute is unchecked.

Pre-Comp

  1. Add several Shapes.
  2. Select the Shapes and go Composition > Pre-Compose.
  3. Add a Bend Deformer to the new Pre-Comp.
  4. Ensure the Bend Deformer's Use Level attribute is unchecked.

Note that the Pre-Comp's resolution must include enough padding to accommodate the resulting bend otherwise the Shapes may be cropped by the Pre-Comp's bounds.