[tkofthefuture]

I am using OmniGraffle Pro 4 as a layout program for my architecture portfolio. However, for a stencil that I am making, I would like to deform it so that it looks like it is being stretched like a piece of taffy. Is there a way to do this in OG? If not, can you recommend any way to accomplish this? The only alternative I can see is taking it into Photoshop and using its deformation handles.

Thanks.

[DerekAsirvadem]

For what you require, exactly: Graffle=No; PS=Yes.

Hah! Never say "you can't" (saying that to myself here). I just tried something. A method, which is very simple in Graffle, as all things are in Graffle. The result is straight two dimensional (my concept of toffee is three dimensions). You can play with that, depends what you want, and how much you want to play. I used one of my stencils (flat 2D); plus Chris Heath's Glass Buttons to give it bit of depth and toffee feel.

Instructions (not marketing strokes):
• Load the image of the stencil into the object (here a rectangle with a corner radius, piece of toffee)
• generally be aware of when you want to treat it as a group-of-objets or a true group
• Edit/MakePointsEditable
•*Double-Click on the edge if you want to add a edit-point
• Command-drag any edit-point, in order to get a pair of bezier-handles
• then drag one or both bezier-handles to get the stretched effect

Not quite toffee or 3D, I realise you want the stencil on the skin of the toffee, but that's the best I can do right now.

[tkofthefuture]

Hmm, perhaps "stretched like a rubber band" would have been a better analogy. The technique you used looks similar to what I want but seems almost more like a boolean operation where the bezier handles are cutting out of the shape...

The effect that I'm trying to achieve is more like taking a square piece of rubber and pulling on two opposite sides. The stage of the project that I'm trying to show graphically is called "The Elastic Cube". I'll put up some pictures later tonight.

[DerekAsirvadem]

I understood perfectly from your first post, it was very descriptive. What you want is the image of your stencil (any image, for others) to be the skin of the 3D chunk of toffee. I said it can't be done in Graffle; simple to do in PS.

And then I gave you a limited 2D method, to get you started in an alternative, to play, to see if it was worth it.

PS does not have Graffle capabilities and vice versa. I would suggest exporting a clean image of your stencil to PS; stretching it and squeezing it there; exporting it back to Graffle as the finished image (and avoid further image manipulation except proportionate resizing).

[tkofthefuture]

Ah ok, well thank you for the advice, I will probably just end up using PS. Unfortunately, my copy doesn't work...

Thanks again for the help and the quick responses.

[DerekAsirvadem]

My pleasure.