Creative Effects > Distort > Creating Splines >
Drawing Splines

Draw single-point, open, or closed splines around the features you want to warp or morph at the beginning of the effect.

To draw a closed spline:

1. Go to the frame where you want the effect to begin.
2. Select Spline from the Node box.
3. If you are creating a morph, select the input where you want to draw the spline. To add a spline to Input1, for example, select Input 1 in the Morph menu's Input box.
   NoteWhen creating a morph, a common strategy is to create the spline on just one input, and then copy it to the other. This has important advantages over creating splines on both inputs independently. See Toggling Spline Nodes from One Input to Another.
4. Click Add (or press N).
5. Do any of the following:
   - Click to add vertices.
   - Shift-drag to add freehand segments to the spline. Vertices are added where you drag, and appear after you release Shift. You can then use the Lasso Fit parameter to increase or decrease the number of vertices that define the freehand segments of the spline. If you add or delete vertices on the spline, or exit, the influence of the Lasso Fit parameter on the number of vertices is lost. See Adjusting the Number of Points in Freehand Segments.
6. To close the spline, do one of the following:
   - Click Close.
   - Press C.
   - Click the first vertex.
   - While holding Shift, drag to the first vertex.

   When the spline is closed, its vertices and tangents can then be edited.

   (a) Vertex(b) Tangent

   Image courtesy of Behavior Communications Inc.

To draw a single-point or open spline:

1. Go to the frame where you want the effect to begin.
2. Select Spline from the Node box.
3. If you are creating a morph, select the input where you want to draw the spline. To add a spline to Input1, for example, select Input 1 in the Morph menu's Input box.
   NoteWhen creating a morph, a common strategy is to create the spline on just one input, and then copy it to the other. This has important advantages over creating splines on both inputs independently. See Toggling Spline Nodes from One Input to Another.
4. Click Add (or press N).
5. Do any of the following:
   - Click to add vertices. If you are drawing a single-point spline, proceed to the next step.
   - Shift-drag to add freehand segments to the spline. Vertices are added where you drag, and appear after you release Shift. You can then use the Lasso Fit parameter to increase or decrease the number of vertices that define the freehand segments of the spline. If you add or delete vertices on the spline, or exit, the influence of the Lasso Fit parameter on the number of vertices is lost. See Adjusting the Number of Points in Freehand Segments.
6. To finish the spline, do one of the following:
   - Click Finish.
   - Press F.
   - Click the last vertex.

   When the spline is finished, its vertices and tangents can then be edited.

   If you want to view the nodes that are added with each new spline, select DistortSchm from the View box or press the ~ key. You can use Distort's schematic to access a menu, create parent-child relationships between splines and axes, delete splines, link Input1 and Input2 splines to create morphs, as well as perform other organizational tasks. See Using Distort's Schematic.

To show and hide splines:

1. From the Warp or Morph menu in the Distort module, do one of the following:
   - To work with source splines, click Source.
   - To work with destination splines, click Destination.
   - To work with source splines while seeing the destination splines as a reference, click Destination Show.
   - To work with destination splines while seeing the source splines as a reference, click Source Show.
   NoteTo toggle between splines drawn on the Input1 and Input2 clip, select Input1 or Input2 from the Input box.

To colour splines:

1. Click the Source colour pot or the Destination colour pot, and use the colour picker that appears. See Colour Picker.

   The colour you pick is applied to all source or destination splines accordingly.