2013

Blends 245
it allows blends from just about any shape to any other shape, with dissimilar
numbers of handles.
However, blends between objects with sharp corners can produce unwanted twists in
the blend.
The two shapes have different numbers of handles, and a blend from one to the other
produces the result on the right. It has a twist in the top right corner.
You can control exactly which point handles map, when creating the blend, by
dragging from the point handle of one shape to a corresponding handle on the other
shape. You will need to have both shapes selected in order to see the control points.
The left example has the top right handles mapped so now there is no twist in the
right side. In order to get the exact desired effect it’s sometimes necessary to
experiment by mapping between alternative points or adding or removing point
handles to one of the shapes. The Apple drawing on the front of this chapter is an
example of complex highlights created entirely from blends.
The number of steps
To change the number of steps in your blend, just enter a
value in the
STEPS box.
It is also possible to change the distance between steps, but this option is only
available when creating a blend along a curve (see below).
The Anti-Alias button on the InfoBar
When producing highlight effects, anti-aliasing the intermediate steps has no visible
benefit. However, it slows down screen redraws by up to 30% on slow computers.
Therefore, deselecting the ANTI-ALIAS button means that Page & Layout
Designer never anti-aliases the intermediate steps of this blend.