Blend tool for complex paths

[nadrojxinnam]

I have two paths, both are essentially a knot or continuous loop shape, i want to blend from one to the other with 4-8 specified steps on the blend tool. Not sure if the shapes are too complex to get a smoother result but when i try, it comes out in a bit of a mess. Any help/tips much appreciated 🙂

[Kurt Gold]

Can you share your sample Illustrator file?

Apart from that, what is your expected result? Probably it just cannot be done with Illustrator blends.

[Bobby Henderson]

You might try reversing the direction of one of the two source paths of the blend to see if the results improve. If the blend is still pretty scrambled looking you'll need to create one or more in-between steps by hand that are more gradually similar to the original knot designs. Then you would create blends betwen those additional steps to fill out the number of total steps needed.

Blends between two paths generally work best when both paths have a similar number or same amount of anchor points and are not two wildly different from each other. If the two source paths are too dissimilar the resulting blend will have some garbled results. I'll use the Blend effect to build center line effects on lettering, but in order to build that path down the middle of the letter strokes I have to deconstruct the letter shapes into smaller path segment pairs than can be blended accurately (and I often have to reverse the direction of one of the paths as part of the process).

[Monika Gause]

Try this: Select the same number of anchors on the two paths.

each pair you select should be corresponding (one point that should gradually blend into the other)

Then take the blend tool. Click on of those points and then on the corresponding point on the other path.