I'm trying to use Envelope distort, and I can get it to look exactly the way I want it to, but it messes up the 'S', and only the S. I tried a couple letters with curves to see if it was that, but it only happens on the 'S'. Weirdly it seems like it also only happens with the fonts Illustrator comes with and not the ones I have installed. Any ideas? I'm attaching images of what I mean.
I believe it is easier to judge and advise if you also show the original lettes, preferably using the Insert Photos button at the top of the Reply box (looks like moon over mountains) which shows everything together in your post for easy comparison of shapes, rather than using attachment which only gives a link so we shall have to open each image separately and go back and forth between Tabs.
In the first screenshot I find the S no stranger than the others, without knowing the original shapes.
In the second screenshot there is a definite difference.
Are you using live (and editable) Type or outlined?
The best approach to use for distorting lettering is going to differ with each graphics task. With the specific examples you posted I think you would get more natural looking results setting up a perspective grid and attaching the strings of lettering to it.
In the case of the original poster's images, I think a perspective-based effect would look better (or more natural as I said earlier). The problem with a flat, trapezoid envelope is it can squeeze and stretch letters in very ugly ways. The balance in the vertical and horizontal letter strokes is lost and instead replaced with exaggerated differences. I think Arial is already a fairly ugly looking typeface in its natural, not-altered state. Arial looks especially hideous when sqeezed and stretched artificially (there is so much badly designed outdoor signage on the American landscape displaying that nonsense). A perspective-based distortion would at least attempt to maintain some logical balance of the letter strokes via perspective foreshortening.
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