How to create these 2 shapes

[Piter1288]

Hello fellas,

So I created the horseshoe below, and I need to align the circles with the same space to the uneven shape, what is the best approach?

I also want to replicate the figure in red, but the flag effect does not do it with a triangle and it only gives me 2 curves. Any trick to make it smooth from wide to narrow?

Appreciate your help and time in advance!

[Bobby Henderson · Accepted solution]

The white circles inside the horseshoe can be spaced evenly by using a blend applied to a curved path following the centerline of the horseshoe's curve. You can build that centerline by making a 1 step blend from inner and outer portions of the horseshoe path (do this with a copy of the horseshoe on another layer). It sounds complicated but it's pretty easy to do with Illustrator's path editing tools. Edit: here's an example image of the horseshoe shape with the centerline element I'm describing:

Very often when I build centerline paths using the Blend effect I have to reverse path direction on one of the two source paths to get the new centerline path to flow the desired way. Once that is done it's just a matter of attaching the blend to the new centerline path using the Replace Spline command in the Blend flyout menu.

Regarding the red, curved shape. If it's a pixel-based image, I'd just lock it down on one layer and then use the Pen tool to draw a clean path over the top of it on another layer. That's going to be faster than trying to make envelopes replicate the shape.

[Bobby Henderson]

Just for fun, I couldn't resist applying an old "proverb" as an art brush to a centerline in the horseshoe:

[Piter1288]

Glad you had fun with it! Which font is that btw?

[Bobby Henderson]

Glad you had fun with it! Which font is that btw?

By @Piter1288

It's a type super family called Heading Now (by Zetafonts). The package comes with a whopping 160 static OpenType fonts and two OTF Variable fonts that overlap all of the static styles. Each font file has over 1100 glyphs. It's very handy for sign work; I bought a copy when it was first released. The variable fonts have weight and width axes. In order to make the lettering flowing around the horseshoe look natural as possible I looked at the length of the centerline path (in the Attributes palette). Then I tailored a straight line of that lettering to match the path length exactly before turning it into an art brush. BTW, that thin vertical line added into the lettering is a dummy object aligned with one of the squared letters so the entire line vertically center aligns with the path.

[Monika Gause]

For the circles in the horseshoe I wouldn't use a blend, because blending along a path most of the time can get really tricke. The spacing depends on the length of the handles which almost never matches. I would just creates a dotted line. You have to apply dashes to the stroke. Make the line endings round. Dash length is 0 and gap as you wish.

[Bobby Henderson]

The method I used to create the centerline in my example above yielded a perfectly symmetrical source path for the blend.

[Piter1288]

Thank you for responding! Both answers were helpful, however I went with @Bobby Henderson approach because if I make a dotted line the final result when expanding is really messy:

[Jacob Bugge]

Piter,

Whenever you wish to ensure equidistant instances of a blend along a spine/path, you can:

1) Create the blend replacing the spine,

2) Direct Select the spine and Object>Path>Add Anchor Points until the instances are equidistant; you can see it directly as you do it, so you can stop/undo when done (more than) enough.

In many cases, a blend has a more pleasing/natural appearance when it reflects the differences in curvature/handle lengths rather than having equidistant instances.

In this particular case, you might consider how much you wish to represent a real (normal) horseshoe; apart from the fuller (groove) which can be omitted, such a shoe has no nail hole(s) at the toe.