Making a circular object straight

[Anon1920]

Hello,

I am more familiar with Indesign than I am Illustrator, but I have an object in Illustrator that I would like to transform and use in Indesign later. The object I have is a circular wreath design that I would like to transform into a straight line. Below is the design, it is a vectorized object within Illustrator, I am just wondering if there is a fairly easy way to do this, if anyone knows of resources that may help or if I would be better off going a different path instead of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

Thank you so much!

Wreath design 

[Bill Silbert]

Any vector Illustrator object can simply be selected and then copied and pasted into InDesign as live vector art. The paths then become InDesign paths and can be used as frames to contain text, images or just filled with color. Usually this is not something that I recommend since it is really more efficient (Illustrator has more advanced drawing tools that don't exist in inDesign) to do any subsequent editing in Illustrator and then update the graphic in the InDesign file. This is especially true when you want to use the graphic in multiple instances—you only have to make the changes once.

That being said, I don't really understand what you mean when you say, "The object I have is a circular wreath design that I would like to transform into a straight line." Are you talking about a morphing animation? Neither Illustrator or InDesign would be the way to go for that. You would need an animation program for that.

[Monika Gause]

There is no simple way to make this straight. You could cut it in pieces and rearrange it. Or draw a new design based on it.

[Jacob Bugge]

Anon,

I believe it may be worth your trying to trace the development of the wreath back to its roots (almost literally). It may have started as a straight artwork (that has since been (turned into brush(es) and) wrapped round a circle (path set), and if you can get back to that, you are (almost) done.

[rcraighead · Accepted solution]

Try this method. It uses Photoshop "Puppet Warp" tool:

Here's the converted file, but I'd encourage you to give the full process a try. It's kind of fun.

PuppetWarpConvertions.ai

[Anon1920]

WOW! Thank you so much for the help and for showing me how to make these changes in Photoshop. That was amazing to watch! You totally made my day and now I'm going to go have a bit of fun recreating your process. 🙂

[kphotopage]

Anon, Hi.

If interested here is another method.

Like your example, it appears to be an Art Brush, applied a circle with stretch to fit, and then expanded.

I did the same here to test.

Now want linear.

Select or Lasso half of your art elements. Rotate if needed. I drew a red linear line as a visual.

Then used Object>Envelope>Make with Warp>Arc.

Play with those settings.

Expanded Envelope, slightly adjust the width to eliminate the stretching distort.

If your circle design is asymmetrical, then repeat the same process for the bottom half.

K

[rcraighead]

I like this approach, especially if you have a vector to start with. Great idea!