Pucker and bloat tool not symmetrical??

[A2D2]

Hi. I am trying to use the bloat tool to create a 5 petal flower from a regular pentagon.

In the Illustrator menu I navigate to EFFECT > DISTORT & TRANSFORM > PUCKER & BLOAT.

However, as shown in the screenshot, the result is not symmetrical. 

The red stroke is the pentagon stroke to which I am applying the effect. The other shapes are just to show alignment. The stroke is not aligned to the pixel grid and so it should be free to be drawn.

We can see that the different petals are different shapes.

Admitedly, I am using CS6 but is this the problem? Is there  something I am missing. I like the bloat effect for the type of flower I am trying to create but it needs to be symmetrical. Is there a better way to create the symmetrical 5 petal flower without drawing it?

[Tina_Irvine]

Hi @A2D2,

That is correct that it will not give you a symmetrical result from "pucker and bloat." If you're creating a lot of flowers, or plan to create more images that require radial symmetry, it might be worth considering an upgrade to your current Illustrator version. The "Repeat > Radial" tool is really handy for this: 

https://helpx.adobe.com/ca/illustrator/using/repeat-patterns-desktop.html#:~:text=Create%20a%20radia....

As for using the older version, this tutorial will help you with duplicating a petal shape and rotating it (you'll need to change the degrees for using 5 petals).

https://helpx.adobe.com/ca/illustrator/using/create-a-heart-shaped-flower.html

[A2D2]

Thank you for the reply. The next question then would be "why does the pucker and bloat tool not give radial symmetry?".

If it does not work symmetrically or with a predicatable path then it seems hard to understand how it does work.

[Tina_Irvine]

My apologies, I worded that incorrectly. The shape you were using doesn't provide symmetry with the pucker and bloat tool. You can try a different shape. A 6-sided / hexagon works better than 5 for symmetry. Hopefully this helps 🙂

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

The Pucker and Bloat effect is a little dumb.

It works from the center of the bounding box, not from the geometrical center of the object. It will be fine with a circle or a square or an octagon. But if the center of the bounding box does not match the geomeztrical center of the shape, then Pucker&Bloat fails.

[A2D2]

Thank you for the replies. I couldn't find a way to show the centre of the bounding box in Illustrator. That would have helped me overlooking the difference between the centre of a geometrical shape and the centre of the bounding box. In InDesign the centre of the bounding box is at least shown when the object is being dragged.

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

The center of the bounding box can be turned on in the Attributes panel.

BUT: as long as it is still a live shape (and not just a path), this setting will show the actual center of the object. Center of the bounding box can then only be concluded from the side handles.

[Monika Gause]

You can do it precisely like this: https://youtu.be/4UOHRjPnV1Q

You do not need the Join tool in the end when everything before has worked out precisely.