Lens Effect transforms the selected object (path or text or its group) with three optical types.
Original object can be edited, and the effect will automatically update.
Illustrator’s “Expand Appearance” and “Blend” commands can be used.
It can be added to Illustrator’s “Graphic Styles” panel.
Example:
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From sample file effect_lens_01.ai
- Create a new document (set Units as Points) from “Illustrator > File > New…” menu.
- Type “FILTERiT5” and create text object on the document’s artboard. Set font size to 72 pt.
- Select text object.
- Select “Illustrator > Effect > FILTERiT5 > Lens...” menu. A dialog window “FILTERiT5: Lens Effect” will open.
- Soon as dialog window “FILTERiT5: Lens Effect” opens, the effect will be applied.
- From the Pop-up menu (located on the lower left of window), select “Default Settings.” Make sure “Preview” option is checked.
- Change settings on “Bounds” and check effect.
- Click “OK” and close the window.
- Use Illustrator’s “Character” panel, change the text object’s attribute.
- Open Illustrator’s “Appearance” panel.
- Select the object with effect applied, click entry from “FILTERiT5: Lens…” on “Appearance” panel. During setting up the selected object, “FILTERiT5: Lens Effect” dialog window will open.
- Change settings on the panel by referring to the following paragraph.
Setting items:Fish-eye Lens
With a positive number in the Thickness setting, any object in the center of the lens area will appear to bulge outward. With a negative Thickness setting, the center is moved away.Magnify Lens
The Magnify Lens scales objects within the lens area. The magnification settings can range from 100% to 4000%.Twirl Lens
The effect of the Twirl Lens is governed by two settings. Angle determines the angle (direction) of the effect, while Cycle determines the amount of twirl, and therefore the complexity of the resulting object.Bounds
Determines the center and the size of lens based on relative value to the selected object.
You can select the base lens size to be inside or outside of the rectangle by “Inellipse” or “Circumcircle” options. (You can check default setting by clicking “Reset.”)
By holding down the shift key while setting the value on “Width” or “Height”, the same value will be entered in both fields.
By checking “Show Bounds” option, the guide will be displayed as lens region. We recommend checking this option usually. Click “Reset” to revert settings in this group to the default setting.Preview
Check this box to see the result of the effect prior to its application. The artboard is automatically updated as you change values. When the effect is applied to extremely complex paths, you may want to uncheck Preview until you've entered your target values.Cancel/OK
The cancel button terminates the effect dialog box without changing the selected object; the OK button applies the effect with the selected settings.Pop-up menu
In the lower-left corner of the Fractalize dialog box is a triangle that gives access to the pop-up menu.
You can reset the window setting to 'Default Settings' or name the current settings and save as the preset menu.
For how to use the preset menu, please refer to 'Preset Menu.’