I have an image that I’d really like to wrap around in a circle (I’ve made a cool pattern and I want to use it as a circular border).
Can anyone tell me how to do this using Illustrator or Photoshop (or some other, preferably free, software)? There seem to be numerous ways to map text along a curved path, and I have found tutorials for that. I have consulted the great google, but I have not found a tutorial on how to do this.
It seems like Distort -> Polar coordinates in Photoshop should work, but I can’t figure out how to use it. It just distorts the image.
Distort -> Twirl in Illustrator seems like a step in the right direction, but it distorts the ends of the image something crazy.
Assuming you have a copy of Illustrator that you can install plug-ins into (I’m a bit confused on that point from your OP), it appears that this will do what you’ve described. If that looks like it’s on the right track, go to the product’s home page to download a trial copy and play with it.
This only works if your base pattern is Illustrator artwork not imported gifs, jpegs or bitmaps.
Select it and go to edit->define pattern.
Go to the brushes palette and make a new brush. Choose pattern brush. Pick the pattern you made and apply it for each of the different segments of the brush. Leave the fit option on stretch, work with the scale as needed.
Once your brush is made, you can draw any object and apply that brush to the border.
If your pattern is a bitmap, maybe you can convert it to vector art with streamline or something.
I suggested Illustrator because that is the program I made the original image in. Photoshop is available in my school’s computer labs. Given the generally high cost of image editing apps, I hoped to use either these, or something free.
Natural, after I selected my image, I was unable to use edit -> define pattern. It was greyed out.
ok, take the image, make the canvas much biggerso you have lots of blank space around it. Copy the image and align it so that it is letterboxed on the screen and then do filters distortions, polar coordinates.
There may be easier ways, i am no expert but the Gimp is cool.
According to Adobe’s “Illustrator Classroom in a Book”, the best way is to
[ul][li]select the pattern[/li][li]drag it to the Swatches palette[/li][li]click the New Brush button in the Brushes palette[/li][li]select New Pattern Brush[/li][li]select the Side Tile box[/li][li]select the pattern from the Swatches palette[/li][li]select the Outer Corner and Inner Corner boxes, if needed[/li][/ul]