Envelope distort more than 100%?

[Vincent Rosati]

Maybe create an Art Brush, like this:
3812_pipe2.ai.zip

Vince

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[Jiri Fiala]

How did you do that man? I was trying to do that but AI kept telling me there were “elements that cannot be used as a brush” – expanding or flattening didn’t help.

Your file is indeed perfect, thank you very much!

[Vincent Rosati]

Looks like, probably, when you expanded the gradient their was a mask object that surrounded the expanded elements – this is the typical behavior.
I just selected the the mask with the Group Selection tool and deleted it before dragging the gradient into the Brushes palette.
You should probably be able to try this in your original artwork.

Also note that I used Effect / Stylize / Round Corners on the angular shapes, to make the pipe/brush bend properly.

Vince

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[Jiri Fiala]

Great, thanks!

Just one more thing – when I make a loop with this brush, it does a weird thing on intersection (please see the AI file). This obviously doesn’t look like a bent pipe.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1273571/3812_pipe3.ai

[Vincent Rosati]

You’ll just need to duplicate the pipe on top of itself – Copy/Front – Hold Ctrl or Cmd + C, release C then click F. Or, Edit / Copy, Paste in Front.
Basically, you’re creating a patch for the intersection.
Then just use the Scissor tool (C) to cut on both sides of the intersection, then delete the unnecessary parts. Or, you could mask the intersection.

Vince

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[Jiri Fiala]

Perfect! I would never find this out myself. I’m an Afer Effects guy 🙂