Warp
The Warp tool — a lattice that folds a layer or a single object in three dimensions, with keyframable folds.
Reference
- Tool
- Warp
- Section
- Warp
The Warp tool folds and wraps a layer as if it were paper or cloth. It works by putting a lattice of control points over the artwork: drag a point and the image drapes to follow. The points live in three dimensions, so a warp is a real fold in the scene rather than a flat distortion — orbit the viewport with two fingers and the fold is there.
There are two lattices. A layer warp drapes the whole layer's image. An object warp — a free-form deformation — deforms one vector object in place, thickness and all.
Adding a warp to a layer
With the Warp tool selected and no warp on the active layer, the panel reads "Fold/wrap this layer like paper or cloth."
Puts a 4 × 4 lattice on the active layer and switches to the Warp tool.
On a plane layer the lattice is built on the layer's own surface, fitted to the content's bounds, so the grid sits exactly on the drawing and stays there from any camera angle. On a two-dimensional camera layer it is a screen-rectangle lattice on the camera plane.
Adding a warp changes nothing on screen. The layer keeps drawing normally until a control point actually moves.
Controls
The panel reads "Drag the blue lattice points to fold the layer in 3D (orbit with two fingers to see the fold)."
Changes what a lattice-point drag does. Off, a point slides across the screen. On, dragging down pulls the point toward you and up pushes it away — which is how a fold gets its depth without your having to orbit to a three-quarter view first. The panel says which is in force. 3D shots only; a 2D shot folds in the picture plane and does not show this.
Enables the warp. This is a keyable channel — see below.
Lattice divisions across. The stepper reads X <n>.
Lattice divisions down. The stepper reads Y <n>.
Interpolates the lattice with a smooth spline instead of straight bilinear cells. Off gives sharper, more literal creases between points; on gives a rounded drape.
Destructive. Removes the lattice and the fold.
Changing the division count does not reset the fold. The lattice is re-gridded by sampling the existing warp at the new points' rest positions, and the rest lattice is re-gridded the same way — so an untouched warp still reports itself as untouched after you change its divisions.
A division count of 1 on an axis is legal and useful: one column of points bends the shape along Y while every X moves together, which is deformation on one axis only.
Warping a single object
The same panel drives the per-object lattice, which is entered from elsewhere.
Reference
- Tool
- Transform
- Mode
- Object
In the Transform panel, with the gizmo targeting an object and a vector object selected. Puts a 3 × 3 lattice over the object's rest bounds.
An object warp free-form-deforms world points: each point is projected into the lattice's rest frame, sampled against the lattice, and its off-plane depth is re-added afterwards — so a three-dimensional object keeps its thickness through the deformation instead of being flattened onto the grid. The division, smoothing and removal controls above act on the object warp while one is being edited.
Animating a warp
A warp is keyframable. The whole lattice is one channel, Warp (fold), on the layer's row; the enable state is a second channel, Warp on.
The panel states the workflow: "Animate on the Timeline: add a key on this layer's “Warp (fold)” row, then move the playhead and fold — new folds auto-key." This is the ordinary channel-armed model: the first key is explicit, and once the channel is armed every fold you make writes a key at the playhead. Once there are keys the panel reports them — "n warp keyframes — animating on the timeline."
Warp on is an enable channel, so it always keys with stepped interpolation: the warp is on or it is off, never half.
Two behaviours are worth knowing before keying:
- In the graph editor a warp is a non-scalar channel and is plotted as eased progress. Its curve is its timing; you shape how the fold travels, not its values.
- Interpolation between two warp keys requires matching lattices. If the division count differs between two keys, the channel holds the nearer key and swaps at the midpoint rather than morphing. Settle the divisions before keying the folds.
Warps in files saved before this version
A warp records the flat rest grid it was built on, and the layer draws normally until a point moves away from it. Warps decoded from files saved before that rest grid existed have none, so they are always treated as folded and take the older path that immediately drapes the layer onto the lattice — which can lose the layer's artwork on screen. There is no migration that fills the rest grid in. On a legacy file, remove and re-add the warp rather than editing it in place.