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- [Voiceover] All right, now

one of the interesting things



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about object blends is that

when the two extreme shapes



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are far apart from each other,

as they are in this case,



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we have this thing called

the spine in between,



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and to see that spine,

I'll go ahead and select it



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using the white arrow tool,

that's very important,



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by marqueeing through the central portion



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of the intervals like so,



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at which point you will

see this path outline



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between the center of the square



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and the center of the circle,



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and that is the spine, incidentally,



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and what it amounts to is the path along



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which the blend progresses,



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and now notice if I go

up to the Object menu,



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choose Blend and then

choose Reverse Spine,



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that'll reverse the direction of that path



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and it'll also reverse the

direction of the entire blend



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as you can see here,



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and by the same token,



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if I go ahead and grab this anchor point



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at the end of the path outline,



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this is the end of the spine,



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and this is the beginning, incidentally,



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if I go ahead and drag

this anchor point down



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and to the right, I'll move

the circle along with it



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and the same goes if I drag

the first anchor point,



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I'll move that rounded square.



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All right, that's not really

the effect I'm looking for,



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however, and so, I'll

go up to the File menu



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and choose the Revert command



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in order to restore the

document that we saw



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at the beginning of the movie.



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All right, now what I want you to see here



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is the distance between the intervals.



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Notice that they're packed

more tightly here at the end



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of the blend, toward the circle,



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than they are toward the

beginning of the blend



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at the rounded square.



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We can control that by

modifying the spine,



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so I'll once again marquee

in an empty portion



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of the illustration as you're seeing here,



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just through the intervals so

that we're selecting the spine



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without the circle or the square,



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and now what I want you to

see is that this is just



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a straight path outline.



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We've got a corner point at one end



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and another corner point at the other,



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no control handles whatsoever,



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but if we were to add control handles,



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then we'd have greater control

over both the direction



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and the speed of the blend.



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And to demonstrate that, I'll

go ahead and click and hold



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on the Pen Tool and choose

the Anchor Point Tool



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from this fly-out menu,



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or you can press the keyboard

shortcut of shift + "c".



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Now I'll just go ahead and

drag from this corner point,



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in order to draw forth a

couple of control handles,



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so we now have a smooth point,



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and I'll drag from this guy as well,



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and it appears I was moving

in the wrong direction



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both times, but,



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if that happens to you, all you have to do



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is reverse your direction as I've done,



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and now notice, if I press

the "a" key to switch back



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to my white arrow tool,



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then I can go ahead and

drag these control handles



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in order to modify the

direction of the blend,



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like so.



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Another option is to keep

your control handles aligned



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with the path outline,



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and that's going to require

me to drag a couple of times,



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in which case you'll end

up with a straight blend



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as we're seeing here,



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but notice as I move the control handle,



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I'm changing the distance

between the intervals



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so I'm actually controlling

the speed of the blend,



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and at some point, I'll

see that the intervals



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are more or less evenly spaced.



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Now, the other thing I want

you to notice at this point



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is that we have some lumpiness.



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Can you see that there?



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Right at the top of these early shapes.



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And the reason for that is,



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if I go ahead and click

on a square to select it,



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and then I'll drag one

of these corner widgets



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in order to return the

shape's sharp corners,



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then notice that it has a

total of four anchor points



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and they're all located in the corners.



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Compare that to the circle,



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which has anchor points at the top,



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the bottom, and the two sides,



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if that were to say we

were looking at a circle



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instead of a pie.



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All right, now I'll go ahead

and switch to the Ellipse Tool



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so that I can see my live shape widgets



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and I'll go ahead and drag this pie widget



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so the two are aligned with each other,



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to restore a circular shape,



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and notice now how smooth things are



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and that's because, at least in my case,



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the anchor points have moved,



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so that in other words, the

ellipse has rotated 45 degrees



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and to show you the difference here,



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I'll go ahead and hover my cursor close to



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but not directly on one

of the corner handles,



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and I'll press the shift

key as I rotate this shape



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into its standard orientation



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so that I have anchor points

at the top, the bottom,



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and the two sides,



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and notice now that we have

a little bit of lumpiness



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going on, so we've got

these kind of points



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at the top of our initial intervals.



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Compare that to what happens

if I rotate the shape



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45 degrees, so that the anchor points



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are now located in the corners



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and I have corners in

air quotes, by the way,



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because we don't really have

corners with an ellipse,



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but we do have anchor points

at analogous locations,



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so in other words,



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those anchor points match the locations



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found inside the square



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and as a result, we

have these very smoothly



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transitioning intervals,



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and that's because object

blends rely on anchor points



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in order to do their work,



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and we'll see more about

how that affects real world



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blends in future movies.



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All right, I'll just go ahead and press



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control + shift + "a"



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or command + shift + "a" on

a Mac in order to deselect



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my artwork and I'll turn off

the Guides layer as well,



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and that's how you either redirect a blend



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or change its speed



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by editing its spine,

here inside Illustrator.