DOCS/Modifiers

Pucker / Bloat

Path

Pull vertices toward the centre, or push the edges away from it.

One slider, two directions. Negative puckers — vertices pull toward the centre while the edges between them bow outward, giving you spiky starbursts. Positive bloats — edges balloon out and the shape goes soft and blobby.

It is the fastest way to turn a plain polygon into something organic or something aggressive, without touching a single point by hand.

Try itPucker / Bloat

Amountoff

This stage calls the same `applyPathOperator` the editor calls on every frame.

When to reach for it#

Turning a circle into a flower or a starburst.
Softening a hard polygon into a blob.
Animated squash where the shape needs to feel elastic rather than scaled.

How it works#

Vertices move along the line to the shape's centroid; the curve between them is pulled the opposite way. Because everything is relative to one centroid, the effect is strongest on shapes with evenly spaced points and weakest on long thin ones, where most points are already about the same distance from the middle.

Parameters#

Amountamount#

-100 to 100. Zero does nothing. Negative puckers into spikes, positive bloats into a blob. The interesting range for most shapes is between -60 and 60; beyond that the shape stops being recognisable.

Recipes#

A flower from a polygon

Draw a polygon with 8 sides.
Add Pucker / Bloat and drag Amount up to about 60.
Add Round Corners after it at around 40 to soften the petal tips.

Things that catch people out#

Low point counts barely respond

A triangle has three vertices, so there is very little for the operator to work with. Add points — raise the polygon side count, or run Round Corners first, which subdivides.