Make smooth adjustments to parts of your vector drawings and keep other areas unchanged.

What you'll need

This sample file contains assets provided by Adobe Stock for your tutorial practice purposes only. Check out the ReadMe file in the folder for the terms of use for this file. Adobe Stock has millions of royalty-free images and videos for your commercial use. You can get 10 images with a free month trial.

Framed art print of a girl swinging sits on a mantle, surrounded by sailboats and cloud decorations

Add some pins as scaffolds

Open the sample file or use your own artwork.

You’ll need to add the Puppet Warp tool to your Toolbar. Click the Edit Toolbar button at the bottom of the Toolbar (three dots). 

Scroll in the All Tools menu to locate the Puppet Warp tool. Drag it over the Toolbar and release it when you see a blue line appear. 

Press the ESC key to dismiss the All Tools panel.

Select the Puppet Warp tool in the All Tools menu, drag it over the Toolbar and release it when a blue line appears

With the Selection tool, click or drag a marquee to select artwork. 

Select the Puppet Warp tool. Some pins are added automatically based on the artwork you selected. 

Click to add additional pins in areas you want to transform, and in areas you want to anchor in place. 

To delete a pin, click to select it and press Delete. 

Tip: The mesh overlay acts as a guide to help you place pins. You can turn off the mesh if you find it distracting—deselect Show Mesh in the Properties panel.

Image in progress of girl on swing, with Show Mesh highlighted in the tool panel

Start modifying your artwork

We deleted the pin in the middle and used just two pins to manipulate the leg—one in the ankle area and the other in the hip area.

You can now move pins to reposition parts of your drawing. We dragged the pin at her ankle to raise her leg up.

Image of girl on a swing with points selected on one hip and one ankle indicating area of movement

Select other areas of your artwork with the Selection tool to continue making adjustments.

Tip: Press Option (macOS) or Alt (Windows) while dragging a pin to constrain movement to the selected pin.

Side by side images of girl on swing with placement of pins on hip, knee, and ankle

Rotate a part of your drawing

You can rotate a selected pin for perfect placement.

Select a pin with the Puppet Warp tool, and then move the pointer over a pin to see the dotted circle surrounding it. Drag the dotted circle to rotate the pin to position your artwork.

Tip: You can add pins in your artwork to anchor some parts before rotating sections.

Image of girl on swing with four pins on one leg from hip to ankle, and a curved arrow indicating movement around one foot

Modify multiple pins at a time

Select an object, and then select the Puppet Warp tool and place additional pins if required. Press Shift and click all the pins you want to manipulate. Now you can move or elongate the areas together. 

Close-up of girl's hair with four pins placed for creating movement as she swings

Start afresh

Keep adjusting until you’re satisfied. If you’d like to reset the artwork, it’s easy to remove all pins in one step. 

With the Puppet Warp tool selected, click Select All Pins under Quick Actions in the Properties panel and press Delete.

Image of girl on a swing with a selection area around her head, Select All Pins is highlighted in tool options

Make digital puppets

Easily pose a character. When repositioning the limbs of a character, add extra pins where the limb meets the body at a joint. Select Show Mesh, and then use the Expand mesh option in the Properties panel to increase the affected area. This step is helpful when there are gaps in your artwork.

Side by side graphic of two male puppets with animation pins shown on one

Hope you had fun! Practice making smooth modifications to small and large areas of your artwork. 

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