I still cannot get it to work and I have a fully updated version 25.4.1.

Freehand was the program for graphic design but it was killed for illustrator :(((((

The Bounding box when using the free distort reset back to the initial shape and doesn't follow the shape you are shaping, Which makes it virtually impossible to make fine tuned distortions

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Varun Sharma (Sr Product Manager, Adobe Illustrator) megválaszolva · 2020. március 18.
Hi Everyone,

We have improved the working experience of Free Distort tool. Now the bounding box will not reset! This functionality now is available in our latest release build – 24.1.1 for Win and 24.1 for Mac which is available worldwide now.
What I dont get though is that it still doesn't do this for free *transform* unless you apply a free distort to it first. Its a bad UX for this functionality
Corel Draw already had it in 90's... even the "transform each" as it should to be!: interactive with handles, right in the canvas, with just pressing a short key.

I think 30 years has been enough to copy and improve it. Anyway... don't worry, I'm afraid is too late. Nowadays, almost any of the cheaper design tools out there has it as standard (Affinity is clear example... no dialog boxes or panels) .

I still cannot get it to work and I have a fully updated version.

I precise this feature (freely rotating artboard in Illustrator) has 517 votes... VS 57 votes for the enhancement of the free distort bounding box. Difficult to understand why you prioritize a feature that is 10 times less in demand than another! But hey, for once you act, let's rejoice anyway ...

Thank you for making this important tool finally usable! Now Adobe, please implement the possibilité to FREELY ROTATE THE ARTBOARD when one drawing. Every real Illustrator (maybe you know one?) will explain you this is an essential and basic feature when it came to draw. And it is requested for a decade !

It is an improvement in that it works fine for the free distort tool.

What I dont get though is that it still doesn't do this for free *transform* unless you apply a free distort to it first. Its a bad UX for this functionality

Anonymous commented: "3 years..."
If you're referring to how long it took to fix this, you've missed a 2 off. It's been over 32 years...Illustrator turns 33 tomorrow (19th March).

3 years …

This is very welcome and, along with the improvements to live redraw, makes for a much better working experience.
If I may offer once piece of feedback, it's that the bounding box shouldn't disappear while it's being manipulated. Thanks.

THANK YOU! 😊
If I was Adobe, I'd make this feature the headline of every event you hold for the next year.

Exactly!!! It's total nightmare in 2020. I have the same problem here. This plugin has free distort since 2014? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnxYmogVUtA

Corel Draw already had it in 90's... even the "transform each" as it should to be!: interactive with handles, right in the canvas, with just pressing a short key.

I think 30 years has been enough to copy and improve it. Anyway... don't worry, I'm afraid is too late. Nowadays, almost any of the cheaper design tools out there has it as standard (Affinity is clear example... no dialog boxes or panels) .

It is straight up INSANE that free distort doesn't work in illustrator like it does in photoshop after this long.

This bug has been mentioned elsewhere, but I fear it will never get fixed.

Indeed ! And this makes the tool very painful to use and almost useless! What a waste of time and what lack of precision. I'm really surprised that there are not more graphic designers who complain about the absurd operation of a tool so useful (and that works so fine in Photohop) ... For me, the only explanation such a gap in a software which pretends to be the standard of the graphic industry is that Adobe never solicits the feedback of real graphic designers or real illustrators for the development of "Illustrator". Considering the price of this software, I think it is shameful.

It should definitely work on the actual artwork, like in Photoshop, instead of that pop-up window, which requires a lot of trial and error.

Further to this, modelling the free distort tool in Illustrator after the one in Photoshop would be a great improvement. Being able to distort your actual object, at size, on the artboard versus a tiny approximation in a dialog box would make it far more accurate and usable.

I've been hoping this would be improved for many Illustrator updates - here's hoping it's addressed soon. Thank you.

I have posted a discussion in the Illustrator pre-release forum: https://forums.adobeprerelease.com/illustratorpr/discussion/1991/free-transform-discussion-on-how-to-improve-it#latest
...suggesting it works exactly like the Transform tool in Photoshop when you ctrl-drag a corner point.

I'm working with Illustrator for 10 years now, and I never found a useful tool to replicate Photoshop's "Free Distort" tool. A tool that lets me distort a graphic object through the 4 corners of its bounding box, which doesn't use a pop-up window (so I can see what's behind) and doesn't automatically expand its shape when I release the mouse.
So far I found 3 unsuccessful options:

1) "Envelope Distort" using "Make with Top Object", where top object is a rectangle that encloses the graphics.
It would work, if it were not that the 4 corner points get automatically bezier-ed, creating that "'70s psychedelic text" effect . If you convert the points by removing the bezier, a strange fish-eye look comes out.

2) Free Transform Tool (E)> Free Distort.
Perfect, it looks like it! Too bad you can not move a corner without distorting the other 3 ... Instead of the "Done" button as on PS, here, as soon as you release the mouse, the shape is somehow "expanded", making it useless.

3) Effect> Distort> Free Distort.
Finally, I can work on the 4 corner points individually without involving the others and without bezier distortions.
Too bad the interface is a tiny pop-up window (REALLY???) , I can't enlarge it, I can't see the whole artwork, what if I have to match the distortion with something in the background?

Please Santa claus can you fix free distort to keep the bounding box parallel to the shape so I don't need to spend 45 quid just to get this already pricey software to work properly