Illustrator :: Applying Clipping / Transparency Mask To All Layers?
Feb 27, 2013
Alright, so I'm about to rip my hair out. I'm a Photoshop guy who occasionally vectorizes stuff into Illustrator CS4 by exporting work paths. Usually it works fine, but it's been a few years since I've done this and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to apply an opacity mask to an area of a layer so that it is transparent through all objects of the layer down to the background.
Basically, I created an image with text in Photoshop. I exported work paths to illustrator and colored/filled in all the objects. I need to cut out certain parts of the image so that they're transparent through to the background so that when the image is printed up on a shirt, fabric shows through rather than ink. This sounds like a stupid question, and it probably is, but I just can't get it to work.
I've gone through all the steps of creating an opacity mask, but every time I make the object transparent, I just get a white fill from an underlying object. It will not cut through to the transparent background. I need to get this object to cut through all layers.
Once I use a Clipping Mask on a layer is the entire document covered in a mask?
And/or is all the artwork from then on inside the mask?
I've read about how to add and how to remove art from a mask. I've read about how to make and release and lots of other things.
So, then I went and found a lesson that contained the use of a Clipping Mask.
I am suppose to Select the main shape and "just" copy it and move it down (doesn't say rather to Paste in front or back but I assumed in back ~ not that it has mattered thus far)
However, while making the main shape I used Gradient Mesh and used an Offset to create a "replica" and so when I go to Select the main shape the mesh is selected and so when I Paste (in back ~ seems most logical) and then move it down the details such as the colors of the Gradient and other such things are visible in front ~ ??
So, I have been trying to abate my problem in lots of different ways.
I have tried using the Pen tool to draw behind the main shape, I've tried making a New Layer and placing it above and below and inbetween the main shape layer, I've tried adding the artwork to the Mask ... I've tried everything I can think of and I've been through many an article in the manual and FAQ's to no avail.
I suppose, what I think I need to know ... is, how ... how on earth do I draw behind this main shape? Am I not able to do it because I am not getting behind the Mask?
While creating various circular masks with a radial gradient from white to black, whenever I change the blending mode of the mask path Ai will throw me out of mask mode into layer editing mode. Since this is on a large document of ~2Gb file with multiple artbords for large poster & UI refresh speed is slow, this has become quite frustrating. Is this normal Ai behaviour?
I am trying to get a white layer with see through writing which reveals the background image underneath. (Almost like I have put a stencil over a photograph). I have discovered this is called a clipping mask.
However, I am having difficulty using a clipping mask over multiple text layers. It seems to only do it to one layer directly beneath. I do not want to merge the text layers as I want to mess about with the design a fair bit.
URL....Everything works fine until I get to the part where it says to: 'Copy the crimson circle and Paste it In Front'..first of all I think the copy should cover everything else, right? At least it looks that way in the tutorials' picture. Well, it doesn't cover and it seems to stay in place.
I look in the Layers palette and it shows that a Copy has been made and I look under Edit and it says under Undo: Undo Paste In Front.Next I am suppose to Select the Crimson Circle Copy and The Blend and then go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make
Rather than it working I get an Error Message that says: 'Can't Make Clipping Mask, The Top Selected Object Must Be A Path, A Compound Shape, A text Object Or A Group Of Those'
No matter what I do I cannot make a Clipping Mask in this manner.I have read a lot about Clipping Mask today and have looked in the FAQ's to no avail.
I'm working on a tshirt and can only use 3 colors (Green, Black and Yellow). If you look at the attached image, I need to make the brown color that is inside of the squirrel mask out the items behind it (corn stalks, rectangle and part of the "R" in "Corn Maze". The tshirt will be grey so once the Clipping Mask is applied, it will allow the grey tshirt to become the color for the squirrel.
The problem I'm running into is if I duplicate the squirrel and use him as a clipping mask, it does the opposite of what I'm trying to accomplish. I need to mask out everything inside the squirrel, not everything outside the squirrel. In photoshop, I could just inverse the selection. Not sure how to inverse a Clipping Mask.
I am trying to make a clipping mask with a wood image and a box I drawed in artios cad.That passage from artios do ai even with the plug-in is not easy, everything is locked. after I unlock the paths i need, i trie to apply the clipping mask an everything disappears our i cases i try with a :*eps file come out like this.
I need to clip a gradient design in Illustrator with a mask. The clipping mask show how I want it but I need to acctualy have the shape just not the mask. I have to import it to a sign program and I need to be able to outline it.
I have the illustration wich is basically just some dots, i grouped all the dots. Put my text in front of it select both, make clipping mask. The text becomes white and it says the top object is very complex and may cause the document to fail to print or preview if used as a mask.
how to make a clipping mask, URL....In the link to above tutorial on how to make a medieval scroll I'm stuck.
As said in step 25 that expand the appearance of the scroll and select the two then clip the mask. In th above picture I have just selected the scroll to show how it looks.
I have expanded the appearance of the paper scroll. Then I selected the paper scrol and the yellowish green grunge background placed below it. And the moment I hit Ctrl+7 (in windows) or Command+7 (in Mac) to make a clipping mask the error that showed up has been highlighted.
I'm following this tutorial to create an eye in Illustrator but am stuck creating the clipping mask in Step 5. I've got the irises and eyeballs on one layer with the eyeballs brought to front. However, when I select an eyeball and iris and create the clipping mask, the iris disappears.
I'm trying to export Illustrator clipping mask as PSD file, but when i import file into Photoshop i my clipping mask is not cropped, so it imports the borders of the rest of illustration artwork. I tried to expand the clipping mask, getting same result. So, how to prepare clipping mask in Illustrator to export for Photoshop with same borders as mask have?
Ive made some digital bunting in Illustrator using a triangle shape with a dashed line to make scalloped edged bunting. I want to fill the shape with a paper that I made. I used a clipping mask with has worked fine except for it doesnt fill the stroke which means the paper doesnt go into the the scalloped edges and its just a triangle shape.
Any work-arounds for this in Illustrator other than taking it into another suite application?
I want to insert the blue shape into the iphone shape. I've clicked on clippin mask > make but it is not working. The iphone layer is "Clipping Path" and the blue shape layer is "Path". I've also tried to invert the order of the two layers but its not working either.
I'm making a realistic looking customizer (similar to NikeiD and Reebok YOUR). I used the pen tool and pathfinder to make each zone (shape). After I made all the zones I used the clipping mask on every zone to include the photo of the pad so the colored zone looks realistic.
However, once I make the clipping mask on all the zones, about a 1px gap appears between all the zones. How do I fix this so there is no gap between the zones (fyi: I used the divide and trim pathfinder tool so there is no space between the zones in outline view)?
PS: I'm aware that I can turn off anti-aliasing in the preferences, but that doesn't slove the problem for web, only print.
When i do clipping mask in illustrator CS5 and exported to WMF, it does not comes like vector image. The clipping mask area becomes blurred when exported to WMF.
I'm pretty new to Illustrator so there's a chance this is a stupid question, but I'm pretty stumped on this. If I have a path with a stroke that is set to either inside or outside, it disappears if I draw something inside of it to convert it into a clipping mask. The stroke shows up again if I align it to center, but even this seems to have some quirks as it won't display multiple strokes. After searching the web for a bit this is the best description/example I've been able to find for this problem:
[URL]....
Anyside strokes or multiple strokes to work correctly in this scenario? If not, is there a logical reason for this or is there a bug?
I have a logo made up of multiple (5) polygons. I see how to use one of the polygons to create a clipping mask but haven't been able to figure out whether (and how) to use all 5.
Can you use multiple polygons as a clipping mask? Or any other method to produce the same effect?
How does one go about creating a layer clipping mask using the SDK?What I want to do is to simulate clicking on the "Make/Release Clipping Mask" button (the left-most picture button) that is at the bottom of the Layers Panel.
I am trying to make a gear have that nice mettalic shine using the clipping mask, but everytime I make the command the whole thing just dissapears. I am using the pen tool to make 4 triangles with different shades of grey. I then group the triangles, put a radial blur on them and place them under the gear that I created. I select them all and do the clipping mask command, but instead of it being a gear with that radial shine, the whole thing disappears except for the outline of the triangle.
I recently upgraded from Illustrator CS3 to Illustrator CS5.
In CS3, I was able to: Create a clipping mask to hide a portion of the graphic.Set the crop area to match the clipping mask.Export the graphic to a PNG file, with only the portion of the graphic included in the crop area displayed.
In CS5, Converted the crop area to an artboard.The clipping mask is already in place, so no changes there.Set the artboard to match the clipping mask.Attempt to export to a PNG file, but the PNG file automatically contains the entire graphic, not just the area included in the artboard.
I found a workaround online, but it involves flattening the transparency, ungrouping the object and then manually deleting the portions of the graphic that we don't want/need. While this works, it's not a viable solution because I need the ability to go back and make modifications to the original graphic if needed.
I just upgraded by CS to 5.5 here in the last couple of weeks (I had purchased it prior to 6 being launched). Any way, I've noticed on some ads I create, when I save as an EPS and then go to "flatten transparency" that sometimes it is taking elements and darkening the photo/graphic underneath. For example, I have an ad that has three starbursts with drop shadows overlaying some photos. When I select the "flatten transparency" function, it is darkening a portion of the photo underneath.
I want to copy objects from illustrator to use in photoshop, but the eps file that i am working in has a clipping mask and when i attempt to copy objects in that file from illustrator 6 to photoshop 6, portions (in some cases) all of the object turns black or gray. I'm sure this is a simple noob error (hope my question is clear enough), and it's driving me nuts. I have searched for solutions using terms "clipping mask, black, copy, move, illustrator, photoshop, etc."
Here are the print screens to show you what i get in ai and ps -
(see blue outlined oval object selected - opaque white gradient) (when moved to ps, opaque whitish oval turns black)
Why is it sometimes a clipping mask produces jagged lines? I know if there's a dark background and a light one sitting on top of it, then this happens. is there a solution to clearing this out when applying a mask?? You can see in the screenshot I've circled where you see the jagged lines and in the layers palette you can see the clipping mask object.
I want to add a black border around the text so it accentuates the text.
I have made a rectangle and added black text on top of the rectangle and applied a mask and inverted and clipped the rectangle and text.
I tried to release the mask and apply a black stroke on the text but when I remask and apply clipping and invert the stroke turns the same color as the text.
down under step #4 it says to Copy (& Paste) the circle that's inside a Clipping Mask and to the drag it out of the mask in order to duplicate it twice.
I've pulled it out of the mask or even, actually, how to go about pulling it out of the mask
thus far I've Copied and Pasted in In Front ... does copying and pasting it in front bring it outta the mask?
do i need to create a new layer after I've Copied it and then Paste it on the new layer?
For a project, I happen to have a shape which uses gradient meshes and I need to apply it to the 3D perspective grid. Short of rasterizing and Envelope Distorting everything, which is far more tedious here, the problem I'm having is I can't get clipped areas of a selection to be discarded.
Maybe it sounds too complicated now, but I have a sample file detailing the issue. [URL]
Ideally, I'd want that clipped shape to be workable with its actual visible 4x4 dimensions. Any of the other shortcuts to put this in perspective won't work. Envelope Distort regards the clipped portion. Rasterizing it includes the clipped portion, even if nothing is there. It makes the selection 5x5 when it should be 4x4, the visible portion. The Perspective Selection tool also regards it, offsetting the group by the invisible bounds. What other option do I have left where I can keep the outer clipped shapes, but work wi
I'm currently working on a project in which I have a background that has a large text layer above it. What I want to do is create a sort of "dynamic" clipping mask that essentially subtracts the shape of the text from the background yet remains editable as text in case I need to change the word or font.
However every way I've tried so far as been met with the backgrounds instead being constrained inside of the shape of the text...which is NOT what I want.
How can I do this while still having the text able to be edited?
On the Artboard are a few lines of text (black on the white background) and an image. Let's call the item being created a "placard." The placard's content part works...all is well with the text and image.
Adding rounded corners to the placard does not work.
Added a "rounded rectangle" with an imperceptible stroke (very dark blue)Tried various combinations of colors for the rectangle's fill (e.g., [None], white, black, red, very dark blue) behind the text, thenTried to create a clipping mask (so the resulting placard has rounded corners). I have wasted hours attempting and researching (RTM and videos) how to do this...and can clip with two very simple colored boxes...yet cannot get the placard to end up with a rounded edge.
