{"id":1574,"date":"2010-11-11T11:14:07","date_gmt":"2010-11-11T11:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/mastering-clipping-masks-in-illustrator\/"},"modified":"2010-11-11T11:14:07","modified_gmt":"2010-11-11T11:14:07","slug":"mastering-clipping-masks-in-illustrator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/mastering-clipping-masks-in-illustrator\/","title":{"rendered":"Mastering Clipping Masks in Illustrator"},"content":{"rendered":"

Behind the Mask, Part 1
\nOne of the more beautiful things about being a designer is the seemingly never-ending thirst for knowledge that permeates throughout the industry. I, for one, absolutely love learning new things that can help me creatively, or can help streamline the production process. However, there has been the odd time I\u2019ve come across people who don\u2019t understand the finer workings of applications or, oddly enough, are afraid of them. In the name of progress, let\u2019s see if we can knock a major \u2013 and absolutely essential \u2013 function of Adobe Illustrator off the list of things to fear: Making a clipping mask.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Understanding Masks<\/h2>\n

So, what\u2019s a mask?<\/em><\/p>\n

Think of a blank piece of paper strapped to your face. Of course, you can\u2019t see through it. To see anything, you\u2019re going to have to cut out eye holes. Masking at its most basic form is just that \u2026 cutting out eye holes. It should remind you of \u2026 well, wearing a mask. Hence the name.\u00a0(Just to clarify, don\u2019t do any cutting with paper strapped to your face. It\u2019s dangerous, and potentially very, very messy.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Thinking of masking as cutting a hole through a blank piece of paper pretty much makes you an expert on the subject. You can mask just about anything, raster images included. Masks show you what you want to see, and hide what you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

What are masks good for, anyway?<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, for starters, they\u2019re just another valuable tool at your disposal. Knowing what tools you have to work with and understanding how they work will only help you get on with your job faster (employers love that). As I stated earlier, masks show you what you want seen, and hide what you don\u2019t. A classic example of a clipping mask is containing an image within a shape. You want an eye peeping through a keyhole? A clipping mask will do the trick. Another, maybe, less obvious use for a clipping mask is to hide the edges of your artwork (yes, I\u2019m looking at you people who use white boxes to hide the edges of your work).<\/p>\n

Enough already, I get it \u2026 how do I make one?<\/em><\/p>\n

Making your Mask<\/h2>\n

1. Create your shapes
\nYou\u2019ll need\u00a0at least<\/em> two shapes. A masking shape, and the items you wanted masked. Your topmost object is always your vector masking shape (the \u201chole\u201d you want to cut out of the paper) because if we revisit our paper analogy, you can\u2019t have what you want masked sitting in front of the hole \u2026 that wouldn\u2019t work.
\n\"\"
\n2. Select\u00a0all<\/em> of the items you want masked (including the mask itself)
\nGo to \u201cObject\u201d in your toolbar, and down to Clipping Mask > Make (Command + 7<\/em> for Mac users or\u00a0Control + 7<\/em> for PC users). Lo and behold! Your objects have been clipped into your shape.
\n\"\"
\n3. Done!
\nOnce you\u2019ve made your mask, you can move or edit the elements around to your heart\u2019s desire or, conversely, lock them so you won\u2019t accidentally move or edit them at all.
\n\"\"
\nPlease note: You\u2019ll notice your topmost shape has lost any color applied to it. That\u2019s because Illustrator assumes you\u2019re only using your mask as the (here\u2019s that paper analogy again) \u201chole in the paper\u201d and not a design element. Not to worry, you can easily change that by selecting your mask and by applying fills, strokes or effects to it.
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Backing out of the deal<\/h2>\n

There are a couple of other important functions in the Clipping Mask menu, one of which is \u201cRelease.\u201d If you want to release objects from your mask you can either use the direct selection tool (the white arrow) and manually remove them by clicking on the mask and pressing Delete, or select the entire mask using the group selection tool (the black arrow) and under \u201cObject\u201d in the toolbar, click on Clipping Mask > Release (Option + Command + 7<\/em>on a Mac,\u00a0Alt + Control + 7<\/em> on a PC). Then go to \u201cObject\u201d and select \u201cUngroup.\u201d<\/p>\n

What else is there?<\/em><\/p>\n

Clipping Masks are pretty versatile. You can create a mask of your mask, mask raster images, mask non-outlined type, and make a clipping mask of a compound path, for example. Once you\u2019re familiar with masks, you\u2019ll find a multitude of uses for them.<\/p>\n

In Part 2, I\u2018ll discuss how you can have your masked object fade into transparency.<\/p>\n

Anthony Fonseca is a graphic designer in the Greater Toronto Area. You can contact him with questions, comments or invites to masquerade balls by e-mailing him at anthony@5thdesign.com<\/a>. Follow Anthony on Twitter\u00a0@signalstrength<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Behind the Mask, Part 1 One of the more beautiful things about being a designer is the seemingly never-ending thirst for knowledge that permeates throughout the industry. I, for one, absolutely love learning new things that can help me creatively, or can help streamline the production process. However, there has been the odd time I\u2019ve…<\/p>\nRead More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","col-sm-6"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcS8aA-po","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}