Masking & Masks in Illustrator in 5 Minutes! Video Lecture | Adobe Illustrator: Become a Pro at Designing - Design Softwares

hey everybody I'm Nathaniel Dodson from
Tut vidcom and today we're going to talk
about how to mask an adobe illustrator
in about five minutes or so if you
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you now we're cutting into our 5 minutes
here so let's jump over to illustrator
and check this thing out now
a few different masks that we can use in
Illustrator and what exactly is a mask
well the basic idea behind a mask is
that we can erase a part of a graphic or
a part of a group of graphics and hide
it but never really get rid of it we
just hide it from view so like here the
white circle behind the word bourbon
that whole section could be masked out
it could also be using something called
the Pathfinder here in Illustrator but
the point is that could be a mask that's
just knocking that bit of the circle
away and hiding it so we can see that
kind of darkish blue background behind
to that logo but I want to show you how
to use what's called a clipping mask and
that's because we have this little
background graphic what you can see it's
just it's out of line its way out over
the gray part of the artboard out here
and we want to contain it just within
the image so here's what we're going to
do we're going to copy the background
shape and we're going to do that because
the background shape here is the exact
size of our document right so I'm going
to go edit to copy just copy it I'm
going to come over here and just lock up
my background layer once more I don't
want to mess around with that I'm going
to open up this logos layer I can see
that yeah that big starburst graphic is
in there and there it is it's right
there now the key is I want to paste
this graphic but I want the graphic to
be just above the object which I wish to
mask or in this case clip because we're
going to create what's called a clipping
mask so I have that compound path I'm
going to go edit and I'm going to choose
paste in front so paste in front is
going to well as you see paste in front
of everything on that layer but it most
importantly paste it in place as well we
can just click on that layer and drag it
and just drop it just above that
compound path which is our little
starburst shape and what I can do is
hold down shift and select a little
circle here in the layers panel that's
with that where I can hold down shift
and with my move tool into the black
arrow there the selection tool hold down
shift and just select that additional
graphic so that both graphics are now
selected and go object clipping mask and
choose to make so what this has done is
its taken that front graphic and use it
as the mask and it's hiding everything
except the bits that overlap with the
graphics that are also selected and in
this case it takes that that sunburst
effect and it clips it within that
rectangle as we can see here in our
layer panel that rectangle is where the
compound mask is being clicked within
and we can see everything else is hidden
so that's the first way to mask in Adobe
Illustrator simple straightforward let's
talk about just like a very basic layer
mask so if we take this group of
graphics here you can see I'm selecting
this group here in my layers panel the
whole group is selected and by the way
you can apply a layer mask to a group
you can apply it to the full overall
layer or you can apply it to a specific
path within the layer so I could just
select this path right and that's all I
would be applying a layer mask to if I
come to my transparency panel and we
have this little square with a little
slash through it when we double click
that we add a mask now I want to add
this mask to this entire group so I'm
going to make sure that I specifically
click that circle you see how it's not
outlined and this circle is outlined
that's because that compound path is
what's selected so make sure you select
that circle we select that entire group
not the overarching layer just this
group because all we want to attack is
this logo over here and I'm going to
double click this little thumbnail and
you can see it's filled with black
because the way a layer mask works is
when there's black that part of the
image or graphic is hidden and in this
case you can see the whole mask is black
so I actually want to reveal this so I'm
just going to uncheck clip and you can
see when I do that well the mask is now
filled with white and sure enough I can
see my graphic so I'm going to take the
rectangle tool and I'm going to draw out
a rectangle just to hide like half of
this logo right so I'm going to go right
there and hide half the logo but the
problem is I didn't hide it it's only
like semi transparent and that's because
the color fill of this shape is this
taupey our Lito be a more like a mustard
a yellowish color and while the mask
doesn't necessarily see this mustardy
color if I click on my foreground or my
fill here to open up the color picker
it's basically seeing that but only the
brightness value of 75%
really seeing like this brightness right
something like that and that's what it's
applying if I drag this all the way down
to the bottom and give it a solid black
and hit okay you can see there we go
that whole half of the logo is missing
and now you can see my layers panel has
changed as layers opacity mask to get
back to your original editable graphic
file just click on the the other
thumbnail here in the transparency panel
and you can see you will have stopped
editing the layer mask and you're back
to working in your graphic file now at
the risk of going above the five-minute
limit let me show you a couple other
things you can do with the mask here so
if we select this bourbon logo so that's
this logo right here the bourbon logo
right select the whole group once more
I'm going to double click here in the
transparency panel to add a mask I'm
going to unclip this and I'm going to
draw yet another rectangle so just going
to drag a rectangle over and blop I'm
going to drop it there one of the cool
things you can do is you can apply a
gradient and fade graphics in and out so
if I say hey gradients yep let's go
white to black and white is going to
show through at a hundred percent and
the white is over here on the left side
of our rectangle the black is out over
here so you can see it's hiding and
fading the graphic away and if we want a
more pronounced fade we just click and
drag our black handle over and you can
see it's going to fade more and more and
more now this is not a totally solid
black so what I'll do is I'll actually
get rid of this this little color stop
but before I do that I'm going to click
up here on my color panel I can just
drag this color black and drag it down
onto the gradient stripe and you'll see
what it'll do is it'll make another
color handle here if I can actually get
it to there we go it's going to make
another color handle and then I can just
grab this other not quite black black
handle click and just drag it away and
drop it away and you can see here we get
this really cool effect where we have
our logo fading out to nothing so it's a
pretty neat little effect and you can do
that by applying a gradient to the shape
you're using to mask and a layer mask
now one last thing before we wrap this
thing up here this wanderer logo maybe
the client comes to us and says look
it's the retro text is cool but I really
just want a hole punched in the ribbon
that says wanderer so here's what we're
going to do we're going to open up that
wanderer group right by hitting that
little arrow there to the left of it and
I'm going to collapse some of these
other panels like the color panel and
maybe even the transparency panel
temporarily and I'm looking here's the
text right there's that wander or group
text so what I'll do is I'll jump into
here I just want to select just the text
so it's right here just wanderer so I'm
going to select that and I'm going to
copy it to my clipboard by going edit
copy and then I'm just going to shut off
the whole wanderer text group see that
and then I'm going to go edit and I'm
going to choose paste in place and you
see that pastes it in place there's a
problem because the same arc was not
copied over I'll show you how to get
that and you can see here's our wanderer
text right up here that's fine this is
going to be used in a mask
the first things first so let's get that
same arc back so let's go effect warp
and choose arc and the arc here I happen
to know is 18% so there we go it's just
perfect you can see they're 18% and then
everything else is default hit okay and
then what I'm going to do is I'm going
to fill this with a complete 100% black
so I'm going to double click on my fill
color to make sure it's just totally
black hit OK and then I'm going to cut
this so I'm essentially copying it to my
clipboard but you know cutting it away
so go ahead --it cut voila and then I'm
going to select oh I could select the
whole group but I think I'll target and
just choose the actual compound path
down here at the bottom which is the
ribbon and the shield kind of collective
there so I'm going to select just that
compound path I will double click to add
a layer mask in this case I want to
unclip it so let's just say it unclip it
and then we can just go edit and choose
to paste in place and you can see
because our text is solid 100% black it
just punches a hole right through the
ribbon I can come over here select to
get back to my normal editing mode
collapse get out of it and those are a
few different ways that you can create
and work with masks in Adobe Illustrator
and how they can be really helpful from
the clipping mask the layer mask did
everything in between we covered it in
this tutorial if you use this technique
and you think it's something cool that
you would like to show me go ahead and
upload it to Instagram and tag me in it
and my Instagram handle is act tough
it'll be a little bug that appears here
on the screen somewhere and you can hit
me up over on its screen we have a
conversation is is alive over there so
to speak so so for creating clipping
masks and layer masks and really a lot
of different stuff with masks that you
can do here in Adobe Illustrator that's
it got it good potato dodging tuck
vidcom I'll get you in the next one and
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see you next time guys