Problem with clipping mask and cut paste

Question

Let me reface this with everything I know about any Adobe program is from YouTube.

So, I want to clip the mountain image to take the shape of the "LOVE Your City/Store/Town" design. I can do it in Photoshop with a paste special, but I'd like to learn how to do it Illustrator as well.

LOVE Your City is grouped:

When I ctrl+a > crop in the pathfinder tool, this happens:

When I select the LOVE design and make it a compound path, this happens:

When I put the LOVE design behind the mountain design like so:

When I press crop in pathfinder this way, this happens:

When do the same as above, but ctrl+a first, this happens:

So that is the extent of my knowledge of ways to attempt to do this in illustrator. Ultimately I'd want it to look like this (past special method from Ps):

Please help!

Monika Gause · Accepted Answer

Yes:evans.prater schriebYes:The compound path needs to be in front.And then you can make a clipping mask.Might be a good idea to not rely solely on youtube when doing things, but also take a look in the manual:How to use and edit clipping masks in Illustrator

Jacob Bugge · Answer

Evans,Regardless of the structure, you can use the black LOVE Group as it is: select that and the image and Transparency (flyout)>(Make) (Opacity) Mask with both Clip and Invert Mask ticked.That will give you the desired appearance.An Opacity Mask can do as a Clipping Mask, and the opposite, and anything in between, and then some. And unlike a Clipping Mask it is all about appearance, and less demanding with regard to structure/composition, hence often easier to work with when both kinds might be used.You can use a Group for an Opacity Mask. Fundamentally, you use the grayscale value of the masking object(s), white/black being fully transparent/opaque or opposite. You use ticking/unticking Invert Mask to control the colour behaviour and ticking/unticking Clip to control the clipping/non clipping behaviour.A Clipping Mask needs a single path as the Clipping Path; it can be a Compound Path.

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