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. HELP!!! I'M STUCK AND I'VE TRIED EVERYTHING (except the right thing)!!!
ok, when you say a copy, you mean "control c" and erase the gear I already have? (I'm sorry, I'm pretty new at this) Yes, I grouped the triangles, but they are on the bottom.
The Clipping Path, which clips the objects, must be at the top.
I mean Ctrl/Cmd+C+F to copy and paste in front, then move it beneath the original and have it selected along with the path(s) to be clipped, then apply the Clipping Mask.
There is no need to create a copy of the mask shape in order to get the color back. Just direct select the mask after it is created and reapply the color.
?? I don't know what any of that means. I have 2 layers, and want to create a clipping mask to put one layer into the other. When I select both layers and create the clipping mask, everything disappears or I get a message saying that it is too complex.
I am a total NOOB when it comes to Illustrator, so visual or very detailed steps would be appreciated.
that didn't help my case. i'm designing a glock slide and need to clip the design so it only shows inside the slide, so, of course, i'm trying a clipping mask. but i'm trying everything in this thread and none of it helps. i have the same disappearing problem
THAT WORKED! I duplicated the Grunge Streak and made it a compound Path. Then I put my Fish layer under the Compound Path and created a clipping mask. It worked!
Kris, I'm also new to Illustrator CC. I'm havin the same type of problem as Waffles87 but when I select "Make" everything turns to a one point line with anchor points. Thanks in advance. Cliff
Please show before and after, but please make a new thread of your own, because your post got inserted into a running discussion and just makes everything very difficult to read.
‌In your defense, there's no reason Illustrator should happily accept a group of objects as a mask, and then display nothing as a result. It should at least give an error message explaining that your mask either needs to be a single path or a compound path. It would be even better if the error dialog would also have a button with the option to convert the group of objects to a compound path and then complete the mask.
Because your mask is not a compound path like it should be. Illustrator doesn't know which one of the 200 paths in your Grunge Streak is supposed to be the mask.
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