Clipping Mask wont work Illustrator

[Bec Mac]

Hi all, I have watched countless video's on this, it never works for me, my shapes are too complex. Obviously, I want the flag to fill the black outline. I have expanded the black outline many times, I have made it a compound path etc etc blah blah blah. The flag is a png, have tried Ai file also. I have followed all the videos to the T and they don't work for me. It appears to be a very difficult thing which only some achieve, Any tips would be awesome, thanks.

[Jacob Bugge]

Bec Mac,

Just use a closed path, then the actual path (regardless of stroke or no stroke, just the spine is the works) will form the boundary of the visible part of the underlying artwork selected with it; if you outline, the clipping path will become the resulting Compound, and only the parts inside it will be visible.

And remember to also select the artwork to be clipped.

If the path is too complex, redraw it or simplify it, you can use Object>Path>Simplify (choose Path then Simplify in the Object dropdown).

[Bec Mac]

thanks, yeah i did all the above previously, and tho there is no spine I had to image trace then I simplified it. And tried just image tracing.  and yes it becomes the compound, without me making it a compound path. confused. can't believe I'll have to redraw this???. not sure how all these videos say it works when it clearly does not, or is far too complex for Ai to handle

[Jacob Bugge]

Bec Mac,

You can try to find a vector representation of the border, or try to draw it with the Pen Tool, or try different settings for the Image Tracing, especially choosing Stroke instead of Fill.

[Bec Mac · Accepted solution]

yeah tried that but no luck, but yes another good solution

[Jacob Bugge]

BecMac,

It could help helpers if you select everything and then make a screenshot of the artwork and also the expanded (relevant part of the) Layer (Layers palette) and also the Document Info, also to show how many paths and points there are.

There may be different ways forward to the easiest solution, one being a Blend to give the middle line to use for the Clipping Mask if you can (get to) have just one Compound path forming the border.

[Bec Mac]

ok thanks

[creative explorer · Accepted solution]

@Bec Mac try this istead. I did re-draw the black outline (it kind of reminded me of that racing game on the Nintendo!)...anyways....Once I drew the black outline, I made a copy of the black path. Selected both the image and the path, and made it into a clipping path. The Paste in front the black outline. See the mp3 video. About a minute long. 

[Bec Mac]

Thanks so much, this is also a great solution! Much appreciated, and yeah it's a racing track, Mt Panorama Australia!

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

You have image traced a line and then you want to use it as a mask?

Take the direct selection tool, click exactly on the inner path of that compound path and then hit delete until it is gone. Then try again with your mask.

[Bec Mac]

Thanks very much that worked perfectly, then all I had to do was outline the shape with a black stroke/weight!

[Monika Gause]

Glad you could solve it!

[creative explorer]

@Bec Mac that's the thing....there will always be more than one way to solve a problem. Greatjob @Monika Gause and @Jacob Bugge