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Create Negative Space within an object

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
May 12, 2022
4 replies
6250 views

I am new to Illustrator, so I have probably created this image incorrectly to do what I want to do to it! Forgive me!

I am creating a brain image (for window art) and I want the "folds" in the brain to be transparent and the main portion of the brain is white.

You can see on the prefrontal cortex that the main brain is white, but so is the fold. The actual object of the fold is transparent, but it's taking on the main white colour.

What I want to happen is that the fold is almost cut out of the white area. I've tried shape builder, cutting out paths. Everything I try just deletes the fold and still leaves behind it white.

Any thoughts on how I can make these folds transparent?

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Correct answer Ton Frederiks

Or with the Path and the Live Paint group selected choose Live Paint > Merge to add the path to the Live Paint group and use the Live Paint Bucket to fill the path with none.

chanaart

Community Expert

suggestions here are great depending on the file. We need to see the file and annotarte you fold so we can se it clear and we can test it - and give suggestions!

Can you upload the file?

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

I don't think we can help you without seeing the file.

Can you share the part that gives you problems as an Illustrator file?

You can use Dropbox, CC filesharing, Google, WeTransfer for .ai files and post the link here.

natashas12128726Author

Participating Frequently

Hi! Here is the link to the file. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ub36de4cv9pghge/Logo_White.ai?dl=0 hopefully you can access it and tell me all the things I did wrong! LOL!

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

It is a path above a Live Paint group.

Expand the Live Paint group, select both and use the Shape Builder tool.

J

jodmcc49

Inspiring

Use your Selection Tool(top arrow in toolbox) and select the fold that is sitting in the white filled area and go to Object>Arrange>Bring To Front. While it is still selected, Shift + Click the main part filled in white and go to Object>Compound Path>Make. This will cut the fold out of the white filled area and you will be able to put another color or anything else behind it and you will see it where the fold is.

natashas12128726Author

Participating Frequently

Great suggestion, this is the error message I get.

J

jodmcc49

Inspiring

How did you create the fold? Is it a brush stroke?

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

There are multiple ways.

One of then is to select your objects and click in the area you want to make transparent with the Shape Builder tool (Shift M) while holding down the Alt key.

Another way is Live Paint, select your objects and use the Live Paint Bucket (K) to fill with None.

natashas12128726Author

Participating Frequently

Thanks for the suggestion, I've tried both of those ways.

When I do the shape builder way, it gets rid of the fold but leaves me with this:

When I do the live paint way, it will make the fold unfilled but it still shows up as white.

I feel it may have something with the way I've created the shapes. I used a pen tool. Probably wrong. I dragged out the fold from the white background area so you can see what it looks like.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

With the Shape Builder, did you hold down the Alt key when dragging in the area you want to be transparent?

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