How do I cut this shape (?) to make it look like this...

[amywills]

Hi everyone,

I am not sure of the technical term for what I am trying to achieve so please bear with me!

I downloaded some Vector shapes and I want to make these two shapes kind of merge like the example here:

This is what I've got up in illustrator right now, with one shape on top of the other:

I've tried the pathfinder tools but I really have no idea what I'm doing. What I'm trying to achieve is to 'merge'(?) those shapes and get the nice even gaps between the shapes... I hope that makes sense.

It might be useful to know that each 'shape' is grouped - the winged logo shape is 7 different shapes grouped, and the shield shape is two shapes grouped.

I hope this makes sense and I hope someone can help!

Many thanks in advance.

[Jacob Bugge · Accepted solution]

Amy,

As I (mis)understand it, you may:

1) Select the wing group and Ctrl/Cmd+8 to turn it into a Compound Path, then Object>Path>Offset Path by the width of the gaps between the parts to create a single larger copy path,

2) With the Direct Selection Tool Click an empty spot on the Artboard, then Click somewhere in the bottom and ClickDrag Anchor Points down so the path (more than) covers the bottom part of the shield group,

3) With the Selection Tool Click the shield group and Ctrtl/Cmd+8  to turn it into a Compound Path, then ShiftClick the copy path from 2) and Pathfinder>Subtract/Minus front,

4) Select the original wing group and Alt+Shift+Ctrl+8/Option+Shift+Cmd+8, then Ctrl/Cmd+G to turn it back into a normal Group.

This should leave you with an edited version with two Groups corresponding to the original ones.

[amywills]

Thank you so much! I had been trying to figure it out for a long time. I really, really appreciate the help. This was for my son's party invite, and it looks great!

[Jacob Bugge]

You are welcome, Amy.

[Ares Hovhannesyan]

Please try to use Shape Builder tool. How to create shapes using the Shape Builder tool in Illustrator