How do I hide ellipses ?

[michellem27913579]

So I am kind new to illustrator and I made a neon sign that you are supposed to have transparency. However with that I dont want the ellipse gradient shapes to show in my live presentations.  Am i supposed to make sure that I choose / make a background that matches the color of the ellipses and just build the layers around lets say a picture that i want to put behind the glass part of the neon sign not to expose the ellipses?

[Michael Bullo]

Could you post an image or two to show exactly what you are referring to?

Having said that, would saving a copy of your file as a PDF and then presenting that in a program like Acrobat solve your problem?

[Jacob Bugge]

Michelle,

It sounds as if you should have a copy of the outer bounds of your foreground artwork, or a separate path, as a single path (as a compound if it consists of more than one simple path) just above the ellipse with the gradient, then select both and either

A) Ctrl/Cmd+7 to create a Clipping Mask which will hide the outer parts of the ellipse, or

B) Pathfinder>Minus front to delete the outer parts of the ellipse.

[JETalmage]

Show a screenshot of what you are trying to do. It sounds like you are making it far more complicated than necessary.

JET