Is this magic?

[athletic_intuition2365]

When I drag the 'Streetlamp' layer out of the 'Checkerboard' layer region, it suddenly becomes non-transparent. How is this possible? Is this magic?

[Monika Gause]

The artwork heavily relies on blend modes. They only work when something is below them.

And also: that needs to happen inside Illustrator. You cannot export it and then combine it e.g. on a website.

[athletic_intuition2365]

Amazing, thank you for the reply.
I downloaded this image from Freepik. Does that mean I can't use this image as a transparent background image anywhere else from this Illustrator file?

I drew a random rectangle in this Illustrator file, and it seems to work the same as that checkerboard. Could you please tell me how to achieve this effect or where to find related documentation or tutorials? I understand the basic blending modes, like how the screen mode is good for removing black backgrounds and the multiply mode works for removing white backgrounds, but this seems like a totally different thing.

[Monika Gause]

I don't know of tutorials. You can analyze the file. Just select the objects one by one and then see which attributes they have. You can use the Appearance panel for that.