Make Only Part of a Path Transparent?

[Lynnette7]

Hi all,

I mostly only work in Photoshop, but I'm starting a new company and I have this rope brush that I want to use in the logo. The problem is that the rope is black and white. I'd like to delete the white part of the rope, leaving only the black outline, so that the inside would show whatever background is behind it. I can do this fairly easily in Photoshop, but I'm wondering if it is possible in Illustrator?

I'm also wondering why when I open this file in Photoshop the black turns a bit of a murky gray?

Any help is appreciated.

[saeedalkarmi]

Hi,

To delete the white rope area, use the color range to select whites then mask or delete them

the black issue, i think you are not using the rich black values. try to look to the solid color properties, you must put each of CMY 50%

and the black one 100%

it is will be perfect

Regards

[Lynnette7]

Where do I find color range in AI? I think I looked under select and it wasn't there like it is in PS. But it's late and I'm not at my computer right now.

[barbara_a]

Where do I find color range in AI?

Select one of the objects with the color you want. Then under the Select menu, choose Same, and select from the list. For example, if you're trying to select all objects with a white fill, first select one white object. Then choose Select > Same > Fill Color.

[barbara_a]

Where do I find color range in AI?

Another way would be to click on one of the objects with the Magic Wand tool. It will select all objects of the same color within a tolerance range.

To change the range and options of what the Magic Wand selects, double-click on the Magic Wand in the tools panel.

[Lynnette7]

Thanks everyone. I didn't want to take time to redo the brush. And there was no way to select the white part of the brush that i could find. The magic wand did exactly nothing. I'm not sure what I was doing wrong. There was no fill color to select. When I clicked a fill of black or white, it made the inside of the rope circle and the inside of the rope curves black or white. So there actually is no fill on this rope. If that makes sense.

At any rate, I opened the file in Photoshop and was able to do what I wanted in less than 2 minutes. I've made it larger than I will need and I think I'm all good. I will mark this as answered.

[barbara_a]

If you Object > Expand the brush in Illustrator, it will no longer be a brush. It will be a group of objects that you can work with as you normally would. You'd be able to select the white areas.

[Lynnette7]

Thanks, I will try that. I appreciate your help.

[Monika Gause]

In order to redo the brush, please do the following:

drag the brush out the brushes panel.

It will be multiple parts: the repeating part, maybe end pieces, maybe corners.

There will be an invisible rectangle beneath each part.

It's important that you keep all this intact.

But you need to ungroup it.

Then lock all other objects but not the brush

Then select one of the white objects

Then Select > Same > Fill color

Make sure the fill is in focus

In the transparency panel set the opacity to zero percent

The white will be gone then, but that is OK

Then take the Select tool (black arrow)

Drag a rectangle around the repeating part of the rope brush

Drag all this into the brushes panel and make a pattern brush

Then drag the other parts of the brush to the corresponding spaces in the brushes panel while pressing the ALT key.

You can see those spaces when you compare the old brush to your new one

Then unlock all the objects in the artwork

Assign the new pattenr brush to the rope

Select all but the background and group

Set the group to knockout group. It's an option in the transparency panel. You might need to "Show options" in the panel menu

If you get stuck anywhere, please post a screenshot

Recorded this as a video, German interface (sorry), but commands are in the same place in other languages

How to make a brush transparent in Illustrator - YouTube

[Lynnette7]

SO helpful and the video is a big help too. I will give it a try. Thank you!

[Monika Gause]

You're welcome.

These are knockout groups. They are one of the holy grails in Illustrator. Very mighty, but kind of difficult to understand. But once you "get" them, they will be fun and will spare you some workarounds.

[Lynnette7]

Well... I made some progress. I learned how to create a brush! I tried to follow your directions but got stuck on selecting the white part. Only the black outlines seemed to want to select. I'm sure this had to do with me using some tool incorrectly, but I tried both the white and the black arrows and neither seemed to create the blue outlines that your video showed. However, I was able to see in the layers panel all the layers of the rope brush. All the white parts said "path." (Most of the black parts too. Some layers said "com," I believe it was.) So I turned them all off (the white parts). I then saved the brush and applied it. This worked great - except of course that layers behind are now showing through. And... (here's why I'm back...) I can't get the "knockout" group option to do anything. I'm assuming this might be because I turned off all the white layers instead of making them 100% transparent? I also am struggling to understand grouping / ungrouping, locking / unlocking and why that is necessary to do or undo. I understand grouping because this is something we use in Photoshop too, but I don't think I'm grasping when it is necessary to group in Illustrator and when you don't need to. The concept seems different from the way it is used in Photoshop.

Anyhow, I'm one step closer and I have until January to get this figured out. haha

Thank you for taking time to help!

[Monika Gause]

The white mustn't be deleted. It needs to be a special kind of invisible.

Can you please show the screenshot where the white still exists. And then the layers panel that contains the white.

You can also upload your AI file to Dropbox or the like and post a link in the forum.

[Lynnette7]

Sorry it's taken me a couple days to get back to this.

In case you need the brush it is here: Rodeo: Hand Drawn Rope Brush [Free Download] — Ray Dombroski

And here is the link to the file in Dropbox: Dropbox - PacificLightsLogo.ai

I really appreciate you taking all this time with me!

[Monika Gause]

Please find the file here: Dropbox - PacificLightsLogo-mg.ai

It uses a knockout group.

You might have to turn on View > Preview on CPU, because knockout groups are not fully compatible with GPU preview.

[barbara_a]

You could select the rope and change it to Darken blend mode in the Transparency panel.

The black in the screen capture you posted does not look like pure black. You could either change the color value of the black or set it to Multiply mode.

I suggest that rather than opening the file in Photoshop, you could choose File > Place. When the place dialog appears, choose Smart Object. That way it can be scaled in Photoshop without loss of quality. If you Place Linked, then when you make changes in Illustrator it will automatically update in Photoshop.

[Lynnette7]

If I do the darken method and then later want to invert it to white, will it work? I'm thinking that if I want it to be able to be either/or, that I need to entirely delete the white, yes?

[Monika Gause]

You want the inside of the rope to be the background color, but nothing should be behind it? such as the light rays?

You can achieve this with knockout groups. But in order to do it you would need to learn some things in Illustrator. Are you prepared for that?

You will need to edit the brush artwork itself and set the white parts to 0% opacity. Then create the brush again. Then apply the brush, group everything but the background and set it to "knockout group" in the transparency panel.

The other option would be to have a shape behind the rope that masks out the area.

Then set the rope to "multiply".

[barbara_a]

If you do the darken method and then later want to invert it to white you can change the blending mode to Normal in the Transparency panel.

[christof_hoste_BE]

Great tutorial about editing brushes from Monica !!

In adition i would like to provide some extra info on how to clean up the file and make it print ready. I have made a video, you will find it here: Dropbox - clean up logo.mp4

[Monika Gause]

christof_hoste_BE  schrieb

Great tutorial about editing brushes from Monica !!

In adition i would like to provide some extra info on how to clean up the file and make it print ready. I have made a video, you will find it here: Dropbox - clean up logo.mp4

In order to make sure all neighbouring objects of the same color are one part, use Pathfinder > Merge.

So when the layout is OK and this is going into production:

Make a copy of the file and then:

1. Select the logo and Object > Flatten transparency: check outline strokes and outline type

2. Edit > Edit colors > recolor artwork. Check if there is really only one black. If not: correct it.

3. Pathfinder panel: click on "Merge".

4. Select one invisible object (no stroke and no fill)

5. Select > Same > Fill

6. Delete

After that: create the versions of the logo for different color spaces.

[Lynnette7]

Monika and Christof, Thank you so much.

I downloaded Monika's version and now it looks just like I want it to look on the final.

So that I'm clear. Christof gave directions for how to finalized the file and Monika gave other directions. Do I need to do both sets of steps? Or are they different ways of doing the same thing?

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

They are different ways of doing the same thing.

[Lynnette7]

Thanks, everyone!