Making an object transparent??

[JessLynn113]

I am designing a t-shirt. I have 3 layers:

1. Image of shirt

2. White Florida state graphic

3. Blue palm tree graphic

I am trying to make the palm tree go through the white state and show the shirt underneath. I cannot seem to figure out how to do this. Please let me know if anyone has an ideas. Thanks!

[Monika Gause]

How will this be produced? Plotted or printed?

Is the Florida state outline a vector path or a photo?

[Jacob Bugge · Accepted solution]

Jess,

As I (mis)understand it, you may:

1) Select the palm tree path(s) and Group if more than one path, then change the colour to black or white;

2) Also select (you may ShiftClick) the state of Florida object (vector or raster);

3) In the Transparency palette flyout click Make Opacity Mask with both Clip and Invert Mask unticked (black palm tree) or with Clip unticked and Invert Mask ticked (white palm tree).

[Monika Gause]

Jacob Bugge schrieb:

Jess,

As I (mis)understand it, you may:

Let's wait with this until we know it doesn't need to be plotted.

[Jacob Bugge]

Let us see what works for Jess.

[JessLynn113]

Thanks Jacob! This did the trick!

[Jacob Bugge]

You are welcome, Jess.

[jdanek]

If your "graphic" elements are vector, then you could create a compound path so the tree knocks out of the state of Florida.  It would be great if you could get a little more specific on what you are working with.  For instance, what color is the shirt?  There are a few ways to do the same thing, like using the Pathfinder > Divide tool where you could delete the tree elements, alng with the state elements to leave nothing but the shirt color where thos elements overlap.