Recolor all objects within a clipping mask

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
May 31, 2022
6 replies
1445 views

I have a compound path which overlays a very complex object group. I need to recolor all the parts of the objects that overlap with the compound path. Can anyone give me a pointer for how to accomplish this? Currently I've tried to make a clipping mask to isolate the overlaying area. When I recolor the artwork and then release the clipping mask, it recolors everything not just the parts in the clipping mask. Thank you!

How to

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Correct answer Kurt Gold

Thanks for the sample file (provided via private message for some confidential reasons).

Some notes:

The drawing consists of a great number of paths (more than 7.000) with a huge amount of anchor points (about 420.000) and about 1.300 nested clipping masks. That alone may be the major reason why you are facing application crashes. You would first have to simplify the paths with the Object menu > Path > Simplify mechanisms. Experiment with the various settings to get a good result. But be a bit patient if you use the Simplify command with all paths selected at once. The process may take up to 15 or 20 minutes because there are so many anchor points that have to be analysed. You may then repeat it to further reduce the number of anchor points.

There is a rectangular clipping path and outside that clipping path there are a lot of objects. Do you really need these objects? If not, try to delete anything that is not required.

Also, if you are then be able to use the way Jacob suggested, you may consider to finally rasterize the coloured version of the bicycle (assuming that the bicycle is the compound path that should serve as a clipping path). It's perhaps a matter of taste, but it would certainly improve the overall performance of the file.

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Michael,

Remember the rule to always keep a(t least one) backup of the original artwork.

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

Depending on how carefully and forcefully you simplify the file, you could even create a Live Paint group that would be more flexible than cloning the clipping group.

Don't do it, however, with the sample file at its original state. Illustrator would then almost certainly freeze or crash.

Kurt Gold

Correct answer

Community Expert

Thanks for the sample file (provided via private message for some confidential reasons).

Some notes:

The drawing consists of a great number of paths (more than 7.000) with a huge amount of anchor points (about 420.000) and about 1.300 nested clipping masks. That alone may be the major reason why you are facing application crashes. You would first have to simplify the paths with the Object menu > Path > Simplify mechanisms. Experiment with the various settings to get a good result. But be a bit patient if you use the Simplify command with all paths selected at once. The process may take up to 15 or 20 minutes because there are so many anchor points that have to be analysed. You may then repeat it to further reduce the number of anchor points.

There is a rectangular clipping path and outside that clipping path there are a lot of objects. Do you really need these objects? If not, try to delete anything that is not required.

Also, if you are then be able to use the way Jacob suggested, you may consider to finally rasterize the coloured version of the bicycle (assuming that the bicycle is the compound path that should serve as a clipping path). It's perhaps a matter of taste, but it would certainly improve the overall performance of the file.

M

Michael24590160vu8l

Participant

Kurt, thanks very much for looking into this. I appreciate all of the help from the community.

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

Can you share this Illustrator file (.ai) including detailed instructions that explain what you are going to do?

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Michael,

As I (mis)understand it, you can:

1) Create a copy of the Group and apply the Compound Path as a Clipping Mask to the copy only (optionally, you can hide/lock the original Group to make sure and unhide/ungroup when everything is done); this creates a clipping set;

2) Recolour the artwork and leave the clipping set/Mask as it is in front of the original Group (unreleased).

Actually you have recoloured the whole Group, but the parts outside the Clipping Mask are hidden.

This way you can keep the original appearance outside the Clipping Mask.