Objects that are transparent but block the things underneath them?

[councilu23234117]

Hellow - I'm working with these vectors:

I want to end up with a PNG that has the "screen" transparent, aside from whatever text or logo is intentionally in it, but also block the thing. But I want each of these things to block the objects that are underneath them in the order. I pulled these from a grey-and-white vector file and made them into compound paths, but I can start again if that's the wrong format to achieve my desired effect. 

Does anyone know how I can achieve this effect?

Thanks so much in advance!

Best,
A

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

Draw rectangles where you want things to be transparent.

Assign  a fill to them, but apply 0% opacity

Select all and group all the items.

In the transparency panel select "Show options" from the panel menu and then put a checkmark to "Knockout group"

Turn on View > Preview on CPU if it doesn't show correctly.