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About this lesson
Masking shapes or text using shapes.
Exercise files
Download this lesson’s related exercise files.
Masking Basics - Instructions.docx59.3 KB Masking Basics - Exercise.ai
1.6 MB Masking Basics - Exercise Solution.ai
1.5 MB
Quick reference
Masking Basics
Masking shapes or text using shapes.
When to use
Masks in Illustrator can be used to reveal or hide certain parts of a shape or an object. You could use a mask if you wanted to create a shape that is only visible inside of some text or another shape.
Instructions
- Begin by opening the Masking Basics - Exercise.ai file
- Grab your Rectangle Tool (M) and draw out a rectangle that covers the top half of the word 'Mask' in the Illustrator document.
- Use your Selection Tool (V) to select both the rectangle and the text simultaneously.
- With both objects selected, go to the Object Menu and select Clipping Mask>Make from the list.
- You will now see that your text is only visible inside of the area of the rectangle that we had just created.
- Release the mask by returning to the Object Menu and choosing Clipping Mask>Release.
- Upon releasing a Clipping Mask, the original shape will now by invisible, although you can still select it with either of your selection tools to apply a fill or a stroke so that it can be seen.
- Grab your text again, and now place it on top of the geometric square pattern below in the exercise file.
- Use your Selection Tool (V) to select both the text and the square group below.
- Return to the Object Menu and choose Clipping Mask>Make from the list.
- You will now see that your text has been used as a mask for the shapes below.
Hints
- The keyboard shortcut for applying a Clipping Mask is Command/Ctrl+7 on the keyboard.
- You can use the Direct Selection Tool (A) to modify a part of the mask or the whole mask to reveal either more or less of the text.
- You can also use the Direct Selection Tool (A) to move or edit the contents inside of the Clipping Mask.
- If you want to group several shapes together to use them as a mask you can do so by selecting them and then pressing Command/Ctrl+G or by going to the Object Menu and choosing the 'Group' option.
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- 00:04 Now I've shown you guys kind of how the Pathfinder works,
- 00:07 along with the Shapebuilder tool.
- 00:09 And I mentioned that in the Pathfinder that one of the options called the Crop
- 00:13 tool, kinda has a similar effect as a mask, but
- 00:15 that brings us to our next point here.
- 00:17 And that tool doesn't exactly take the place of the mask,
- 00:21 even though it kinda works in a similar way.
- 00:24 We do still actually have the ability to use masks in Adobe Illustrator, even
- 00:27 though they're different from the way that masks work in a program like Photoshop.
- 00:32 So the way that they work in Illustrator is basically the same idea, but
- 00:37 we use them a little bit differently.
- 00:40 So in this example, let´s say that I wanted to mask just part of this text.
- 00:44 Well, I would need to first create the shape that I wanted to use as a mask.
- 00:48 And to do that, I've just drawn out a quick rectangle.
- 00:51 Now I´m going to place it on the top of my text.
- 00:54 From there I can hold down the Shift key and
- 00:56 click on my text, and now we're gonna come up to the Object menu, and
- 01:00 come all the way to the bottom where it says Clipping Mask, and then choose Make.
- 01:04 And now when I do that, I'm basically just masking a text inside of my rectangle.
- 01:10 And if I wanted to release the mask, I could press Cmd + Option 7, or I
- 01:15 can come back up to the Object menu, come to Clipping Mask, then choose Release.
- 01:20 So that's a basic idea of how a clipping mask works.
- 01:24 And if I had a shape, for
- 01:25 example, that I wanted to use as a mask, it'd work in the same way.
- 01:29 The short cut is Cmd + 7 and
- 01:31 that will basically allow me to use whichever shape is on top as the mask.
- 01:36 So you could see how easy it is to just kind of use clipping masks.
- 01:40 Now, once you've created a mask, you can still go in and
- 01:43 kind of edit the contents if you're masking something like type.
- 01:47 So you can change it.
- 01:49 Or you can actually change the shape of the mask itself
- 01:51 by using the Direct Selection Tool, and selecting the points.
- 01:55 It'll still allow you to manipulate those paths, okay?
- 02:00 And if I just delete it, then I can just get rid of that mask all together.
- 02:04 So the masks work in a similar way, but they are called clipping masks, and
- 02:09 you do have to create a shape first.
- 02:11 Now if I wanted to actually use this text as a mask, I can do that too.
- 02:17 So let's say that I had a couple of shapes here.
- 02:19 I'm just gonna create some boxes in different sizes and different weights and
- 02:24 things like that, just so that I can show this to you guys really quick.
- 02:29 Okay, and maybe I'll change the weight of a few of them just for the heck of it,
- 02:34 all right, just because I have a little bit of variety there.
- 02:41 Okay, so let's say I take these shapes, duplicate it,
- 02:45 all good, and now I can group them together by pressing Cmd+G.
- 02:50 Now if I put my text layer on top of these shapes, I can select the shapes and
- 02:55 press Cmd+7, and that way I'll be able to actually use my text as a mask itself.
- 03:01 So it really doesn't matter whether you have text or a shape,
- 03:04 you can use either one as a clipping mask in Adobe Illustrator.
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