Expert: Laith Ibrahim - 3/5/2008

Question
Dear sir
i need to learn about clip masking
when i draw a pen tool for clip masking normally the inner drawn area will appear when i apply the clip masking, but i neeed the  visibility of outer area

Answer
Hi Shibi,
Here's how you get the clipping mask you asked about:

Let's imagine that you have a photo of yourself and you want to hide your face and keep everything else visible.

1- Start by drawing a box that is slightly bigger than your photo on top of your photo. Give your box a color to make it visible (if it's not).

2- Move this box to the side so that you can see the photo and do the next step.

3- Using the Pen tool draw a shape similar to the shape of your face on top of your face.

4- Bring the box you created in step 1 on top of your face. The shape should be on top of all then the box then the photo.

5- Make sure that the "pathfinder" menu is visible. If it's not go to Window/pathfinder.

6- Select the box and the shape (press shift while you click on them).  In the "Pathfinder" menu click on the 2nd (from left) icon in the top row which is the "Subtract from Shape Area" icon. Once you click on this icon, the shape will be subtracted from the box. Because you need the opposite clipping mask effect, continue to step 7.

7- Go back to the "Pathfinder" menu and click on "Expand". You won't notice any changes in the box or shape.

8- Now the last step is to select the new box (old box minus shape) and your photo, hold down the Control (command on MAC) key while pressing 7 on the keyboard (or go to Object/Clipping Mask/Make).

After the last step, all the photo will be visible except for the face.

I hope that all the steps were clear. I did my best to make them as simple as possible.

please let me know if you have any other questions.

Best regards,

Laith