A quick tip for everyone on how to create a Clipping Mask inside Adobe Illustrator CC.
A clipping mask is a shape called a clipping path
that masks any object below it
so only what's inside of the clipping path is visible.
A mask can take the shape of a rectangle, a circle,
or any other vector shape and any artwork can be masked.
Now couple of things to know about clipping masks...
The clipping path should always be on top of the object you would like to clip.
and also you can have one clipping path
but more than one object can be clipped.
So I am going to show you how to create what you see on your screen and some more.
First I am going to place a photo to be clipped inside a vector shape.
Go up to Adobe Illustrator's File menu, use the Place command,
I am going to select the picture I am going to be using, this Mist JPG
then click the Place button,
and all you have to do is to click once
to place the photo inside the artboard
For the vector shape I am going to create a circle
so for that I am going to click and hold and use Adobe Illustrator's Ellipse tool,
hold down the Alt + Shift (win) or Option + Shift (mac) and draw a circle from the center, like so.
Now I want this circle to have a stroke
so click on the Stroke, add a color to it,
and then up in the control bar,
I am going to up the stroke weight to 4 points.
Now select those two objects because I want to center them first
in relation to each other and then to the artboard.
For that go up to the Control bar,
have the Align to Selection option
then click on the Horizontal Align Center option,
and then the Vertical Align Center option.
Then to center everything to the artboard,
go back to the Control bar, use the Select to Artboard,
then click on the Horizontal Align Center option and the Vertical Align Center option.
So now that we have both objects centered and selected
its extremely easy to create a Clipping Mask.
But I would like to refresh your memory
that the vector shape should always sit on the top, in this case it does
and then the photo will be on the back.
Now how to create a Clipping Mask...
Go up Adobe Illustrator's Object menu,
select Clipping Mask and use Make,
in this case the keyboard shortcut is Ctrl + 7 (win), Cmd + 7 (mac) like so.
But you see the problem here is that we lost the Stroke
and of course there is a way to bring it back...
One way would be to go to the Layers panel,
open this up, then open up the clip group, and then target the Ellipse.
But that is a long way to do so I am going to show you another way.
Undo this action, Ctrl + Z (win), Cmd + Z (mac),
I am going to select just the photo,
go to Adobe Illustrator's Edit menu,
choose Cut, put it on the clipboard,
then select the vector shape, the circle,
then I am going to turn on an option that is available at the very bottom
of the Tool Bar, this is your Tool Bar so at the very bottom here
I am going to turn on the option, Draw Inside
and as you can see the keyboard shortcut is Shift + D
so I am going to press the keyboard shortcut Shift + D twice
and now I am inside the Draw Inside mode.
so all you have to do is go up to Adobe Illustrator's Edit menu
and use this Paste in Place command
to also retain positioning on the photo, like so.
Now as you notice here
I am actually inside the Edit Contents
as you can see up in the Control panel
and the Edit Contents is actually the photo we are using.
The photo we are using is too big
so I am going to use Alt + Shift (win) or Option + Shift (mac) to size this down, like so,
and then if you wish to work on the vector shape
click where it says Edit Clipping Path.
Click on that and maybe you want to up the Stroke weight, like so.
Once you are done all you have to do is go back to the Draw Normal mode
and again the keyboard shortcut is Shift + D.
Now if you want to make this bigger altogether,
just hold down the Alt + Shift (win) or Option + Shift (mac) and size this up.
Another thing to consider is to add another object to be clipped.
inside the vector shape.
In this case I am going to use the type tool, click once,
type Mist, like so...
and then I am going to hold down Alt + Shift (win) or Option + Shift (mac) to size this up,
then change its color in case I am going to use a White fill color.
Then use the Illustrator's Move tool to move it down below
and then clip that object as well so how do we clip this text object?
Well the easiest way is to go inside the Layers panel,
target the Mist object,
and bring this down below the ellipse object.
And as you can see this is already inside the clipping group.
One more thing you can do is to target the ellipse inside the layers panel
and add an effect.
Go to Adobe Illustrator's Effect menu, under the Distort & Transform choose Zig Zag effect,
check on the Preview field,
use the Smooth Points option,
up the Ridges per segment,
bring down the size and click OK.
You see that's another idea.
Now at the event that you want to toggle off the visibility of the effect
you can go to Adobe Illustrator's Window menu, bring up the Appearance palette,
target the ellipse not the whole object layer.
Go up to the Window menu and select the Appearance.
Inside the Appearance palette we have the Zig Zag effect
which you can click to toggle ON and OFF the visibility of the effect
or if you decide not the use the effect, drag it to the Trash icon below to delete it.
Now how about placing the photo inside the text,
the MIST text instead of the circle?
Select everything,
go to Adobe Illustrator's Object menu,
select Clipping Mask and choose Release.
Delete the circle vector object, keep the MIST text ,
size this up a bit, use Alt + Shift (win) or Option + Shift (mac),
make sure both the photo and the vector circle are aligned in relation to each other,
and then let's do the same thing and align them to the artboard.
For the MIST text lets add a Stroke to it.
Bring up the Stroke, add a different color to it,
increase the size of the stroke weight,
and add a matching kind of color, like so.
Select the photo, go up to Adobe Illustrator's Edit menu,
cut this to put it in the clipboard,
select the MIST type,
go at the bottom of the Toolbar,
click on the Draw Inside mode,
go up the Edit menu and use the Past in Place command
and now we have the image clipped inside the MIST type.
now we are still on the Edit Contents mode so
hold down, Alt + Shift (win) or Option + Shift (mac) to size it down a bit.
If you wish to edit the clipping path
just click on the Edit Clipping Path option and maybe you can increase the Stroke weight and so on.
Now click back to return to the Draw Normal mode or use the keyboard shortcut, Shift + D.
And so this is another idea how to create a Clipping Mask inside Adobe Illustrator CC using Type.
Clipping Masks are fun to use and they can add some spice to your designs.
Just practice using different vector shapes and see where it takes you.
This concludes this mini tutorial and thank you for watching with Elias Sarantopoulos.