Hi, this is Anne with Graphic Design How To, and today I'm going to show you how
compound paths work and what they are. All right, let's get started. I think the best way to explain
what happens when you create a compound path is that you're taking several paths, like these three
ellipses, and forcing Illustrator to see them as one path. And this is different from a group. You
can also group these, but let's take a look at our Layers palette to see what the difference is. So
right now, if we do this little drop down caret, you can see that each of these is on a separate
layer. They are not a compound path. And we can see that right up here. They are grouped together,
and there's also a layer up here that holds those three shapes so we can move them around,
and they stay together, and that's what grouping does. But when you make a compound path, it forces
Illustrator to see them as one shape. So, if we come up here to Object> Compound Path>Make,
you can see here in the Layers palette...let me... let me put a black fill on these.
I'm going to hit D on my keyboard to give me a white fill and a black stroke, then I'll hit Shift
X to swap the fill and the stroke. Now in our layers, we can see that the compound path is just
one layer, so all three pieces are on the same layer. A good example of a use for a compound path
is a clipping mask. A clipping mask can only be one shape. I'm going to paste in a photo,
so you can see what I mean. So we've got a photo here, I'm going to resize it a little bit.
I'm going to move it on top of those three shapes. Now I'm going to send it to the back with Shift
CMD left bracket or Shift CTRL left bracket on a PC. I'm going to go ahead and release this mask.
So we'll come up here to Object>Compound Path and>Release. So this will put it back
into three separate layers for the ellipses. We've got this one, this one, and this one.
Now I want this image back here to be masked into these three shapes as a clipping mask.
So I've got my three ellipses, and then my photo underneath. So, I've selected all three of them.
I'll hold Shift and also select the background because a clipping mask always has to be on top.
And right now we're wanting these three shapes to be a clipping mask. But the thing is, Illustrator
can only have one shape as a clipping mask. So when we try to do this and go to Object>Clipping
Mask>Make, it randomly chooses one of those three shapes to be the mask because it cannot have three
shapes as a mask. I'm going to undo with CMD Z or CTRL Z. And now I'll deselect that background.
I'm going to make a compound path of these three shapes. So I'll hit CMD 8, or CTRL 8 on a PC.
So now you can see they're one layer up here. Now I'll hold Shift and select the background.
And I'll make a clipping mask this time. I'll hit CMD 7, or CTRL 7 on a PC. And as you can see,
because these three shapes are seen as one shape, it can be used as a clipping mask. So as I said,
Illustrator sees this as one shape. I'm going to get on my Group Selection Tool right under here.
And I'm going to click off and then click on the very edge of one shape. And that's how you can
select one piece of a compound path, even though it's one layer. Now if I decide to change the
color of this, watch what happens. Even though I only have one shape selected, if I choose green,
it's going to change all of them, because it sees them as one shape. You can't color pieces of your
compound path differently. They have to all be one color. Another thing that compound paths
are good for, is spreading an effect across all three because it sees it as one shape. So
I want to click on this and just hold Shift and OPT or Shift and ALT to make a copy.
We don't really need this white outline, so I'm going to go ahead and get rid of that.
And then this one, I'm going to leave as a compound path. And this one,
I'm going to release the compound path. So we'll come up here to Object>Compound Path>Release. And
now we've got a separate layer for each of those. I'm going to go ahead and add a gradient to these.
I've got my Gradient window here. If you don't see your Gradient window, it'll be under here
under Window>Gradient. And all the other windows that you see here are available under Window. Ok,
so let's click on the gradient bar. Let's recolor this gradient to kind of a light green and
let's do blue. So, as you can see, each shape has its own gradient. We've got a blue to green here,
blue to green here, but let's do it to the compound path. I'll hit I on my keyboard and
just select this blue green gradient. And you can see it's applied it across all the
shapes. Now you can actually get on your Group Selection Tool and move these around, kind of
reposition them, and that gradient will still evenly spread itself across all three. Now text
is another good example of a compound path. So I'm going to hit T on my keyboard and just type
'Hello'. I'll get on my Selection Tool, hold Shift and grab a corner. And then we'll change this to
Montserrat. Now when it's in live text form like this, which by live texts, I mean typeable text,
we can put our cursor in here and highlight it and change it. When it's like this, it behaves a lot
like a compound path. So if I hit I on my keyboard and select this gradient, well, actually nothing
happens. We have to get in here in our Appearance palette, choose Characters, get rid of the fill,
and then come up here to Type and add a new fill. And now we can hit I on our keyboard and choose
this gradient. So it is behaving like a compound path. So we've got blue, and then it spreads all
the way across our type all the way to green over here. So each letter is not separate in this case.
Now let's make a copy of this. I'll hold Shift and OPT and drag it or Shift and ALT on a PC. And now
I'm going to hit Shift CMD O on my keyboard. I'm going to go ahead and paste that same photo in,
and we'll make it quite a bit bigger, and send it to the back with Shift CMD left bracket
or Shift CTRL left bracket on a PC. Now I can select this live text, hold Shift and select
this one, and then hit CMD 7 to make a clipping mask. So right now this text is behaving like a
compound path. Let's undo that. Now, if I take this text, make a copy down here by holding
OPT or ALT and then come up here to Type>Create Outlines. Let's try to make a clipping mask now.
So I'll bring it on top of that same picture. I'll hold Shift, and I'll hit CMD 7, or CTRL 7.
Right now it is not behaving the same way as live text. And that's because we have a group here.
It's not a compound path. It's actually a group of compound paths. If I use my Group Selection Tool
and click on one, we can see that H is a compound path. And we can see that the E is a compound
path, for example. But those two are separate compound paths. So to get them to work correctly,
we need to make a compound path of the whole group. So to do that, we can do CMD 8, CTRL 8,
hold Shift and select this and then CMD 7 and CTRL 7. Ok, I'm going to undo that. Now I want to show
you something you might have come across with a compound path. Now this doesn't happen every time,
but sometimes if you click right on the edge with your Group Selection Tool to move this piece, and
drag it over top of the same piece of the Compound Path, you get a negative shape like this. And this
might cause you some problems, but the way I fix it is to cut this piece with CMD X or CTRL X,
and then paste in front with CMD F or CTRL F. And then I'll select the other pieces and come
down here to the Pathfinder shape mode and Unite. Now you are going to lose those lines
and those separations, so this is a destructive way. And you might want to make a copy first.
If you're cutting a piece out of another piece like this, let's put this one up into this one.
We'll select both and then we'll come down here to our Pathfinder and do
Minus Front. That creates a compound path because basically, this is a negative area now,
so it sees this as one shape. And you can see through the middle. So that's another time you
might notice compound path coming into play. Now if you're making an SVG file for Cricut,
or Silhouette, compound path will do the same thing. It just puts it all on one layer
inside the Cricut software. And the name for that in those programs is 'Welding'. So
compound paths and welding are the same thing. But if you don't have a die cutting machine,
you won't need to worry about it. Ok, if you like the way I teach and are interested in die cutting
machines like Cricut and Silhouette, I also have another YouTube channel that goes over tutorials
for how to use those. So please check it out. It'll be in the description below. Thank you!!!