Compound path question 1

[thebigiceman]

Hi guys, hope someone can help me here, I'm losing hair and sleep!

I'll try to make this as simple as possible...



I have a 5-colour job with a base layer that comprises a spot colour, silver.
Brushed metal image (greyscale tiff) is placed on top and multiplied so the spot silver shows through.

So, lock off this base layer.

Then, a placed tiff is laid over on another layer to partially cover the locked base layer.

Some outlined text is then placed over this, with an offset path of, say, 2mm.

Here's the issue: I want the offset path of the outline text to cut through the placed tiff so it shows a matching silver to that off the base layer, so it looks like the base layer is showing through.

Have tried duping the metallic tiff, and making a compound path of the silver and the offset path, but keep getting dialogue boxes saying 'can't make compound path' etc.

Sounds like this should be relatively simple, but it's just not working.

Have tried all sorts of fixes to no avail, compound paths don't seem to want to know.


Anyone got any ideas?

Any help much appreciated in advance.

 

[thebigiceman]

Further to my query, above, I've added a URL to a quick image in an attempt to show the problem I'm encountering!

Hope someone can shed a bit of light on the problem.

Cheers,
Ice

 

[apepp]

...from reading through your description at the moment I can only conclude that you want the offset path to have the brushed metal effect showing through, as on the base layer (or two), which has both the brushed metal and the spot solid, correct?

...so in effect you have three sections from top to bottom:

1. Text and text outline/offset
2. Grey image
3 Brushed image in greyscale multiplied to a spot solid silver

...and you want the text outline/offset to pass through to the background, whilst the fill of the text can be any color if needed...

...correct?

...i have created a movie to show how i think you can approach this, quicktime required:

http://www.zen63258.zen.co.uk/tek/offsetshowthru.mov

Andrew

 

[apepp]

...unfortunately you can't have it maintained as a live effect, i've tried several ways to conclude that the clipping mask method is a workaround...

...you need to make the text outline a complete merge and complete compound for the clipping mask to work, and ultimately requires a duped background above the grey image...

Andrew

 

[apepp]

...hope this helps...

Andrew

 

[apepp]

...also a word of caution is this is destined for print litho style...

...you may find you need to make that brushed metal image a duotone, as overprinting process colors on top of metallic inks is problematic, it will look better on a coated paper rather than an uncoated paper...

...special inks known as oxy inks are sometimes used for trying to overprint process inks onto metallic inks, but quite often the spot ink needs to be fully dried before that is attempted and no guarantees it will look any good...

...the safest bet is duotone which can be printed in one pass, as the black knocks out the metallic ink...

Andrew

 

[thebigiceman]

Andrew, that's terrific of you to put together a movie file for me to follow - thank you for really pushing the boat out!

Yes, I can get through the standard masking process no problem, but it's when I try to include the spot silver that the problems really kick in.

I've therefore tried it with a duotone .eps as you advised and it looks like a winner to me...

Many thanks for taking the trouble to help me out - and the duotone tip is pure genius!

Regards
Paul

 

[apepp]

...no trouble paul!

...as it happens i had a look at your image posts from you link provided, i discovered that movie with a car looking like it was about to burst into flames from the exhaust...

...i'd have been running myself, but i don't know much about cars so perhaps it was a "normal" occurrence...

...and yes, illustrator doesn't really allow imported images to be 'cut through' as such, maybe in CS4???

...the only other possible alternative is a transparency mask instead, just thought of that so yet to really try it...

Andrew