One More Clipping Mask Tip...I Promise

[SonicMax]

Fellas...

Need your help again on this one (as I seem to be a bit hard-headed on the clipping masks thing):

Check out this this graphic illustration I did for my local community newspaper (I write a monthly home repair/improvement column...& create my own graphics. This one's on the phenomenon of ice dams):

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3yjbu/Eave3_scaled.jpg

My publisher suggested I have a lightly colored solid shaded area representing the sky, so as to highlight the snow, ice, roof & everything else.

I knew I wanted to create a background area on a new layer; & fill it...but on every shape I've tried, the fill color extends from "end of path" to "end of path" (as shown in the link photo.) On this one, I started my path from the upper right, at the top of the snow line; & moved all the way around the drawing to the base of the exterior wall.

As you can see, the fill extends from end to end...right thru the building.

What I need is for the sky area to stop flush with the exterior wall. I've tried reordering the layers, to no avail. I know I need to create a clipping mask to block the fill from the building, but am not sure how to set it up.

Can someone please point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

Sonic Max

 

[MarcusStringer]

To create a clip you would have to draw a path as to where you want the clip to clip.

Then select both the clip and the sky then object>clipping path>make.

Me..being a lazy lazy person...I'd simply copy and past the snow, roof and wall paths, fill them with white, send it to the back, then select the sky and send that to the back.

That should give you the following layer order:

House and type and snow -- top layer
snow and house filled with white --middle layer
Sky -- bottom layer

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[dimoj]

This is harder to explain than to do:

I would simply copy the snow and then do a paste in front on the background layer.

Select them both and click on Subtract from Shape in the Pathfinder.

This will cut the snow section out of the background.

Now all you have to do is create new shape that forms the front wall and also covers the rest of the background you dont want. Again select that with the background and do another Subtract from shape and that will do it.

I hope you could understand that.

 

[SonicMax]

Marcus & dimoj,

Someone else had also suggested copying, pasting & subtracting shape...but it didn't seem to work & began to get a bit too complex for my journalistic butt.

So I used the copy/paste idea to create what I should have in the first place...a closed path for the sky/area/color:

1) I deleted the old Sky layer.
2) On the Snow layer, I copied the Snow path; & pasted it onto a new layer (renamed "Sky".)
3) Also on the new Sky layer, I drew a vertical line segment just to the immediate outside of the exterior elevation; & extended it down below the text.
4) Then (also on the new Sky layer) I drew a new path with the pencil, from the top of the snow path, all the way around a square-ish perimeter, to the bottom of the vertical line segment; & joined all line ends on that layer.
5) Then I filled the closed path with the appropriate color; & reduced the lineweight to zero (so as to not block the existing exterior wall's dotted line.

IT WORKED !!!

I uploaded the repaired image to my ArtLinks page:

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3yjbu/artlinks.htm

Thanks very much for all the help,

Sonic Max