Subtract Function with a gradient shape??

[gingeb]

Hi everybody,

I'm really gettin kind of desparate now, because i have no more ideas how to solve my problem.

I have colored a koi fish with many sheds, each shed is an own gradient. Now in the end i would like to make the whole fish look grungy and distressed, therefore i normally use a distressed pic, and subtract it from my object (in the pathfinder section). Now this is not possible with my gradients, cause they all lose their gradient settings (i adopted each single shed, with a different location of the gradient, other color tones, etc..)

does someone know what could be a trick here?
I tried to expand all the gradients, but this doesn't seem to work!!

Please help me someone, i am using Illustrator CS2!! Thanks so much in advance.

Ginge

 

[itchybug]

Ginge:

I'm not sure if I'm following the distressed pic being subtracted (a raster image?), but have you tried an opacity mask?

Bert

http://www.itchybug.com

 

[gingeb]

Hi Bert,

thanks for your reply. Well, with 'distressed' i meant the grungy old look of a design. Like when you apply some strokes and scribbles over it to make it look old. And I normally subtract those strokes from my shapes, in order to have one color less (it is for t-shirt printing..)

but i found out now, once you click on subtract, the gradient does in deed get lost, but when you click on 'expand' afterwards, it's back again with all the settings that you have made yourself. So i just didn't think to the end when subtracting. Now it's really cool and working!

thanks again for trying to help, I always find help in this forum!

Cheers,
Ginge