Help: Is it possible to create a layer mask using a group?

Xenonsoft

Active Member
By that I mean, is it possible to have 4 seperate brush strokes, collected into a group, to be the layer mask for another group?

Currently I've got a collection of brush strokes in a group and I need to take little nicks (no, not a small child) out of them whilst keeping vectorisation (it's a word, trust me).

I'm not a dab hand at Illustrator so could use some guidance with this, any help's appreciated.

illustrator_help522.jpg


That's what I have at the moment, I want the blue group to mask the red group.
 
If I've got your meaning right I would do this:

Expand the appearance of the brush strokes, delete the "empty" line that was used for the brush and generally clean up the vector shape you now have that looks exactely like your "brushstroke."

Do this to all of the brush stokes and then merge them into one shape to give you the overall brush shape.

Once you have that you should be able to perform the clipping mask.

No idea if that advice applies, but hope it helps.
 
Hmm, I half get you Krey.

I've expanded the layers so they now have no stroke. I haven't deleted the empty line inside the brushstroke as there isn't one (there was no fill to start with, just a stroke, using CS4).

When I go to marge the layers it basically just groups them together, which is the same problem as before.

Is it possible to bring them all into one layer without de-vectorising them?

Either that or is it possible to literally get the selection and remove it from the other brushes, making a hole in them?

Cheers for the help, it's appreciated.
 
Hey Krey, I appreciate you trying to help :)

I'm a bit of a noob (that means I suck Berry ;)) with Illustrator and it's quite different to Photoshop.

I'll PM you and send over the file, if you could explain to me what I should be doing so I can learn from it that would be fantastic, if you have time.

If you don't, not a problem at all.
 
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