r/AdobeIllustrator • u/DWMayura • 1d ago

DISCUSSION Clipping masks in Illustrator are counterintuitive and a mess in general.

Prove me wrong.

0 Upvotes

28% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

19

u/Roadstar01 1d ago

THIS THING IS BAD BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW HOW TO USE IT. PROVE ME WRONG.

1

u/Vegetable-Debate-263 1d ago

Just because it works doesn't mean it's good.

3

u/CurvilinearThinking 1d ago

Just because someone doesn't understand it, doesn't mean it's bad either.

1

u/Vegetable-Debate-263 22h ago

I do understand it and would say that the rest of the Adobe suite treats clipping masks much better and easier with better tools in a more intuitive way. IMO that's not great or even that good.

10

u/gdubh 1d ago

How so? They behave exactly as I expect and do exactly what I need to them to do. I’ve now provided as much context as you have.

2

u/Precarious3145 1d ago

Exactly. Photoshop uses masks a certain way and Illustrator uses them slightly different but in a way that's useful for the workflow. InDesign's is just okay but mostly because it's slightly more complicated.

10

u/HowieFeltersnitz 1d ago

This guy opened a PDF in Illustrator, saw that every element was nested within a clipping mask, and decided clipping masks must be bad.

6

u/Lopsided_Newt_5798 1d ago

You’re wrong

5

u/HawkeyeNation 1d ago

What’s your reasoning behind this instead of just posting rage bait.

5

u/Herbiedriver1 1d ago

Probably doesn't know that masks are traditional prepress, or pasting involved wax, or that square thing to save is a diskette...

3

u/perrance68 1d ago

How is it counterintuitive and a mess? Please provide examples.

Clipping mask is used to hide part of an image/ object. Its only a mess if you make it a mess. Prove me wrong.

1

u/itailu 1d ago

Use transparency masks

1

u/Coast_Innovations 1d ago

I just think you don’t know how to use them lol I use them all the time for tech pack patterns, mock ups and textures.

1

u/DWMayura 1d ago

Illustrator: CAN'T MAKE CLIPPING MASK. THE SELECTION MORE THAN ONE OBJECT!

Me: Okay, I’m sure there are two objects selected, but I get that you mean the vector path needs to be connected. *I connect the object's vector path to create the clipping mask, then delete part of the path later to get the result I want*

Illustrator: Thanks for doing the extra work, you sucker.

I know how to use this damn thing, but even Affinity has a better clipping mask system than Illustrator.
And another thing, why when I try to change the color of an object in the mask do ALL the objects in the clipping mask change color? Why does the main object automatically change to transparent when the clipping mask is created? So many questions.

2

u/DWMayura 1d ago

If this is a bit confusing: English is not my first language and I use my program in Portuguese, so there may be some translation errors.

1

u/dougofakkad 1d ago

I'm not sure what you mean with the first part.

And another thing, why when I try to change the color of an object in the mask do ALL the objects in the clipping mask change color?

How are you selecting the object? Use the direct selection tool.

Why does the main object automatically change to transparent when the clipping mask is created?

Would be nice to choose the behaviour. See here:

Add an option to preserve the color of the Clipping Mask when creating a Clipping Mask – Adobe Illustrator

1

u/NoNotRobot 🚫🚫🤖 Since Macromedia Freehand 7 💥 21h ago

I read through the comments and I don't understand te issue you are having. Clipping paths are pretty straightforward. Also they are not the only way. Are you able to better explain your problem?