Help with cutting

[hesleskaug]

I just started using illustrator. I have made a logo and stumbled on a problem.

I use 3 circles where the spraygun is. (green, white and green in layers). But I want to have the white circle transparent. So whatever the background color is, it will be that color.

Sorry for the stupid question.

Thanks for help

LOGO is here:

 

[Jim Campbell]

I just started using illustrator. I have made a logo and stumbled on a problem.

I use 3 circles where the spraygun is. (green, white and green in layers). But I want to have the white circle transparent. So whatever the background color is, it will be that color.

Sorry for the stupid question.

Thanks for help

No need to cut anything out. Instead of having:

Green-filled circle (back layer)

White-filled circle (middle layer)

Smaller green-filled circle (top layer)

Simply have a circle with a heavy green stroke and no fill on the back layer and dispense with the white circle completely.

Cheers!

Jim

 

[hesleskaug]

No need to cut anything out. Instead of having:

Green-filled circle (back layer)

White-filled circle (middle layer)

Smaller green-filled circle (top layer)

Simply have a circle with a heavy green stroke and no fill on the back layer and dispense with the white circle completely.

Cheers!

Jim

Thanks for the fast reply and the obvious answer

 

[Jim Campbell]

Thanks for the fast reply and the obvious answer

You're most welcome.

And these things are only obvious when you haven't been staring at them trying to figure it out. Glad to have been the fresh pair of eyes on this one.

Cheers!

Jim

 

[flrazor]

Just make sure that if you need to resize your logo graphic that you convert your stroke to an outline first (select, then Object Menu > Path > Outline Stroke) to preserve the thickness and the correct proportions. If you try to make it bigger or smaller without converting your strokes to outlines, they will retain their stroke size relative to the line.

I'll give you an alternative as well that can apply to other shapes you might want to make for future reference and also to this project:

With the original set of circles you had. You could select the White circle and the large green circle in the back together. Open up your Pathfinder palette (Window menu > Pathfinder) and click on the "Subtract from Shape Area" in the Shape Mode row of buttons (2nd from left usually), then click on the Expand button that should now be clickable (not greyed out as normal). The result should be a solid "ring" shaped object instead of a pair of stacked circles.

It's worth playing around with the Pathfinder tools a bit to learn how to make complex shapes by adding, subtracting, dividing, etc. Saves you tons of time and torture of pen-tooling complex objects if you aren't as comfortable freehanding your shapes.

 

[hesleskaug]

Just make sure that if you need to resize your logo graphic that you convert your stroke to an outline first (select, then Object Menu > Path > Outline Stroke) to preserve the thickness and the correct proportions. If you try to make it bigger or smaller without converting your strokes to outlines, they will retain their stroke size relative to the line.

I'll give you an alternative as well that can apply to other shapes you might want to make for future reference and also to this project:

With the original set of circles you had. You could select the White circle and the large green circle in the back together. Open up your Pathfinder palette (Window menu > Pathfinder) and click on the "Subtract from Shape Area" in the Shape Mode row of buttons (2nd from left usually), then click on the Expand button that should now be clickable (not greyed out as normal). The result should be a solid "ring" shaped object instead of a pair of stacked circles.

It's worth playing around with the Pathfinder tools a bit to learn how to make complex shapes by adding, subtracting, dividing, etc. Saves you tons of time and torture of pen-tooling complex objects if you aren't as comfortable freehanding your shapes.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Jim Campbell]

Just make sure that if you need to resize your logo graphic that you convert your stroke to an outline first (select, then Object Menu > Path > Outline Stroke) to preserve the thickness and the correct proportions.

Oooh. Well spotted, sir. I wouldn't have thought about that until someone did ask me to resize the logo.

Cheers

Jim

 

[decksnap]

It's worth playing around with the Pathfinder tools a bit to learn how to make complex shapes by adding, subtracting, dividing, etc. Saves you tons of time and torture of pen-tooling complex objects if you aren't as comfortable freehanding your shapes.

This is a set of tools that is indispensable to me... I use it constantly. I would recommend familiarizing yourself with it. In this case for example, it's far faster to manipulate three circles during comping than to dick around with the stroke imo.