How to use Opacity Masks in Adobe Illustrator

hey guys it's sophia here and in this video i'm going to explain what opacity masks are in adobe illustrator by showing you a couple of quick examples of how they can be applied to your illustrations [Applause] [Music] an opacity mask is something that you can apply to any object that you create giving you the ability to define the transparency of the object with more control this will help you add visibility to your designs in creative and dynamic ways for this tutorial i have created a simple vector bird that i want to make a bit more exciting by adding textures and gradients and i'm going to do this by using opacity masks you can also use this bird as i have provided a link in the description below alternatively you can use any illustration you have created in adobe illustrator before we begin ensure you have opened the transparency and gradient panels which can be found under window the transparency panel is where the opacity mask lives to show you how this works we are going to start by creating a shadow on the bird select the bird's peach colored body copy and paste in place and go to your fuel box and choose a slightly darker color to the pink with this object selected you should be able to see a thumbnail image to the left of your transparency panel to create an opacity mask for this object double-click inside the empty box to the right you will notice that your object has disappeared and the box is now black this is adobe illustrator's default and means that your object will have an opacity of 0 in the opacity mask the transparency values are represented as different shades of gray anything that is black in your opacity mask has an opacity of 0 and is invisible anything that is white in your opacity mask has an opacity of a hundred percent and is visible any areas that are different shades of gray will vary in transparency depending on their color we're going to apply a grayscale gradient to this opacity mask to do this you need to go to the gradient panel in the drop down menu select a grayscale gradient and then you need to create a vector object in the opacity mask in this instance i'm going to create a rectangle that covers the entire bird's body as you can see your pink object now fades out as its transparency values are determined by the grayscale gradient we have just added to the opacity mask if you look at the opacity mask thumbnail in your transparency panel you can now see that it contains the gradient we have just added let's try another way of using opacity mask to go back to editing your illustration you need to exit the opacity mask by clicking once on the left thumbnail of the object then with this object selected i'm going to go to my layers panel and just move it behind a few different objects so the eyes and the features on the bird can stand out the next opacity mask i want to add is to these squiggly lines on the bird's tail i want these lines to be contained to the bird's tail and not hanging out the ends like it is now so first things first i'm going to select all the lines and ensure that they are grouped as one object by right clicking and selecting group in the transparency panel you can now see the lines represented as one object in the thumbnail go back to your illustration and select the bird's body copy and paste in place and then in the field box choose white copy the white object and then delete it from your artboard select the squiggly lines again and create an opacity mask by double clicking on the right box in the transparency panel again everything is defaulted to black and nothing is visible paste in place the white object you saved previously and now the lines are contained within the tail turn the camera on and ah if you enjoyed this tutorial we'd love to hear from you in the comments and if you love all things illustrations don't forget to subscribe to the link right here [Music]

Channel: Sofia Varano

Views: 304

Keywords: transparent gradient mask with adobe illustrator, what is an opacity mask, illustrator layer masks, contain in object adobe illustrator, how to draw, how to use adobe illustrator, adobe illustrator tutorial, masks illustrator, apple mac adobe illustrator, how to, adobe illustrator, understanding opacity masks, opacity masks explained, vector, how to create illustration, sofia varano, perth illustrator, perth artists

Id: KBxV898rUOg

Length: 4min 52sec (292 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 30 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Microsoft_Golf]

this is really good! I haven’t seen a tutorial explain it yet. more please!

[u/kaitjdesign]

Nice job. Super simple to understand and follow. I always appreciate tutorials that properly explain how something works rather than giving a bunch of steps to follow to get a result.

[u/StoryTunesCreative]

This is a very clear tutorial, easy to follow & remember. I've seen tutorials that just go too fast and it's easy to miss steps but this pacing feels just right. Easy to apply the steps to your own work while following the video.

For audio, maybe your voice speaking level could be a bit louder to bring it out more & to be on the same level as the music clips for the intro & ending.