converting a white spot color section to transparent in illustrator

[jvanick]

this seems like it should be easy, but I can't figure it out.

I have a vector image that the artist used white spot color in, however it looks like the white spot color section is actually a mask for a layer of black underneath.  I need to keep the black parts of the image, but convert the white to 'transparent'.

what it appears happened is that the original artist used a black circle, and then created paths on top of the black circle in white to make their art...

now I need to place that art on top of another image...

Can somebody please point me in the right direction?

Thanks!
-J

[Sbrem]

Pull that part, or a copy of it, off to the side; select both, then on the pathfinder pallet, use "Trim", then "Merge". This should knock the white out of the black,but the white is still there, so, using the direct selection tool (hollow pointer) select the white parts and delete them. This should leave you with a black object with holes in it, that is if I'm reading your request correctly.

Steve

[jvanick]

hmm... wierd, that still didn't work as I expected it...  after playing with it tho... it appears that there's a seperate black object with the holes...

is there a way to just 'flatten' the entire image so that only where the spot colors (and white) are, are all one layer so I can just manipulate the pieces?

this is actually a common problem I have with a lot of projects, and I usually just hack until I figure out what needs to be done... would love to have a easy way to do this

[GaryG]

How about copy, and paste "in front", sets it in the exact place needed.
That gives a separate object, then change the new piece to white.

[IntegrityShirts]

hmm... wierd, that still didn't work as I expected it...  after playing with it tho... it appears that there's a seperate black object with the holes...

is there a way to just 'flatten' the entire image so that only where the spot colors (and white) are, are all one layer so I can just manipulate the pieces?

this is actually a common problem I have with a lot of projects, and I usually just hack until I figure out what needs to be done... would love to have a easy way to do this

Is it a placed eps or pdf file into illustrator? Try "Object/Flatten Transparency"

If there are clipping masks you can release them and then do the pathfinder actions Sbrem mentioned

[Sbrem]

Post a jpeg so we can see exactly what it is we're trying to help with

Steve

[jvanick]

I think the problem is that illustrator is seeing the white layer not as a transparent color?

Attached is the image I'm dealing with.

the artist created the colors as 3 circles of colors under everything.  and then is opening out what they want...

I can send the file if anybody would like to take a quick look at it.  But I'd certainly like to know the process of dealing with this myself...

I ended up hacking through it again by creating a live paint group of the white areas, and then filling that with 'transparent'

but I'm guessing that's not really the 'preferred' way of doing it?

[IntegrityShirts]

send it to me at integrityshirts@gmail.com and I'll see how it's set up and describe what to do in a post.

[IntegrityShirts]

Ok, it's a newer version of illy than I have and this info may or may not work in CS6. I still opened it a couple ways to verify it was the same. Opened it regular way with  version warning, and opened it in acrobat then saved as a pdf and placed it in illustrator, both methods produced the same result.

The white in it isn't a spot color in the palette window for me in either case.

Here's what I did:

Open
Object/flatten transparency
Object/Clipping Mask/Release (Ctrl Alt 7 TWICE to reveal paths)
Ungroup (Ctrl Shift G)
Select and delete bounding box

Each individual piece is selectable after this but the white section is layered over a black background so I do this in the pathfinder window:

Select all
Merge
Ungroup

Now you should have individual pieces of color, the black is gone from underneath the white. All butt-registered art at this point.

The last thing, and you may have already set this up, is to create a keyboard shortcut for the menu option of "select/same fill color". I mapped that shortcut to F9. Then you click on one piece of white, hit F9 it selects all the white pieces, then I group them. Repeat for each color.

[jvanick]

hmm.. I might have been confused when working with the selection tool... (when I control left click the white, it was coming up as 'white' in the color box.

but.. the key that fixed this was the 'select all' 'merge' and then 'ungroup'... that's EXACTLY what I needed...  I'm guessing that'll work on other projects too where they've done wierd things to 'block out' parts of the image.

Thank you VERY much for the help, I really appreciate it!!!

[IntegrityShirts]

No problem, glad you got it work out!

[Sbrem]

Flatten Transparency and the Pathfinder tools solve a lot of problems. I can't believe how some people build art. I got a 5 color today for a Bar Mitzvah. They sent me an Illy file with each color on a separate layer, but, each color is a placed, 72 ppi jpeg. Holy Cow! All that work to end up with crap. And if you saw the art, it literally screams vector graphic. I'm sepping it with Photoshop, much faster.

Steve

[jvanick]

They sent me an Illy file with each color on a separate layer, but, each color is a placed, 72 ppi jpeg

hey, I sent you a vector file didn't I? LOL

[Sbrem]

Crazy world, ain't it?

Steve