Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

I say “outside chance” because, these days, it’s unlikely. Transpar-

ency fi rst appeared in Illustrator 9, which was six versions and

more than a decade ago. This coincided with the introduction of

transparency to version 1.4 of Adobe’s Portable Document Format

(PDF), which has largely supplanted the limited confi nes of Post-

Script. By default, every AI fi le includes a PDF description. Which

means that, if your translucent objects fail to print properly to a

PostScript printer (again, unlikely), you can rasterize the AI fi le in

a PDF-savvy program such as Photoshop, and the work of your

printer will be done.

I bring this up because I want you to look upon transparency in

Illustrator as your extremely powerful friend. You can use it—you

should use it—without fear of it interfering with the viability of your

artwork. And if printing somehow presents a problem, you can al-

ways export your artwork for use in Photoshop, which (based on

my experience with thousands of fi les) always produces accurate

results, as I’ll document in Lesson 12, “Printing and Exporting.”

In any event, rest assured: Illustrator’s brand of transparency is

practical, it’s adaptable, and it works.

Opacity and Knockout Group

This lesson features one elaborate project fi le, in which we’ll build

on a base image (Figure 8-3 on the facing page) to create a multi-

layered photo illustration (Figure 8-4). I’ve drawn all the paths for

you; your job is to apply the transparency effects.

In this fi rst exercise, I’ll show you how to change the Opacity value

for a single attribute assigned to a path outline. Then you’ll set a

group of paths so that translucent attributes cancel each other out,

resulting in a uniform and highly desirable effect.

1.

Open a piece of layered artwork. Open the fi le called

Base image with gloves.ai in the Lesson 08 folder inside

Lesson Files-AIcs5 1on1. Pictured in Figure 8-3, this

seven-layer illustration features a low-quality, two-megapixel

photograph that I shot years ago of my youngest son, Sam, as

a bald, eyebrowless toddler banging on a tragically tuneless

piano. Thus far, the illustration sports two vector-based gloves

with inset eyes. (Clearly, I was inspired. By what, not so clear.)

Many more paths, groups, layers, and sublayers lay in wait.

2. Inspect the Layers panel. In the Layers panel, you’ll see seven

layers, four turned on (with

s visible) and three off. The Vec-

tors layer should appear twirled open; if it isn’t, click its  to

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Lesson 8: Working with Transparency

Figure 8-3 . Figure 8-4 .

Figure 8-5 .

make it so. Inside the Vectors layer, you’ll fi nd a total

of eight objects, two paths and six sublayers. (The

paths appear as white, the sublayers—like the layer

that contains them—are gray.)

3. Turn on the Backdrop layer. Scroll down to the bot-

tom of the Layers panel and click in the fi rst column in

front of the Backdrop layer to turn it on. As pictured

in Figure 8-5, this layer adds a collection of fl oor and

curtain paths that cover up all but Sam’s head. (We also

see the gloves, but that’s because they’re on a higher

layer.) The head is not a transparency effect, not in

the context of this lesson at any rate. Rather, I used a

head-shaped path to carve a hole in the beige curtain

and fl oor with the help of the Pathfi nder panel, as we

explored in Lesson 6, “Pathfi nder Operations.”

4.

Turn on and expand the Jacket sublayer. Scroll up to

the expanded Vectors layer and turn on the sublayer

called Jacket, which features various elements of a

Liberace-like orange jacket with fl ouncy cravat and

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Opacity and Knockout Group