adobe illustrator help?

[sanman918]

Hey,
I'm not sure if this is possible but I think I had to do it like 2 years ago and its been a while. I have made a circle which has a color fill on it. Then I make another circle on top of it the same color as the background and change its shape around so that it overlays the other circle making it look like theres just random shapes in it. I want to make it where like the bottom circle does a boolean so that its transparent and I can put things under those 2 odd shapes and beable to see under it. Its kinda hard to explain but i want to be able to put 2 circles on top of each other, then combine them as one object that is transparent. Thanks

[iLikePie]

i think i understand what you mean...

you want the top circle with the other shape cut out, then that othershape's shape to be transparent?

i've got an example attached. THe middle section is partially transparent so you can see the lines underneath.

i made the blue circle using the boolean, then just put another shape underneath with the partial transparency...

HIH
Stuart

[sanman918]

Well thats pretty much what I'm trying to accomplish but I don't ever use illustrator besides the basic line or so. Does it have a boolean tool because i was unable to find it. And I need full transparency. Any ideas?

[.soulty]

The pathfinder tool is what you need for all these sort of "boolean" actions in illustrator. You can find it's palette at

Window / Pathfinder

Play around with the tools there, you need to have more than one shape selected to achieve any action with this tools.

:smirk:

[beanboy]

Shapes with 'holes' in them are achived through compound paths. Look this up in the illustrator help file and it should explain it fully.

:)

[sanman918]

It worked! Thanks for all your help guys!!