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- [Instructor] In this

movie, I'll introduce you to



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the opacity mask.



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And we'll ultimately use

this feature to get the



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stripes off the model's nose



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and achieve this final effect right here.



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Now I'm going to be demonstrating

how an opacity mask works



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on this photographic image.



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And that's going to serve two purposes.



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First, we'll see how

opacity masks differ from



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the clipping mask, that

we saw back in chapter 23



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of the advanced course.



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And you'll also see how

opacity masks most closely



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resemble layer masks inside Photoshop.



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Alright so I'm going to go ahead

zoom out of this image here.



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And I'll turn off the glasses layer.



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And then I'll twirl open the image layer



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and I'll select the clipping group.



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Now we're going to remask this image.



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So I'm going to release the current mask



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by going up to the object

menu, choosing Clipping Mask,



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and choosing Release.



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Then I'll go ahead and

target this top path outline



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in the image layer, the

former clipping mask,



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and I'll press the back

space key or the delete key



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on the Mac to get rid of it.



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Alright let's zoom in a little bit here.



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And I'm going to go ahead

and select the Ellipse tool



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from the Shape Tools flyout menu.



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Then I'll position my cursor

on the bridge of her nose



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and I'll press the Alt key as

I drag in order to draw the



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shape from the center outward,

until it's about a big.



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Next, I'm going to increase my stroke.



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Notice I've got a black

stroke, but it's just



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one point thick.



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I'm going to crank it up to 20 points.



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And I'm going to go ahead

and set the field to white.



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And then just to give you a

real sense of what's going



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on here, I'll go up to the Effect menu,



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choose Blur, and choose Gaussian Blur,



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and I'll go ahead and

set the radius value to



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five pixels and click okay.



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And we end up with this

blurry looking shape.



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Now I could convert

this to a clipping mask



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just by selecting the

contents of this layer,



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which you can do by clicking

on this little wedge



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in the top right corner

of the layer, here inside



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the layers panel.



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And then you can go to the object menu,



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choose Clipping Mask, and choose Make.



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In which case we end up

losing all those attributes



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as well as the Gaussian blur.



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That's not the end of the world though.



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I can reestablish the attributes



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by twirling open this clipping group



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and targeting the clipping

mask, which is going to be



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the top path in the group.



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And then I could go back up

here to the stroke option,



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and set the line weight to 20 points,



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and we get a big black line.



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However if I go to the effect menu



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choose Blur and choose Gaussian Blur,



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and apply that same radius of

five pixels, nothing happens.



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And that's because clipping

masks don't support



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dynamic effects.



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Alright so let's back up and

see how different things are,



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when we're working with an opacity mask.



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I'll just go ahead and

press Ctrl + Z or Cmd + Z



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on the Mac, until we get back to the point



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where everything on

this layer is selected.



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Next you want to go to

the Transparency panel.



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So everything that we're talking about



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throughout this chapter

exists in this one panel.



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And notice right there,

we've got this button called



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Make Mask.



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Just go ahead and click on it,



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and notice now we get

a very soft transition,



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consistent with that Gaussian Blur.



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I also want you to take a

close look at these thumbnails



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here inside the transparency panel.



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Notice that in addition

to the image thumbnail,



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which we saw just a moment ago



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I'll go ahead and press Ctrl

+ Z or Cmd + Z on the Mac,



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at which point we are

seeing everything inside



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the document in this tiny thumbnail,



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but then if I press Ctrl + Shift + Z,



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or Cmd + Shift + Z on the

Mac, to redo that operation,



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we now have an additional thumbnail



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over here on the right

hand side, which represents



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the opacity mask itself.



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And notice that we have a white

ellipse surrounded by black.



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And this is just the way

things work with layer masks



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inside Photoshop.



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So anything that's white

inside the mask reveals,



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and anything that's black like

that fuzzy stroke conceals.



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I also want you to notice something else,



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that's going to throw you over time.



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Because it's a little

inconsistent with how things



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generally work inside Illustrator.



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Notice inside the image

layer, we now have a group.



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It doesn't tell us it's a clipping group.



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It doesn't tell us it's

an opacity mask group



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or anything like that.



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It just says the word group.



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And if you twirl it open,



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you're just going to

see the placed images.



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You're not going to see

that elliptical mask.



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The only way you really know

that you have an opacity mask



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is by the appearance of this underline.



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It's either going to be a

dotted underline or a solid one,



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in which case you can consult

the Transparency panel,



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where you'll actually see

the opacity mask represented



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by this thumbnail.



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Now if you want to edit that opacity mask,



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then you click on that

right hand thumbnail,



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at which point notice what's happened



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inside the layers panel.



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All of the layers have disappeared



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and we now see layers and

in parenthesis opacity mask.



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And we have what amounts to

a single layer that contains



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this ellipse.



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You can't create anymore

layers inside the mask,



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which is why all these

controls at the bottom of



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the layers panel are dim.



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And you're also going to see

a little bit of a highlight



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around that right hand thumbnail.



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In which way, notice

the ellipse is selected



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and I could go ahead and

switch to the Appearance panel,



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which you can also get by

choosing the Appearance command



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from the Window menu.



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Then I could click on Gaussian Blur



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and I could take that value

up to let's say eight pixels



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this time around, click okay,



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and that will give us

a fussier transition.



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Now a couple of other

things I want you to notice.



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See this Clip checkbox right there.



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If you turn it off, then

everything outside of the mask,



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in our case, this

ellipse, will become white



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and it will end up revealing

the model in the background.



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So that only the black

stroke is hiding her



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and revealing the violet gradient.



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If that's not what you

want, if you want everything



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outside the ellipse to

disappear, then turn that



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clip checkbox back on.



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You also have this Invert Mask option,



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which is going to invert how things work.



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So in other words, white

is going to conceal



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and black is going to reveal



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and then we once again have

clipping outside the shape.



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You can also turn Clip

off, in order to see what



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things would look like, if you're only



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masking away her face.



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That is not of course

remotely what I want.



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So I'm going to turn the

Invert Mask checkbox off,



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and I'll turn the Clip checkbox on.



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A couple of other things to know.



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If you want to see the mask

here inside the document window,



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instead of seeing the

illustration, then you want



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to press the Alt key or

the Option key on the Mac



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and click on that Mask thumbnail.



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And you will see the mask all by itself.



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Now it's going to look different

than it does in the thumbnail.



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You're going to see the ellipse

against a white background.



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But because the Clip checkbox is on,



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Illustrator is clipping

everything outside of that shape.



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If you want to see the illustration again,



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then just Alt or Option click once again



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on that right hand thumbnail.



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And by the way, that's

exactly how things work



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with layer masks inside of Photoshop.



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Here's something else that works the same.



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If you want to turn the mask off,



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then just go ahead and Shift + Click on it



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at which point, you'll see this big red X.



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If you want to turn it back

on, Shift + Click again.



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And incidentally you also have

a command that's available



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if you click on a flyout menu icon,



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in the top right corner

of the Transparency Panel,



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right there notice if you

chose Disable Opacity Mask,



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that's the exact same

thing as Shift clicking on



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this thumbnail.



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Alright, I'm going to Shift

Click to turn it back on



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and finally if you want to

be able to regain access



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to all the layers inside

your illustration,



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then just to see this happen,

I'll go ahead and switch



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back to the layers panel and

I'll click on the left hand



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thumbnail, at which point all

of your layers will reappear.



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And that is my introduction

to how opacity masks



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work here inside Illustrator.



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In the next movie, we'll

use an opacity mask



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to mask these glasses.