Interlocking Rings - Using Opacity Mask

[MarkMyWords]

Nicely done JaffDave.

Being more dumb than most, I have been struggling to find a use for this feature, but looking at this, a slight tingling in the back of my brain might be signalling that the penny is about to drop.

Or it could be too much caffeine.

[Odat]

Hey, now that's an awesome use for OM's! I think you just sparked a few ideas over here, thanks!

[Xhris]

Better late than never if it helps show how I made the rings I attached earlier. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zatIzMlfLg

[gracehjs]

Thanks, but is it just me? I tend to use the menus to do things not the short cuts and so I don't know what the short cuts do. Would it be possible for someone to make some tutorials using the menus?

Thanks

Better late than never if it helps show how I made the rings I attached earlier. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zatIzMlfLg

[Xhris]

Thanks, but is it just me? I tend to use the menus to do things not the short cuts and so I don't know what the short cuts do. Would it be possible for someone to make some tutorials using the menus?

Thanks

Ah yes, I do make that mistake sometimes and use shortcuts too much (it's a lot quicker once you know what they do). Sorry about that. I will try adding annotations in YT to compensate.

[Odat]

Is O supposed to be the shortcut to apply an Opacity Mask or is that just one that you set up?

I remember some discussion about it before so I wasn't sure if that was supposed to be the default but wasn't, or what.

Regardless it's a pretty handy shortcut which I've gotten pretty used to already with all my playing around. I was just curious.

[Xhris]

It was omitted accidentally from download release, but is default in CD release. For the time being you can set it up as a keyboard shortcut using the shortcuts utility. There's more info in the video description. Then OMs work just like clipviews' Q, and it's really convenient!

[Odat]

Ahh there we go, thank you! I figured I was probably missing something. I was watching the videos with a squirming puppy in my lap so I was probably not as thorough as I could have been.

I have set up that shortcut manually since it's pretty handy and easy to remember (even for a gravy brain like me). Thanks for the clarification!

[tonylondon]

It was omitted accidentally from download release, but is default in CD release. For the time being you can set it up as a keyboard shortcut using the shortcuts utility. There's more info in the video description. Then OMs work just like clipviews' Q, and it's really convenient!

Would you happen to know if that means they've also added 'remove OM" to the menu, similar to remove clip view, or do we still have to select the mask and ungroup it?

[Xhris]

Would you happen to know if that means they've also added 'remove OM" to the menu, similar to remove clip view, or do we still have to select the mask and ungroup it?

Hi, there is a detach command (Alt+o) (which again is not set as default in the d/l release, but is in the CD release, so you'll have to manually assign it). Interestingly though, 'detach OM' does the same thing as ungroup. Only clipviews are the anomaly to this rule of separating compound objects, but this could change in future versions to be consistent. So 'o' to apply the OM, and ungroup to remove it. I don't think there is a command on the menu yet to detach an OM unfortunately, like there is with clipviews, but I know Xara are aware. Personally, I rarely use menu commands and have gotten quite good at keyboard shortcuts over time--much quicker. Once I learned (except for clipviews at the moment) that ungroup just separates out a compound object (e.g. an OM group, photogroup, normal group, [soft groups are special] etc.), I found it less to remember.