How do I create an effect of an object hanging off the end of text

Question

I am trying to find a tutorial on how to create the effect of an object (in this case a crown) hanging on the edge of a letter (on the end of a word). I am designing a logo for our kids ministry at church. It is called "Kids of the King" and I have an eps of a crown and I want to hang the crown off the K in the word King. I am trying to make it where the back half of the crown is hidden behind the K so it gives the effect of it hanging off the edge of the letter. Can anyone help me with this? Thanks!

Paul

Answer 1

You don't need a specific tutorial for that, you can just cut out an area of the back of the crown corresponding to the shape of the letter.

You can do it with a simple clipping mask (a path that hides everything in a group except for what it covers). This works no matter what type of image the crown is or how complex it is.

• Position crown and text. Put the crown at low (40%?) opacity in the Transparency window so you can see the text underneath
• With the pen tool, draw a path that surrounds the crown (doesn't matter how far by), then carefully comes in around the part of the text you want to see uncovered. So the crown is completely covered up, except for the bit you want to disappear so you can see the text behind it.
• Put the crown back to full opacity, make sure the new path is on top (Object > Arrange > Bring to front).
• Select path and crown, Object > Clipping Mask > Make.

You can double-click into isolation mode on the clipping mask to change or move the crown inside it, and the clipping mask itself is a regular path that you can edit the normal way.

Answer 2

Just build your crown then break out the shapes you need at different levels. A mask is one way to do it. But you usually have breaks in color where the shapes transitions from front to back anyway, so just move those shapes around in the stacking order to get what you need.

A visual of your art would make recommendations easier.