How to make two white paths and a white fill transparent over a black image in illustrator?

Question

So I have this tear shape which has a black fill and no outline. I added the following shapes on top of it in sequence:

• 2nd largest circle with black fill and white outline
• 3rd largest circle with black fill and white outline
• Vertical rectangle to create the two semi circles in the 3rd largest circle
• Smallest circle in the middle with no outline and white fill

I been trying to get the white areas to be transparent for many hours. I tried changing the black fills of the circles to transparent fills when combining and subtracting them. I tried separating the circles, I managed to do the small circle transparent in the big tear shape but when I try to do the rest of the bigger circles, I lose the black areas. Then I tried working with the big circle first, the entire tear shape got a white outline.

Any help in me figuring out how to do this will be much appreciated. Thank you.

Answer 1

AndrewH is right, the Pathfinder palette is your friend here.

• First, remove the fill from the two circles with white strokes and convert the strokes to outlines (Object > Path > Create Outlines).

• Next, select the black box and the smallest white outlined circle (making sure the black box is at the top) and, using the Minus Front tool in the Pathfinder palette, cut it into two semi/circles.

• Select both of these and the smallest solid white circle and create a compound path.

• Then, select the teardrop shape and the largest outlined white circle and once again use the Minus Front tool. This will create a smaller black circle inside the teardrop shape

• select this and the compound path you created at the last step, and once again use the Minus Front tool.

This should do the trick.

Answer 2

First, make sure you Expand all strokes to shapes. Select the objects with only a stroke and no fill and select Object > Expand...

Second, select your shapes, open your Pathfinder window (under Window > Pathfinder), then select Minus Front.

I quickly recreated a few shapes that look like yours to give you an idea of the procedure:

Answer 3

Non destructive way to achieve this with the help of Knockout option available in Transparency Panel.

Follow the instructions below...

The circles are still editable, like line width, re-sizing, reshape and further add objects or remove from the group too.