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Ok so follow up my previous question on how to create a group stroke with mask here.
I followed your steps & basically solves my problem. OK let's just say i done all that, then my boss said oh lets add spikes to the cup, ( well in real illustration it could be more complex case )
So i did changes to the original layer , now how do i quickly apply those changes to my mask?
or the only way is to repeat, copy paste infront mask again? thanks!
There is no quicker way to alter your clipping mask in Illustrator.
When you copy and paste an underlying shape to get your mask shape you are creating a new separate object. It does not "auto update" the mask shape when you change the original underlying shape.
Just release the clipping mask (Object> Clipping Mask> Release) and delete that mask shape. Then do the copy/paste/ clipping mask make again with the updated mask shape. If you learn the keyboard shortcut commands this can be a very "quick" process.
The construction looks unnecessarily complicated to me, to be honest. If you simplify it a bit you'll have less trouble making changes.
If you arrange it so you have a group consisting of a blue rectangle instead of a blue cup shape, and a star on top, then have a clipping mask applied to that group, and a black stroke applied to the clipping mask in the appearance panel, then all you would need to do is edit the clipping mask, no need to update any other shapes.
If you then want to edit the clipping mask further, you could release it, make the edits, maybe use pathfinder Unite to make your new clipping mask shape, then reapply it as a clip, and set the stroke again.
Example of a clipping mask with a stroke added in the appearance panel
