How to properly use the pathfinder tool in Illustrator?

Question

I am currently trying to learn a bit about illustrator, and one of the tutorial I am following mentions the use of the pathfinder tool to intersect 2 objects. The goal is to add a splatter on a text following these steps :

-Copy and paste your text in the same place (ctrl+c, ctrl+f)

-Add the splatter above it, select the splatter and the second text

-Go to pathfinder -> intersect

But when I do that, nothing happens. So, I made a video of my screen to show you what I am exactly doing, maybe I'm not using it right. For video purposes, I use 3 different colors on the different texts and on the splatter. Also, don't mind the font I should have used another one for the video.

Here's the video

Answer 1

Pathfinder tools are a little tricky, but even more so when you're using art with hundreds/thousands of points, like you have once you converted that text to outlines.

In addition, the other vector art you're using looks like it's a compound path, meaning it has numerous objects combined into one. You may be able to either ungroup (possibly need to ungroup several times) the objects, or right-click on it and "release compound path". This may help when you try to use the Pathfinder tools, because many of them only work with single objects interacting with other single objects.

Finally, one other little trick is to simply move on object to the front (if it's in the back) or vice versa. Sometimes that's all it takes; the Pathfinder tools are a little picky about which object is in front. On that note, make sure they're on the same layer, as well.

Hope this helps a bit, good luck!

Answer 2

You have to convert text (and everything else) into vector shape to use vector effects on it. Select e.g. text, go to Object->Expand (Expand Appearance respectively) and then use your effect. Good luck!