Students used clipping masks to hide unwanted parts of a layer from view in a document. Clipping masks are a lot like Photoshop's layer masks in that both allow us to show and hide different parts of a layer, but clipping masks work differently. Unlike layer masks, where we first need to add a mask to the layer and then paint or fill areas on the mask with black (to hide the area), white (to show the area) or gray (to partially hide the area), clipping masks simply use the contents and transparency of a layer to determine which parts of the layer above it remain visible. Clipping masks can be faster and easier to use than layer masks! Students were tasked to create a ball using a clipping mask, then add a texture to turn it into a planet then take the texture to use as the background for a text clipping mask. Students also used the clipping mask technique to add a picture to a frame. See student work below.
