Subtracting an object from text underneath

[Sarahreneee]

I’m bummed I keep getting on here to ask for help with seemingly easy tasks lol, however the easy things are the ones I seem to have the most trouble with. All I wanna do is subtract the rope shape from the text underneath, so it’s like a cutout of the shape from the letters. I tried converting the text to curves and it wouldn’t let me use the subtract tool after that. 

Untitled.afdesign

[Callum]

Hi Sarahreneee,

Have you tried setting the blend mode of the curves to erase?

Thanks

Callum

[DM1]

7 hours ago, Sarahreneee said:

I tried converting the text to curves and it wouldn’t let me use the subtract tool after that. 

That alone wouldn’t have worked (erase blend does) but for the future if you want to access subtract menu from an object that converts  to multiple curves I have found you need to select the individual curve layers and then use Merge Curves,  not select the folder the curves are placed into. Selecting the curve layers (not the folder) reveals the subtract option. I'm not sure if this is by design.
To use the Subtract method: Convert the text to curves and merge the resulting curve layers using Merge Curves. Now select both the text (merged) layer and the shape layer above it and tap Expand Stroke. Now use Geometry Subtract to remove top layer (shape) from text layer. 
 

As you can see... it’s much easier to set blend mode of shape layer to Erase! 😀

[Sarahreneee]

11 hours ago, DM1 said:

That alone wouldn’t have worked (erase blend does) but for the future if you want to access subtract menu from an object that converts  to multiple curves I have found you need to select the individual curve layers and then use Merge Curves,  not select the folder the curves are placed into. Selecting the curve layers (not the folder) reveals the subtract option. I'm not sure if this is by design.
To use the Subtract method: Convert the text to curves and merge the resulting curve layers using Merge Curves. Now select both the text (merged) layer and the shape layer above it and tap Expand Stroke. Now use Geometry Subtract to remove top layer (shape) from text layer. 
 

As you can see... it’s much easier to set blend mode of shape layer to Erase! 😀

The more you know!! Thank you very much