Transparent borders

[MikeP23]

Hi,

I am trying to create a transparent border around a shape whilst also hiding some of the background image, similar to the image below, where the border around the figure is hiding the circular shape behind. I have tried using the subtract option, but this doesn't appear to work if the background object is just a stroke. I probably haven't explained this very clearly, but any help would be appreciated.

Thank you

Mike

[Old Bruce]

It is a man waist deep in the water with a couple of ripples. I see six shapes, from left to right; outer ripple, elbow of arms & torso, little part of a ripple, tiny part of a ripple, head (on top) and part of a ripple. Make those and group them. 

[firstdefence]

1. Create both circles with just a stroke and no fill
2. create the shape i.e. the person with a fill
3. Add a stroke to that person shape
4. Select the person shape and both circles
5. Use Layer > Expand Stroke
6. Duplicate the expanded stroke layer of the person shape (Cmd + J)
7. Now Select a circle and one of the expanded stroke layers of person shape
8. Subtract the expanded stroke layer of person shape from one of the circles
9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 for the other circle.

 

Step 6

 

End Result

[MikeP23]

Thank you for your help, that's exactly what I was trying to achieve. However, the lines of the two circles are wavy, similar to yours above. How can this be corrected?

Thank you

Mike

 

[Alfred]

The ‘Expand Stroke’ function currently doesn’t work well for small shapes. Enlarge the shape by a factor of ten or more, expand the stroke and then shrink the shape back down again.

[MikeP23]

Perfect...that's worked!

Thank you