This time instead of a solid white fill color, give it a black and white gradient and set the Type to Radial. For instance go back (undo Ctrl+Z) to the previous step of having the circle over the group. Working with opacity masks allows you to do cool things like gradient fades. Now deselect by clicking on an empty area and you should have something like this: In the Transparency Window (if itвЂ™s not open, go to top menu Window > Transparency ) click on that little arrow on the upper right corner and from the drop down options select Make Opacity Mask. Opacity Masks вЂ“ Set the circle fill color to white and then select both the group and the circle with the Move Tool (V). This way you can still go back and adjust something if you need to. Keep in mind that this will be the starting point for all 3 examples that follow вЂ“ opacity masks, clipping masks and cropping.Д«efore using the cropping method, itвЂ™s best to use opacity masks or clipping masks while your vector art is a work in progress. Grab the Ellipse Tool (L) and while holding Shift drag a circle over the group. Now letвЂ™s say that you needed to hide or crop the group according to a circular shape. To make it more interesting, grab some of the liquify tools (Wrinkle, Crystallize, Wrap etc.) and play around until you get something that you like.

Select all by dragging over with the Selection Tool (V) and press Ctrl + G to group them. Grab various shape tools and fill an area with different kinds give them a fill color and no stroke. First set up a group of shapes on your artboard.

Crop in illustrator