3 September 2006 - 04:25: zimm (zimm) replied...
have you expanded the strokes on the straw? in order to get rid of the excess stuff, you have to expand whatever shape you have, be it a stroke, mesh, gradient, etc. (it will work on an envelope, but you have to set a new fill layer to it in the layer's pallette) (at least that's how it works for me) i'm assuming that when you're making your clipping mask, and then trimming it, you're grouping the cliping mask layer and the layer that is masked out together (it does this by default in cs...and i think in ai 10, but i'm not sure....but you might have to click to reselect) so then you'd have to take that group, and then use the 'trim' on it, and it will delete the excess.... mess with it a few times, and you'll see what i mean. :)