Extracting portions of an image

hello,

 

i relatively new illustrator (learning on fly if will), have below image , take red bars , isolate them rest of image (transparent wherever there not red. best/easiest way this? tried using knife , scissor tools not "locking" , allowing me separate. want retain graininess/imperfections, guess if image trace needed, have hi fi.

 

brandon,

 

as (mis)understand it, wish have red parts showing, background structure, , rid of grey parts.

 

presuming red parts vector artwork (paths including compound paths) @ reduced opacity (so can see background structure through it), , background structure raster image, may:

 

1) select red paths, not background (you may select everything, shiftclick background object deselect it), ctrl/cmd+8 (object>compound path>make);

2) ctrl/cmd+c+b;

3) shiftclick background image , ctrl/cmd+8 (object>clipping mask>make);

 

you may:

 

4) select , ctrl/cmd+g group.

 

this should give desired appearance, outlying/inlying invisible parts of raster image still selectable.

 

if wish rid of raster image parts outside area red parts, may go on 3) dirty destructive deed follows:

 

4) in transparency palette/panel dropdown list select normal (multiply fine; step may unneeded in version, may try without it);

5) object>flatten transparency, keep defaults including 100% vector;

6) shudder (optional, unless unavoidable).

 

this crop bounding box of clipping path, inside bounding box still there , selectable.

 

you may (still):

 

7) select , ctrl/cmd+g group.

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