Masking a CALayer with another CALayer

Question

I'm trying to make a donut shape with CALayers. One CALayer will be a large circle, the other one will be a smaller circle positioned in its center, masking it.

The large circle displays fine, but whenever I call circle.mask = circleMask; then the view appears empty.

Here's my code:

AriDonut.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface AriDonut : UIView
-(id)initWithRadius:(float)radius;
@end

AriDonut.m

#import "AriDonut.h"
#import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h>

@implementation AriDonut

-(id)initWithRadius:(float)radius{
    self = [super initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, radius, radius)];
    if(self){

        //LARGE CIRCLE
        CALayer *circle = [CALayer layer];
        circle.bounds = CGRectMake(0, 0, radius, radius);
        circle.backgroundColor = [UIColor redColor].CGColor;
        circle.cornerRadius = radius/2;
        circle.position = CGPointMake(radius/2, radius/2);

        //SMALL CIRLCE
        CALayer *circleMask = [CALayer layer];
        circleMask.bounds = CGRectMake(0, 0, 10, 10);
        circleMask.cornerRadius = radius/2;
        circleMask.position = circle.position;

        //circle.mask = circleMask;

        [self.layer addSublayer:circle];

    }

    return self;
}

I've tried setting the large circle's superlayer nil like this:

CALayer *theSuper = circle.superlayer;
theSuper = nil;

But it didin't make a difference.

I also tried setting Circle's masksToBounds property to YES and NO, but it didn't make a difference.

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

Indeed, as @David indicates the current (iOS 5.1) CALayer masks can't be reversed, which poses a problem if you want to use them to make a transparent hole a simple circular CALayer.

What you can do to get a donut is make a circular CALayer's backgroundColor transparent, but give it a borderColor and a wide borderWidth. Here's the dunkin' code:

    CALayer *theDonut = [CALayer layer];
    theDonut.bounds = CGRectMake(0,0, radius, radius);
    theDonut.cornerRadius = radius/2;
    theDonut.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor].CGColor;

    theDonut.borderWidth = radius/5;
    theDonut.borderColor = [UIColor orangeColor].CGColor;

    [self.layer addSublayer:theDonut];

Answer 2

This is pretty easy using UIBezierPath and a CAShapeLayer as a masking layer. Code sample written as though it's in a UIView subclass.

Objective-C:

CGRect outerRect = self.bounds;
CGFloat inset = 0.2 * outerRect.size.width; // adjust as necessary for more or less meaty donuts
CGFloat innerDiameter = outerRect.size.width - 2.0 * inset;
CGRect innerRect = CGRectMake(inset, inset, innerDiameter, innerDiameter);
UIBezierPath *outerCircle = [UIBezierPath bezierPathWithRoundedRect:outerRect cornerRadius:outerRect.size.width * 0.5];
UIBezierPath *innerCircle = [UIBezierPath bezierPathWithRoundedRect:innerRect cornerRadius:innerRect.size.width * 0.5];
[outerCircle appendPath:innerCircle];
CAShapeLayer *maskLayer = [CAShapeLayer new];
maskLayer.fillRule = kCAFillRuleEvenOdd; // Going from the outside of the layer, each time a path is crossed, add one. Each time the count is odd, we are "inside" the path.
maskLayer.path = outerCircle.CGPath;
self.layer.mask = maskLayer;

Swift:

let outerRect = self.bounds
let inset: CGFloat = 0.2 * outerRect.width // adjust as necessary for more or less meaty donuts
let innerDiameter = outerRect.width - 2.0 * inset
let innerRect = CGRect(x: inset, y: inset, width: innerDiameter, height: innerDiameter)
let outerCircle = UIBezierPath(roundedRect: outerRect, cornerRadius: outerRect.width * 0.5)
let innerCircle = UIBezierPath(roundedRect: innerRect, cornerRadius: innerRect.width * 0.5)
outerCircle.appendPath(innerCircle)
let mask = CAShapeLayer()
mask.fillRule = kCAFillRuleEvenOdd
mask.path = outerCircle.CGPath
self.layer.mask = mask