Using an UIView as a Mask in another UIView on Swift

Question

I am developing an App on xCode with Swift. My screen has an Image of an animal (outlet "backImage"), over this image I have a view (outlet "coverView"), color black, which covers all the screen. So so far you can't see the animal image, because the "coverView" is in front of it. Then I have another view (outlet "maskView") which is smaller and it's over the big view "coverView". What I want is to use this "maskView" as mask and therefor see the "backImage" through it, like a window.

Is there anyone out there able to figure this out?

Here is my screen, I want to see the woman character behind the big gray view through the smaller white view:

Answer 1

You can set the alpha property from your mask view and add in front of the other view, for instance:

let maskView = UIView()
maskView.backgroundColor = UIColor(white: 0, alpha: 0.5) //you can modify this to whatever you need
maskView.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: imageView.frame.width, height: imageView.frame.height)

yourView.addSubview(maskView)

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EDIT: Now that you edited your question with an image, now I see what you need, so here is how you can accomplish that.

func setMask(with hole: CGRect, in view: UIView){

    // Create a mutable path and add a rectangle that will be h
    let mutablePath = CGMutablePath()
    mutablePath.addRect(view.bounds)
    mutablePath.addRect(hole)

    // Create a shape layer and cut out the intersection
    let mask = CAShapeLayer()
    mask.path = mutablePath
    mask.fillRule = kCAFillRuleEvenOdd

    // Add the mask to the view
    view.layer.mask = mask

}

With this function, all you need is to have a view and create a shape that it's going to be a hole in that view, for instance:

// Create the view (you can also use a view created in the storyboard)
let newView = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: view.frame.width, height: view.frame.height))
newView.backgroundColor = UIColor(white: 0, alpha: 1)

// You can play with these values and find one that fills your need
let rectangularHole = CGRect(x: view.bounds.width*0.3, y: view.bounds.height*0.3, width: view.bounds.width*0.5, height: view.bounds.height*0.5)

// Set the mask in the created view        
setMask(with: rectangularHole, in: newView)