CALayer with transparent hole in it

Question

I have a simple view (left side of the picture) and i need to create some kind of overlay (right side of the picture) to this view. This overlay should have some opacity, so

Answer 1

Code Swift 2.0 compatible

Starting from @animal_inch answer, I code a little utility-class, hope it will appreciate:

import Foundation
import UIKit
import CoreGraphics

/// Apply a circle mask on a target view. You can customize radius, color and opacity of the mask.
class CircleMaskView {

    private var fillLayer = CAShapeLayer()
    var target: UIView?

    var fillColor: UIColor = UIColor.grayColor() {
        didSet {
            self.fillLayer.fillColor = self.fillColor.CGColor
        }
    }

    var radius: CGFloat? {
        didSet {
            self.draw()
        }
    }

    var opacity: Float = 0.5 {
        didSet {
           self.fillLayer.opacity = self.opacity
        }
    }

    /**
    Constructor

    - parameter drawIn: target view

    - returns: object instance
    */
    init(drawIn: UIView) {
        self.target = drawIn
    }

    /**
    Draw a circle mask on target view
    */
    func draw() {
        guard (let target = target) else {
            print("target is nil")
            return
        }

        var rad: CGFloat = 0
        let size = target.frame.size
        if let r = self.radius {
            rad = r
        } else {
            rad = min(size.height, size.width)
        }

        let path = UIBezierPath(roundedRect: CGRectMake(0, 0, size.width, size.height), cornerRadius: 0.0)
        let circlePath = UIBezierPath(roundedRect: CGRectMake(size.width / 2.0 - rad / 2.0, 0, rad, rad), cornerRadius: rad)
        path.appendPath(circlePath)
        path.usesEvenOddFillRule = true

        fillLayer.path = path.CGPath
        fillLayer.fillRule = kCAFillRuleEvenOdd
        fillLayer.fillColor = self.fillColor.CGColor
        fillLayer.opacity = self.opacity
        self.target.layer.addSublayer(fillLayer)
    }

    /**
    Remove circle mask
    */


  func remove() {
        self.fillLayer.removeFromSuperlayer()
    }

}

Then, wherever in your code:

let circle = CircleMaskView(drawIn: )
circle.opacity = 0.7
circle.draw()