melissaclifton.com— A nice tutorial for converting a rastor image (photo) into vector. very good for creating vector images of your own photos or banners for your website.
Sep 28, 2006View in Crawl 4
@bradleylandmy method is to use illustrator! but if i have to use photoshop to "vectorize" i would most likely limit the number of colors available by messing with levels and curves, brightness and contrast or whatever means possible (this is also useful when making stencils). this removes gradients and shading. then you can use the pen tool to create shape layers. that's about it. once you master the pen tool you are good to go. nothing's gonna stop you!here's another fun thing to do:1.duplicate your original layer (ctrl+j).2. run filter "trace contour" using the lowest setting.3. set your new layer's transfer mode to "multiply" (this makes the white transparent).4. duplicate your original layer.5. run filter "trace countour" and adjust the setting up to desired level. mulitples of 10 20 works fine depending on the size and dpi of your image. do what looks good.6. set transfer mode to "multiply"7. go to step one until you complete "trace contour" setting numbers.8. fill background with white.you should now have something that looks like this:<a class="user" href="http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/6272/trace001up3.jpg">http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/6272/trace001up3.jpg</a>merge the layers, invert them, copy and paste them into a mask on a black layer. it will look like this:<a class="user" href="http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/918/trace02lz7.jpg">http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/918/trace02lz7.jpg</a>then go in and type random numbers in the negative spaces to give your image a "paint by numbers" look. or fill in the shapes with colors. just keep that top layer set to multiply and have a white background and you'll be fine.i just made that up...have fun with it. but seriously, if you want to vectorize something, you're better off using illustrator. once you get illustrator down you can do anything.here's an illustrator image i imported into photoshop:<a class="user" href="http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/3596/picture3yx1.jpg">http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/3596/picture3yx1.jpg</a>and here's what i did with it:<a class="user" href="http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/1686/mugen1900flatfl8.jpg">http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/1686/mugen1900flatfl8.jpg</a>i recommend putting photoshop aside for a while and focussing on illustrator full time for a month or so. import some jpgs and mess around with the pen tool and pathfinder. you'll get the feel for it and appreciate what illustrator can offer you and your creative work.happy vectorizing!
guys seriously! .. open pic filter>artistic >cutouthistory brush round the eyes.. mouth (detailed areas)corel Trace, and trace it..bits of digital coloring done.. in 16.. mins , not the same output as the tutorial gives? who careS!! if that wips up 80% of the same result and saves 15 hours.. remember.. if this is going on a banner or w/e it'll be so minimized that tons of the details will just .. well, disappear..
Didn't let me finish editing. Anyways when you use Trace, I find it to spike a lot of the nodes, and it also leaves a lot of the nodes in the wrong setting ( isometric, acute, etc. ) So it can be hard to work from that to create something. Maybe i'm too picky, and it's really all about what you get comfortable with, but you always get the best results when you trace it by hand with the boolean line tool . (Kudos to people who know what it actaully is. Tired of kiddies and wanna be artists calling it by the "other" name)
thekinginyellowSep 28, 2006
@bradleylandmy method is to use illustrator! but if i have to use photoshop to "vectorize" i would most likely limit the number of colors available by messing with levels and curves, brightness and contrast or whatever means possible (this is also useful when making stencils). this removes gradients and shading. then you can use the pen tool to create shape layers. that's about it. once you master the pen tool you are good to go. nothing's gonna stop you!here's another fun thing to do:1.duplicate your original layer (ctrl+j).2. run filter "trace contour" using the lowest setting.3. set your new layer's transfer mode to "multiply" (this makes the white transparent).4. duplicate your original layer.5. run filter "trace countour" and adjust the setting up to desired level. mulitples of 10 20 works fine depending on the size and dpi of your image. do what looks good.6. set transfer mode to "multiply"7. go to step one until you complete "trace contour" setting numbers.8. fill background with white.you should now have something that looks like this:<a class="user" href="http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/6272/trace001up3.jpg">http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/6272/trace001up3.jpg</a>merge the layers, invert them, copy and paste them into a mask on a black layer. it will look like this:<a class="user" href="http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/918/trace02lz7.jpg">http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/918/trace02lz7.jpg</a>then go in and type random numbers in the negative spaces to give your image a "paint by numbers" look. or fill in the shapes with colors. just keep that top layer set to multiply and have a white background and you'll be fine.i just made that up...have fun with it. but seriously, if you want to vectorize something, you're better off using illustrator. once you get illustrator down you can do anything.here's an illustrator image i imported into photoshop:<a class="user" href="http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/3596/picture3yx1.jpg">http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/3596/picture3yx1.jpg</a>and here's what i did with it:<a class="user" href="http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/1686/mugen1900flatfl8.jpg">http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/1686/mugen1900flatfl8.jpg</a>i recommend putting photoshop aside for a while and focussing on illustrator full time for a month or so. import some jpgs and mess around with the pen tool and pathfinder. you'll get the feel for it and appreciate what illustrator can offer you and your creative work.happy vectorizing!
paintingSep 28, 2006
thanks captain obvious, no one is claiming this is the best way to create vector images, just showing you how, in this case, in photoshop.
paintingSep 28, 2006
<a class="user" href="http://www.deviantart.com/view/8818843/">http://www.deviantart.com/view/8818843/</a> no, not end of story, appleface.
zgliderSep 29, 2006
guys seriously! .. open pic filter>artistic >cutouthistory brush round the eyes.. mouth (detailed areas)corel Trace, and trace it..bits of digital coloring done.. in 16.. mins , not the same output as the tutorial gives? who careS!! if that wips up 80% of the same result and saves 15 hours.. remember.. if this is going on a banner or w/e it'll be so minimized that tons of the details will just .. well, disappear..
orangetikiSep 29, 2006
Didn't let me finish editing. Anyways when you use Trace, I find it to spike a lot of the nodes, and it also leaves a lot of the nodes in the wrong setting ( isometric, acute, etc. ) So it can be hard to work from that to create something. Maybe i'm too picky, and it's really all about what you get comfortable with, but you always get the best results when you trace it by hand with the boolean line tool . (Kudos to people who know what it actaully is. Tired of kiddies and wanna be artists calling it by the "other" name)
dreamflowsOct 2, 2006
My vote still goes to the artists (almost all of them do vector manually) here:THE WORLD'S MOST PHOTOREALISTIC VECTOR ART<a class="user" href="http://basangpanaginip.blogspot.com/2006/07/worlds-most-photorealistic-vector-art.html">http://basangpanaginip.blogspot.com/2006/07/worlds-most-photorealistic-vector-art.html</a>
berlonusJan 16, 2007
Hi ) I found some vector arts here ) www.playboy-design.com ... how they paint ??
vectormanJun 17, 2008
Great resource. Cheers for hooking us up,Simon <a class="user" href="http://www.uberpiglet.com">http://www.uberpiglet.com</a>
psdeluxerMay 9, 2009
Very good tutorial. Here is something similar, and easy to follow:<a class="user" href="http://digg.com/design/Drawing_realistic_color_portrait">http://digg.com/design/Drawing_realistic_color_por ...</a>