Working with Vectors

[Creatures]

Because i have way to much spare time, i trained my Vector skills in Photoshop
and what's the best way to do that? right, take a small drawn picture, redraw the lines and supersize it ;P

from this little picture



to



(original resized, vectors, my colored version)

and click here for the 912x1600 version ;P

i know it's nothing special and far from being perfect, but was fun to do ;p and i thought i should post here once in a while, because my whole photoshop addiction began here =)

oh and yes critisize, i love that =)

Creatures

BTW i was using a Pen Tablet to draw, just FYI

[OuTpaTienT]

Nice going Creatures. Good to see someone at least trying.

Now, you asked for critism... so here we go: It looks to me like you haven't fully grasped the concept of vectors yet. I say that because it looks like you used the Pen Tool to simply trace vector lines over the image. But it's not that easy. Vector lines are invisible. Vector lines should be used to create vector objects. It's those enclosed objects that can be filled with solid colors and then become visible.

I too took the above smallest image of Frozenshade and created a vector illustration from it. Here's what it looks like showing only the vector lines:



It takes many vector objects and thus many layers to make even a simple graphic like this one. This next image shows each vector layer one by one as they are stacked on top of each other to produce the final result:



A vector image should contain no painted layers. You should not have to ever use a paintbrush to color a vector image. Painted layers (i.e. raster layers) do not scale well at all. But if your image is 100% vector shape layers then it will scale to any size...

[ShuckyD]

how the heck do you give the hair such a gradient or whatever to make it look so real? I have to say you are very very good at this... ive messed around a bunch with the pen tool in Illustrator especially this semester since i had a Comp Grphcs II class that really used Illustrator and Photoshop out the wazoo, im finishing up my portfolio for it as i type this and lets see i spent a good 20+ hours this weekend and today in those two apps

[OuTpaTienT]

Originally Posted by ShuckyD

how the heck do you give the hair such a gradient or whatever to make it look so real?

Well, that is from Photoshop's layer styles. And technically they are a raster effect, however they are dynamic. They will scale up or down and not lose quality just like true vector objects in shape layers.

[Creatures]

holy cr#@ ;p

you're insane ;P
but thank you for showing me the next step =)

and yes, i've used the "stroke path" feature, that's why i only drew the outlines, and colorized the rest.

Creatures

[Creatures]

ok small question, how did you manage to get those vector lines on the exact same position? for example the darker parts of the hair, those vectors have to be exact on top of the normal hair? or am i missing something?

think i got that one... simple copy layer, erase useless vectors and do the rest...

Creatures

[Creatures]

ok my second try on a different one





1348x1600

now you gotta tell me what kind of styles you used for her hair^^
and yes i know the hand looks crappy ;P

oh and sry about the nudity ;P

Creatures

[Arch3rs]

I've gotta say i haven't a clue about all this but it looks bloody impressive ! Maybe you guys should start up some sort of buiness or something

[Creatures]

haha ;p
i'm really interested in graphic design, it's something i could do for living, but first i've got to take some serious lessons and maybe even study something in this direction.

and AFAIK OuT is already in that business ;P

Creatures

[Arch3rs]

Originally Posted by Creatures

haha ;p
i'm really interested in graphic design, it's something i could do for living, but first i've got to take some serious lessons and maybe even study something in this direction.

and AFAIK OuT is already in that business ;P

Creatures

Well why don't you ?? It would be awsome to do something you love full time (and get paid for it) ! I'm doing what i've always wanted and love it