From sketch to vectors, which method do you use?

[Ruthless Cow]

I have no idea if this looks better or worse to you than what you did:



In Illustrator I used the pen tool for most of the lines, tracing around the interior and exterior of each shape. Then for each shape I filled the white parts white, brought them to the front and filled the black parts black. Next I used pathfinder>minus front to basically knock out the white from the black, leaving me with just the black lines. From there I used the direct selection tool (the white arrow) to adjust and play with the nodes of the lines, thickening/thinning some of them to play a little with shading, also smoothing them out as I went.

For the feathering inside the eye sockets and the lines on the forehead I used a custom art brush. Just make a circle and stretch one of the nodes until you have a cone shape. Drag the shape to your brush pallet and select the options you need. This gives you a nice constant shape - if that's what you desire.

The 8 ball was made using only the ellipse tool.

I am only now realizing it took longer to try and explain what I did than it did to ink your drawing.

[S.Blake]

it's auto TRACE, not auto INK.

Yeah this is the key.. you need to start with line art! That's the problem!

I'm going to microwave plastisol this weekend and video it! I'll post the results in the thread.

[NeroInferno]

I have no idea if this looks better or worse to you than what you did [..]

Thanks for the reply Ruthless Cow!

I like the result but I'd like to give a better brush effect. I believe for this I need to work first with the pen tool and then add some details with the brush tool.

2 questions:
- Does anyone know a good resource for free Illustrator brushes? I know Brusheezy.com, but it's just for Photoshop brushes.

- I remember there's a shortcut in Illustrator to bring the layers on the top or on the bottom of others layers or the layers of the same layer..can anyone remember it? thanks

However:
I tried to use the Live Trace, but I'm not satisfied from it..I believe a bit of the blame is mine, because my hand hasn't got a good line during inking...however here the live trace result:



thanks another time Ruthless!
Fabio

[NeroInferno]

I'm going to microwave plastisol this weekend and video it! I'll post the results in the thread.

Great, hope it works!

Flash/heat gun it before microwave.

Make sure to check the ink adhesion with one good wash at 50-60°C.

In this way we'll understand how much is the water content into the plastisol, or if the water into the fabric is sufficient to polymerize plastisols

wow!
Fabio

[ZOMIC]

Very helpful guys thanks

[NeroInferno]

Very helpful guys thanks

My threads are always useful, also if I always write questions

Fabio

[the hipoisie]

Why don't you want to ink your sketches by hand, if that's the look you're going for? It's the easiest solution, and you really would get a lot better results from livetrace with solid lines. If you made a mistake in your inking you could still clean it up in Photoshop or after you make it a vector. Also don't know what resolution you're scanning at, but you'll probably get better results with live trace if your scan is huge.

Anyway, if I want vectors I'd use the pen like Ruthless Cow. Once you get used to flipping through the various pen tools with the function keys it's really quick. Illustrator is best for super clean images, why try to force to do something it's not very good at when there are other options?

[Tenebrini]

ink the drawing by hand. scan to photoshop. adjust with threshold.
save.
place in illustrator. live trace, tweaking all the settings until you get a good one.
i've never had any trouble with live trace in CS2. it's pretty amazing.

This is what I do as well.

[eyepeace]

just curious. What do you guys use to ink?
I've just been using a fine point sharpie on trace paper. Seems to do the trick.

[papablue]

reading marvel 1602!

Ugh. One of the worst comic I've ever read.