Post by thanatos on Sept 7, 2006 22:24:29 GMT
Title: Vectorizing Photo's
Author: Conor Restall
Expected Experience: Quite advanced
Photo Courtesy of sxc.hu
In this tutorial you will learn how to turn a photo into a cool looking vector.
example. this:
to this:
1. Pick your favourite graphics editing program (i recommend photoshop or fireworks), whatever you pick it must have a pen tool or something equivalent. I picked fireworks because i am more familiar with it and its easy to select and manipulate things, but the layers can be tricky to organize.
2. [Optional] Posterize your photo this will help you get and idea of what colours to pick. note: not all photo image editing programs have this feature, this will also help in working out where to place your shadows later on.
3. The first thing you'll need to do it trace the general outline of the face and neck along with any items of clothing or other skin like arms ect. For every item make a different layer and name the layers appropriately. Later we will add hair that will cover the top of The face so there is no need to be to detailed.
4. Create a new layer above all the others and name it "hair", be as detailed as you can because the quality of the hair will have a massive impact on the general look at the end. note: you don't need to do it all in one path you can go back and add more. For the time being just use one colour for the hair we will add more detail at a later stage.
5. Start By tracing the eyebrows make them big enough so that you can see them don't just have one little faint line. Next draw a dark thick line around the eyes that fits with the shadow also add some small triangular eye brows even if you are unable to see any on the photo. The eyes of the person will being a in a way comical they will have the large pure white bit and then a strong blue/brown/whatever colour the eye is and then there is a large dark pupil in the middle. note:for the actual eye i used ovals
6. Draw a couple of faint curved lines for the nose draw a longer one for the top leave a small gap and then draw a strongly curved line for the bottom of the nose. Draw 2 brownish nostrils they should be ovalish.
7. Now we are ready to add lips if you are tracing a woman then make the lips quite strong bright red but if you are drawing a man then you will need to make them a much darker brownish colour. You will need to draw a much darker thin line that goes between the lips.
8. Now come the finishing touches, the hair highlights and shadows. It is vitally important that you get these right if you fail to then you risk making your work look generally not right. Firstly start with the hair highlights add lots of layers of thin lines for long hair and more short fat lines for short hair; at max have about 4 or 5 different colours in the hair. Don't forget you don't have to keep within the hair you can dray individual strands of hair that go down to the shoulders if you want. When drawing shadows work from the bottom up wards and keep the shadows roughly the same shape (they should look like contour lines on a map). On clothing that has a pattern don't add to many shadows because it will look out of place.
9. Add a simple background, the reason i say simple is because you don't want attention drawn away from the person. I recommend a simple linear of radial gradient of a smooth colour.
And then after all that hard work just sit back and look at your work.
i was also playing around with this earlier and found that if you blur your beginning picture, turn the alpha down to 79% and place it on top you get a rather cool effect.
Author: Conor Restall
Expected Experience: Quite advanced
Photo Courtesy of sxc.hu
In this tutorial you will learn how to turn a photo into a cool looking vector.
example. this:
to this:1. Pick your favourite graphics editing program (i recommend photoshop or fireworks), whatever you pick it must have a pen tool or something equivalent. I picked fireworks because i am more familiar with it and its easy to select and manipulate things, but the layers can be tricky to organize.
2. [Optional] Posterize your photo this will help you get and idea of what colours to pick. note: not all photo image editing programs have this feature, this will also help in working out where to place your shadows later on.
3. The first thing you'll need to do it trace the general outline of the face and neck along with any items of clothing or other skin like arms ect. For every item make a different layer and name the layers appropriately. Later we will add hair that will cover the top of The face so there is no need to be to detailed.
4. Create a new layer above all the others and name it "hair", be as detailed as you can because the quality of the hair will have a massive impact on the general look at the end. note: you don't need to do it all in one path you can go back and add more. For the time being just use one colour for the hair we will add more detail at a later stage.
5. Start By tracing the eyebrows make them big enough so that you can see them don't just have one little faint line. Next draw a dark thick line around the eyes that fits with the shadow also add some small triangular eye brows even if you are unable to see any on the photo. The eyes of the person will being a in a way comical they will have the large pure white bit and then a strong blue/brown/whatever colour the eye is and then there is a large dark pupil in the middle. note:for the actual eye i used ovals
6. Draw a couple of faint curved lines for the nose draw a longer one for the top leave a small gap and then draw a strongly curved line for the bottom of the nose. Draw 2 brownish nostrils they should be ovalish.
7. Now we are ready to add lips if you are tracing a woman then make the lips quite strong bright red but if you are drawing a man then you will need to make them a much darker brownish colour. You will need to draw a much darker thin line that goes between the lips.
8. Now come the finishing touches, the hair highlights and shadows. It is vitally important that you get these right if you fail to then you risk making your work look generally not right. Firstly start with the hair highlights add lots of layers of thin lines for long hair and more short fat lines for short hair; at max have about 4 or 5 different colours in the hair. Don't forget you don't have to keep within the hair you can dray individual strands of hair that go down to the shoulders if you want. When drawing shadows work from the bottom up wards and keep the shadows roughly the same shape (they should look like contour lines on a map). On clothing that has a pattern don't add to many shadows because it will look out of place.
9. Add a simple background, the reason i say simple is because you don't want attention drawn away from the person. I recommend a simple linear of radial gradient of a smooth colour.
And then after all that hard work just sit back and look at your work.
i was also playing around with this earlier and found that if you blur your beginning picture, turn the alpha down to 79% and place it on top you get a rather cool effect.
