Hi guys, i got myself a copy of Illustrator CS and im baffled as i dont know how to use it. Id like to start out Converting a photo to vector or something to that effect. I know that there are MANY great vector artists in this community and it would be greatly appreciated if someone could either write a tutorial or point me to a good site to give me a jump start.
Thanks in advance Custo, //Benji
D A R K | F A N T A S Y AEIIV.NET Take My Hand, Its Time To Fly.......
"google is a great site" well, me being such a huge fan of all your work, iko, its a little dissapointing to hear that from you. but i guess i might as well take that advice
And i dont want a quick way, i want the right way, using Illustrator cs
D A R K | F A N T A S Y AEIIV.NET Take My Hand, Its Time To Fly.......
I've never went the "quick way" (with Streamline), I've traced pictures with the Illustrator tools. It does take time, and it can be a bitch getting those bezier curves the way you want em. But with some skill it can turn out nice.
Ive tried out Illustrator to do vectors but i dont really like it. I use photoshop but the vectors take a lot of time. Im doing a vector of a bmw at fairly high detail and its taken me about 12 hours sofar ( http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v495/Enceladus/Vectors/bmw m3gtrsmallblack.jpg ). I just find an area that would look nice at one color and use the pen tool to fill it in. Then i do that about 100 more times
I have found that the user's reference that comes with most all applications to be more valuable and accurate in explaining how tools work than any web tutorial, I reference them constantly in whatever application I may be using. Uncertain about a tool or method? Search for it in the user reference or under the app's "Help" and you will soon know the answer. Whenever I use an application for the first time the first thing I do is look up all the tools in the interface I do not understand in the user reference.
I would say tracing is a good way to learn how to control your lines, but in the end I hope you do something original (ala liqachu) and not just trace someone else's photos, because really to me that's all it is. Tracing. Like when you're a kid and you put a piece of tracing paper over a comic book page and trace it, then try to pretend to yourself you can actually draw. The world hardly needs another traced half naked woman or race car. Although really well done tracings can be stunning in their presentation, like Enceladus has just shown. However, those tend to be the exception rather than the rule.
I do not currently use Illustrator as much as I used to, but I do use a lot of bezier curves in 3d applications, which operate under the same principle. It's really very easy and anyone should understand the basic concepts of control points along a line very quickly just by playing with Illustrator. There's no magic tutorial to explain this (I think) elementary concept.
In short, use the applications "Help" and try to actually understand how things work in a very fundamental way, and then the rest is just really up to your imagination.
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