Is this type of image made in Illustrator?

Funkstard

http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=109670166

The profile pic on the homepage. Is it made from a photo? (I presume something like using the pen tool to trace the outline of the figure and then colouring it in with a good bit of experience thrown in to make it look so good?). The fact it's a vector image makes me think it was made in Illustrator, but then again I'm pretty clueless so could be completely wrong!

Thanks anyway.

Gordon

Yeah, probably. Or some other vector program (Inkscape for example). It could just be a scanned drawing and touched up in Photoshop but it looks like vector art to me.

It's pretty easy to scan a photo and vectorise it yourself simply by doing what you say. However, you can also use a tracing program to vectorise images (Inkscape can do this and there is an old Mac OS9 proggy called streamline iirc that does it). But this gives a very detailed vector version of an image, as opposed to that image you linked to.

Incidentally, while on the subject - does anyone know of a good (Mac) program for converting jpgs/bmps into vectors? I'm using Inkscape at the moment but it scans around solid lines and sees them as elongated rectangles. I am used to the Streamline program which converts single lines into vectors with a heavy stroke. The Inkscape conversion is a bit annoying as it doubles the workload if you want to edit a good few numbers of vectors as opposed to editing one stroked vector.

Funkstard

Also...does this bust drawing thing have a name under which I could look for tutorials on how to do it?

Gordon

Try "vectorize" in Google. Here's a tutorial I found.

Is that what you mean by "Bust drawing"?

Funkstard

Yeh...making digital drawings of peoples heads or whatever. That tutorial looks very useful, thanks very much!

spidermonkey

Gordon wrote:

does anyone know of a good (Mac) program for converting jpgs/bmps into vectors?

i use illustrator cs2
what iv'e done in the past is scan in my black felt tip pen line drawings, cleaned them up if needed and deleted the white so your left with just the black line drawing on a transparency, and saved it as a tiff. then imported this into illustrator using {file->place} and used the live trace option, by adjusting the various preferences you can get a decent enough drawing. not sure if it'd work well with full colour images.
i then proceeded to colour the image in illustrator
heres one i made earlier:

Gordon

Cute! Have you got any online stuff spidermonkey? Love the image.

I'll check out CS2, I've been meaning to upgrade from Illustrator 10 for a while.

Goodshape

Gordon wrote:

you can also use a tracing program to vectorise images

I never knew about that! Just downloaded Inkscape to try it out.. looks like an easy way to get a vector image started at least.

I'd say I'll be playing with this a good bit over Christmas.

(cool image btw spidermonkey)

spidermonkey

no website yet,
tbh i only produce creatures like that fella on a irregular basis, theres probably another5 lying around my mac somewhere.

i read somewhere that when your creating a character or similar creature its best to work on a personality for it first. a character with character.
they appeal more to people then, or something along those lines.

that fella above is based on a friends personality when he's drunk, he looks at you like its the first time he's seen you in years. and gets this crazy eyes/smile and the arms all up in the air thing. at least thats my view of his drunk personality.

CuLT

I'd also like to see more of your stuff (when you get around to it) spidermonkey, you have quite some talent and it's a shame not to showcase it!

If anyone wants to devote some time to vector tracing, there's a thread on a forum I use regularily dedicated to vector-tracing characters from different anime shows; not everyone's cup of tea, but they certainly know how to vector trace, show the process, and give tips.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1903749

spidermonkey

well i have server space and all that, its just a matter of sorting out a website for myself, im about half way through it. but with everything else going on too theres never enough time. the idea with those characters is to submit then to threadless.com and hopefully get them printed on t-shirts.:)
thanks for the vote of confidence cult.

Gordon

They would make great tshirts, plus merchandising. (also avatars for boards!)

ErinGoBrath

Good work spirdermonkey.

I'm a huge fan of vector art. I recently vectorised a photo of George Best and got it printed to canvas as a favour for a mate.

Turned out quite well, photo's from my camera phone so quite grainy.

spidermonkey

best is pretty savage, i love those type of siloutte/minimalist colour vectors. its like cammo.
how did you get it onto canvass?

ErinGoBrath

Most printers will do it for you. Some are extortionate, some are more reasonable.

Onces it's printed I have the materials to stretch it to a frame myself.

I'm knocking together a load of minimalist football related pieces with a view to selling them on as affordable art :cool: