Vector 101

[Grendo 174]

I will be updating this regularly as I go through the vector

 

First you will need:

Preferably the x64 bit Version

 

After Photoshop opens, Select the File that you wish to vector from:

After that is done, Zoom in and find the item that you wish to vector.

press "M" or "L" and select the area you want then CTRL+C

After you have Copied the selected area with CTRL+C then you head on up to File>New

 

Photoshop is smart so it knows the exact X and Y dimensions of the area you selected So all you have to do is Size up from there

 

Since the Area selected is almost a square I'm just going to enter 3000.3000 Pixels

Remember to set the Resolution to 200

Make sure your computer can handle that though

 

once the new window opens then hit CTRL+V and then right click and hit "Free Transform"

hold SHIFT + ALT to size it up with out moving it from the centre

after you are happy with the size of it Press "P" and make a new layer

After that start to outline the object

 

I like to start this way with the bigger area because i can "hide" behind it after it's done.

What i mean by hide is if a layer is under a layer then the layer that is below wont be seen(assuming there is stuff above it in the first place and you can mess around and... here let me show you..

As you can see Layer 4 is below layer 18

Layer 18 is the hair as you can obviously see So making it under the hair let me get more accurate lines...it's hard to explain it's an old trick I taught myself that is hard to explain....

After you Outline what you want with the pen tool and have closed the path right click and hit "Create Vector Mask"

After that Fill it in with the brush tool with what ever colour you want.

To select a specific colour Hit "B" for brish tool and then hold ALT and click the colour you want

It should look like this:

Continue to do this with all the other elements of the picture

Edited November 26, 2011 by IPSTech

[Octavia2 83]

Yay, thanks so much for putting this thread up ^^

[Sageflare 276]

How much is this photoshop or is it free because I would like to try vectoring. Good idea setting up a tutorial thread.

[Grendo 174]

How much is this photoshop or is it free because I would like to try vectoring. Good idea setting up a tutorial thread.

 

 

Photoshop is on average $1000 USD

 

But there are other means of getting it with out paying for it of which i will not disclose

 

 

Yay, thanks so much for putting this thread up ^^

 

No problem

[Jits Guy 0]

Excellent tutorial Grendo, nice screenies.

Tried to help out the newbies with getting photoshop but twilight wouldn't let me post the link. If you want it you'll figure it out.

Edited October 9, 2011 by Jits Guy
Please don't post links to pirated $1000 software. Google is your friend.

[Apple Bloom 2,931]

Great tutorial. I like seeing how other people do stuff. I would like to point out though, that doing it this way will result in a rasterized image. Nothing wrong with that but another way to do it is to not create any layers and use the pen tool with 'shape layers' instead of 'paths' so that it fills it in without the brush tool. Doing it this way will result in a scalable vector.

Edited October 9, 2011 by Apple Bloom

[Kurtiss 205]

This is great, thanks Grendo.

[Grendo 174]

Great tutorial. I like seeing how other people do stuff. I would like to point out though, that doing it this way will result in a rasterized image. Nothing wrong with that but another way to do it is to not create any layers and use the pen tool with 'shape layers' instead of 'paths' so that it fills it in without the brush tool. Doing it this way will result in a scalable vector.

 

 

I Do it the way Moongaze had taught me how to

There is a newer way that hes teaching me that I have yet to look into

I'm going to do that soon though

[faervczxdaghna 3]

Too bad I don't have Photoshop. Though I might be able to do this with other free editors.

[Swoop 2,278]

awesome tutorial, i'll give this a shot when i've got a spare moment or two.