To make the layer that you are drawing with pen tool transparent, you select the pen tool and lay down the first point, then you can drop the opacity down to a preferred visibility and continue drawing the shape. I am not sure if their is an easier way but it is a little confusing to figure out at first.
Live trace is a great tool that works out just fine for a lot of cases but it will never compare to lines drawn with intent by hand. Live trace is essentially a plug-in that can be easily confused by small information that the eye wouldn't register. Tattoo artists and sketch artists are picky about their work and expect the best possible outcome. Again, Live trace is great but the intent of this video is to show one of many many ways to digitize an image. Thank your suggestions and input!
awesome you took the time to make this, but tracing everything with the pen tool kind of defeats the purpose of live-tracing, my method is to scan the image at 600+ dpi then use curves in photoshop to make black and white, "select color range" to grab the black, the go to "select>modify>smooth" and smooth it a small amount of pixels, that leaves you with a nice live-traceable image (just use high detail in LT), the pen tool is awesome but unless you print huge this should suffice and save time
Wow, this method of vectorizing/digitizing is really an eye opener for me, never thought u could use the pathfinder in such a smart way.. :) I've always had trouble with accurately vectorize my drawings without deforming the details too much.
I've never rasterized my images before livetracing it, why do you have to do that? Do you do that with every kind of image when you're starting or just with bitmaps only?
Great tutorial, even though your capturing quality was a bit low. ;)
@njgmovies07 Thank you very much, their are a lot of ways to accomplish the same results but this is the way I choose to approach it.
Illustrator CS3 doesn't give you the option of Livetrace unless the image is rastered. I am not sure if the newer versions do or not.
I have been planning to do some more videos and I am looking for a better capturing software. Do you have any suggestions? I forget which one I used for this but It was the first I have tried out.
@yeahrightdesign well, if I look rasterisation up on Google, it's basically the process of converting a vector image to bitmap. The thing is, the scan you made in this vid is already a bitmap image, a .JPEG I think. So that's what confused me, rastering a file that already has this raster format...
I'm not really sure but some common used HD screen capturing softwares are CamStudio and CamtasiaStudio. Just look around the web and u should get a good one.
Q: if you are going to digitize by hand, why bother with convert to vector? FYI Live Trace can really do great things with the right setting. Nothing is as good as hand digitize, but this imagine is so busy the right settings in Live Trace would have probably been just great.
@eskolitt I plan on doing some more videos here soon. I am using a wacom intuos4 Tablet now and will probably do some videos with it as well as the pen tool. Thanks for your suggestion!
I must show this to my design teacher ='D
I remember learning to use the pen tool in Illustrator after learning to use the one in Photoshop.... oh the pain...
kailyangel 4 days ago
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3mrecords 5 days ago
Thanks for watching!
yeahrightdesign 1 week ago
Nice I've been looking for a video like this which shows me how to do these stuff. So thanks a lot you've explained it well enough!
Oh and by the way: nice work!
Lizom93 1 week ago
To make the layer that you are drawing with pen tool transparent, you select the pen tool and lay down the first point, then you can drop the opacity down to a preferred visibility and continue drawing the shape. I am not sure if their is an easier way but it is a little confusing to figure out at first.
yeahrightdesign 1 month ago
how do you put the opasite layer on the pen tool?
donkydonks3ev 1 month ago
Live trace is a great tool that works out just fine for a lot of cases but it will never compare to lines drawn with intent by hand. Live trace is essentially a plug-in that can be easily confused by small information that the eye wouldn't register. Tattoo artists and sketch artists are picky about their work and expect the best possible outcome. Again, Live trace is great but the intent of this video is to show one of many many ways to digitize an image. Thank your suggestions and input!
yeahrightdesign 1 month ago
awesome you took the time to make this, but tracing everything with the pen tool kind of defeats the purpose of live-tracing, my method is to scan the image at 600+ dpi then use curves in photoshop to make black and white, "select color range" to grab the black, the go to "select>modify>smooth" and smooth it a small amount of pixels, that leaves you with a nice live-traceable image (just use high detail in LT), the pen tool is awesome but unless you print huge this should suffice and save time
mantypus 1 month ago
I don't mean to sound dumb but let me get this straight. You scanned the image with a home printer with a scanner like an hp printer.
sbenotable 2 months ago
@sbenotable Yes thats correct, Scan it in at a good resolution (above 300)
yeahrightdesign 2 months ago
Wow, this method of vectorizing/digitizing is really an eye opener for me, never thought u could use the pathfinder in such a smart way.. :) I've always had trouble with accurately vectorize my drawings without deforming the details too much.
I've never rasterized my images before livetracing it, why do you have to do that? Do you do that with every kind of image when you're starting or just with bitmaps only?
Great tutorial, even though your capturing quality was a bit low. ;)
njgmovies07 2 months ago
@njgmovies07 Thank you very much, their are a lot of ways to accomplish the same results but this is the way I choose to approach it.
Illustrator CS3 doesn't give you the option of Livetrace unless the image is rastered. I am not sure if the newer versions do or not.
I have been planning to do some more videos and I am looking for a better capturing software. Do you have any suggestions? I forget which one I used for this but It was the first I have tried out.
Thanks for watching!
yeahrightdesign 2 months ago
@yeahrightdesign well, if I look rasterisation up on Google, it's basically the process of converting a vector image to bitmap. The thing is, the scan you made in this vid is already a bitmap image, a .JPEG I think. So that's what confused me, rastering a file that already has this raster format...
I'm not really sure but some common used HD screen capturing softwares are CamStudio and CamtasiaStudio. Just look around the web and u should get a good one.
njgmovies07 2 months ago
really this should be called vectoring not digitizing
ArtworkbyMosier 3 months ago
or you could save all that time and click "trace bitmap" in inkscape? job done
DanReborn 4 months ago
hey good job by the way. :D
sheislove23 5 months ago 2
@sheislove23 I appreciate your time and comment, thanks.
yeahrightdesign 2 months ago
Heyyyy thanks for this. =D
hbalowaa 5 months ago 2
@hbalowaa Absolutely friend!
yeahrightdesign 2 months ago
Q: if you are going to digitize by hand, why bother with convert to vector? FYI Live Trace can really do great things with the right setting. Nothing is as good as hand digitize, but this imagine is so busy the right settings in Live Trace would have probably been just great.
Johnnyprc 6 months ago
Can you please make a video about using the pen tool
eskolitt 8 months ago
@eskolitt I plan on doing some more videos here soon. I am using a wacom intuos4 Tablet now and will probably do some videos with it as well as the pen tool. Thanks for your suggestion!
yeahrightdesign 2 months ago
It is a band called The Kindled...
Its my Band haha. The song is called The Thorn in our Side
yeahrightdesign 11 months ago
what song is that?the vocal sounds familiar.
arisakaonstrike 11 months ago
Thanks man a bunch! I've had a few troubles digitizing and understanding the process but know I can get some designs on and going. Keep it up!
Ryguylivinlife 1 year ago