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The Indefinite Article.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Photoshop and Illustrator Help

Qualis artifex pereo

I need Photoshop and Illustratror help. I would like to do the following more efficiently:

  • strip out the background (make the background transparent)
  • turn into vector drawing

D3 said something about using ‘Alpha Channels’ to separate the drawing from the background. Does that make sense? What does it mean? Any tips?

Posted with version 1.4 of Paper Lantern using its sweet Textile support

6 Comments:

  • To separate something from the background you can use a myriad of tools my favorite being: Select --> ColorRange. Couple this with your lasso/wand tools and selections are a snap. Another simple tool to fiddle with is: Filter-->Extract (option+command+x). You can also use a QuickMask (this is where channels come in to play) for complicated selections. Todd taught me that technique years ago.

    Remember, before you do this, duplicate your layer and work on that one.

    As for illustrator use LiveTrace if it's available on the version you have. It's basically Adobe Streamline built into the illustrator. You'll have to fiddle with the settings to get exactly what you want, but i've used it to convert a couple of carol's comics and sketches and it's worked out nicely. As 'sketchy' as your drawings are you will inevitably need to clean it up once you livetrace it, though.

    By Blogger Killy, at 6:56 PM  

  • BTW: is PaperLantern 1.4 available for download?

    By Blogger Killy, at 6:56 PM  

  • I'd do the color range and then clean it up by painting in a quick mask.

    LiveTrace is CS2 only.

    Dave use to make vectors of his stuff by tracing it himself in Illustrator (or maybe pshop, but I think Illustrator). He would draw the flash, take it up to Kinko's and spend hours there.

    By Blogger Adolph, at 8:22 PM  

  • did you get Silhouette to work?

    By Blogger Killy, at 8:38 AM  

  • okay, i had the photoshop guy break it down.

    First of all.
    I prefer Streamline to this method, but here it is.

    •scan in image @ least 150 dpi

    •mode to greyscale

    •increase contrast, as much as you can stand, this is to isolate the line drawing

    •open channels pallette

    •drag channel to the "create new channel" icon

    •select copied channel, then hold down the apple key, cursor will change to a selection cursor, click (this action will load the white areas of the channel)

    •invert selection (you want the black)

    •open path pallette

    •in the path pallette, make work path

    •experiment with toleance

    •in the path pallette, save path

    •save file

    •in file menu - export- paths to illustrator.

    •open file in illustrator, there you have vector art of your drawing.

    Like I said, I prefer to use streamline.

    By Blogger colin, at 1:28 PM  

  • Thanks for all of the tips; I hope to get CS2 soon, so I can use the LiveTrace (Streamline has been discontinued as a seperate product, and is now a part of Illustrator CS2 and called 'LiveTrace')

    By Blogger pablo, at 2:43 PM  

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