Hey guys, I'm new to the site and the whole designing shirts deal so, I'm sorry if I'm bringing up things that have been talked about already!
I'm trying to learn how to work with line drawings in illustrator ( like change the color and set it up to give to a printer ). I keep hearing people talk about live trace but, my illustrator doesn't have live trace, I've looked everywhere! Is that the only way to do it? Any help would be appreciated.
4 4 2
14 Comments
a killer wombat said 6 months ago
use the pen tool and trace out the image
Cole said 6 months ago
live trace was first in cs2.
pen tool will make your lines look better anyway.
live trace kills details 73% of the time.
Ben Danger said 6 months ago
google vector magic
nobreakspace said 6 months ago
There are two ways you can go about it. Either Pen tool the entire thing, or do clean ink outlines on paper by hand and live-trace it. As mentioned, Live Trace can ruin it, but if its really clean and well inked on paper, then it could end up working out.
4 4 2 said 6 months ago
Thanks guys! So, something as detailed as this drawing...
http://www.emptees.com/tees/2295-tigers
You would still trace it out with the pen tool?
jayeMOSH said 6 months ago
Someone said this above, but IF you had live trace, it's really not so bad as long as the drawing is inked before you take it into illustrator.
If I have a really detailed image, I have two copies, the original locked as the background layer in Illustrator, and the Live traced image above it. That way you can decide if there are any details have been left out, and then use the pen tool to go over them.
quakerninja said 6 months ago
Heres a good tutiorial on the nuts and bolts of live trace
http://revision3.com/pixelperfect/vector/
I used vector magic for Circles cubes and a girl named Sarah, and it turned out ok.
i came from nothing said 6 months ago
works 100% cool...
http://vectormagic.stanford.edu/
a killer wombat said 6 months ago
Buy a wacom, I just got one.... wow! Its a lot easier to use than I was expecting and it keeps that hand drawn feeling on the computer.
ryanmiller said 6 months ago
yes.. try and stay away from live trace
jayeMOSH said 6 months ago
live trace REALLY isn't that bad, are you guys customizing your setting on it, or using presets???
Just delegate what detail is expandable, and what you need to keep
jaws919 said 6 months ago
Regardless of the settings, live trace isn't perfect...i'd rather just re trace it with the pen tool and manipulate the points as needed. That way you are guaranteed a super clean, tight image. and the image that this thread refers to looks like a high res pencil drawing with a color overlay more than a vector image.
drewB said 6 months ago
Generally the only time people live trace their drawing is when it is a very detailed drawing that they inked and took them forever to do. They don't have time to retrace it. Old school illustrators ink their drawings so well, they just scan them in at really high resolutions and they don't need to live trace them. Live trace has never worked well for me when I ink drawings, but I know people who have tweaked the settings enough to get it looking alright.
4 4 2 said 6 months ago
Cool, thanks guys! Looks like i'll just practice with the pen tool.