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Capt-Nemo β Illustrator/Vector Tutorial Part One
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Published: 2012-03-24 04:42:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 86751; Favourites: 1022; Downloads: 2521
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Description
HOLY CELESTIA'S MOTHER OF GIGANTIC TUTORIALS, BATMANSorry the tutorial is so long, but that's just how I make 'em! Hopefully it'll be useful to you all.
Part Two: [link]
Edit: Somebody told me there is a sweet tool in Illustrator CS5 called the Width Tool. It lets you change the width of lines at specific points without having to convert strokes to outlines! I suggest you use that. Check out this tutorial: [link]
All you need to do is add a width point at the end of the stroke, double-click it, and change the total width to zero.
Edit two: I was informed of the "Draw Inside" tool also found in CS5. This tool automates the usage of clipping masks and makes them much easier to use. Check out a video here !
Here is the finished vector: [link]
And you can download the SVG here, layers and everything: [link]
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'm here to help.
If you find any errors, please tell me so I can fix them.
Related content
Comments: 148
Vec-tor? Ras-ter? What are these words of which you speak?
Yeah, I don't know what the difference is.
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Vector art is defined as lines and shapes. This way, they can be zoomed in on or scaled without it getting pixellated. Raster images are defines as pixels, so you can't increase the resolution without them getting blurry or pixellated.
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I believe Photoshop only rasters, and while scaling up is pretty smooth, it's still not as clean as a vector.
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Photoshop can do vectors, though, not as well, or as many tools as Illustrator. They are made by the same company, Adobe, so the layout is similar.
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Very true (I was going to argue that then it would not really be what could be considered a "true" vector, but that seems redundant).
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Yeah!
Super easy, and to the point terms of PS vectors: Photoshop can make very basic vectors.
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Lots of good info here. I don't have Illustrator but I think I can do most of this in Inkscape.
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I'd love to use this, but I can't read it
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I don't know if you LIKE doing it the hard way, but you know Illustrator has a stroke width tool, right? Instead of outlining, then going to Outline>path> Outline stroke, you can just select the Stroke width tool (shift+w) and pinch the end points.
It would cut a good 2 hours off something like this. :/
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Only CS5 has that feature, unfortunately. I made note of that in the description.
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Ah- I see. I didn't know.
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I gather from the comments that there are some legal issues with tracing, and this isn't really a surprise. But I was wondering about a partial trace. If I take a few screencaps from an episode and trace them only to get a rough outline that has the same basic proportions as the ponies in the show, without copying manes, tails, cutie marks, etc., does it count as a trace or original art when I create a finished pony?
And yeah, pony tutorials taught me about masking and path effects, both of which make things a lot easier and nicer looking. I use Inkscape.
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The legal issue isn't tracing, it's the use of the characters and character designs. Luckily, Hasbro has no issue with the fan art and I doubt they ever will.
I would say that using the method you described, you could still be called out for using their designs. However, like I said, they don't mind.
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Thanks! This will help me out a bunch since I suck at everything involving arts lol >.<
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Nice tutorial, but I dont have illustrator. Plus I dont vector art.
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what the hell are vectors for? ... Isn't that basically tracing?
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OP is just tracing it to show you HOW to do it. You can use this information to take art you've made in other mediums (like a pencil drawing) and vector it into a high-resolution image that you can make in any size without pixelation.
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FiM's fandom must be the only one that does this, because a few people seem to be confused.
It's really just taking a pose we like from the show and tracing it and exporting a large version of it. It's not original art, obviously. Anybody who claims it is is stupid. (thought I've never seen anybody who has.)
One could also apply this technique to their own drawings, too, if they wanted.
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I guess that makes sense. I mean, people have their own way of converting everything they've done in art into a centralized style they develop later if they continue to draw c: So I'd have to say, thank you for making this for those people... sooner or later they'll look back on their vectored body parts and say to themselves, "Well,... jeez I can DRAW that now.. 
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In CS5, you can use the width tool to do this a lot faster. You also don't have to convert to outline.
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Thank you, I added some info in the description!
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This is called tracing and it is against the law of copy right...
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I don't think it matters too much. As long as no one claims the original art to be theirs, or creates a profit from using it, no one really complains.
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But when it's a popular anime, Naruto for example, and people were creating RPC's from the characters, a shitstorm was created. This is basically the same thing, and I have also seen people trace over ponies and make their own characters out of them.
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Sorry for length of post.
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I agree.
I'm not an mlp fan but i've always been astonished at how they apparently 'mastered' the shows style.
:I Welp I guess if most of them are like this, which is what i'm just going to assume that, then they should probably leave dA for another site because the word 'art' is in the website title for a reason.
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I don't consider this art. This is tracing a screenshot in order to get a high-resolution image of a pose we like. I guess this isn't a common thing in other fandoms (or it wouldn't really work with the art style) but it happens a lot here. There's even a whole club for it: [link]
But nobody traces a screenshot and calls it their own art.
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>implying there are standards on dA
There's a lot on this site that isn't art. That said, most people don't host simple vectors here, and that's all it is when someone vectors a screenshot from the show. However, just because something mimics the style of the show doesn't mean it was traced. There are a variety of sites and guides dedicated to helping people replicate the show's incredibly simplistic style, and then it's just a matter of vectoring your own lines as you would a screenshot. If I was capable of drawing at all I could demonstrate how easy it is, but unfortunately everything but very simple sketches eludes me entirely.
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Erm, "just because something mimics the style of the show doesn't mean it was traced." This is a tutorial on how to trace the image perfectly.
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"most people don't host simple vectors here, and that's all it is when someone vectors a screenshot from the show"
"i've always been astonished at how they apparently 'mastered' the shows style.
:I Welp I guess if most of them are like this, which is what i'm just going to assume that, then they should probably leave dA for another site because the word 'art' is in the website title for a reason"
>how they apparently 'mastered' the shows style
>I guess if most of them are like this
>they should probably leave dA
Lrn2context.
This is a trace, nothing but. It's not, as you think, against the law (look up the articles on "Fair Use") and it's not considered art. It's a high-resolution version of the image, effectively for use as stock art. It can be used in other things at any resolution. It's traced because screencaptures from the original show will be raster, which is terrible quality when sized up. Vectors are fairly easy to do for something like MLP:FiM and are perfect quality at any size.
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You need to get your facts straight before going on a rant. I didn't say those things, another person did.
However It is against the law of copyright. This is tracing over an image without the original artist's permission, that is illegal and against the rules of this site. You might as well do a quick sketch of the pony than to go through this trouble to make a "perfect vector" of the image, which seems pointless. But because the show is popular and so many people on dA like it, it's ok.
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I never said that I was quoting you. Try to actually read my posts before you reply to them, yeah? The only thing I claimed you said was that this was against the law--which you did--and it's not. You, however, failed to understand the context of my post, so I clarified by quoting the person I'd originally replied to.
Again with the not reading... Look up "Fair Use" laws. Seriously. If he were selling prints of this, it would be illegal. If he was making people pay to use it as stock art, it would be illegal. The people who do these traces do neither, and it is not illegal. It's governed by the same laws as all fan-made content which you should, as stated, read up on prior to arguing about it.
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Why quote other people's posts when I may not agree with them either? You just wasted your time and is irrelevant to this argument.
And okay, fine. They're not selling the traces but they are becoming more popular from them and can get commissions from that popularity. I've said this in a previous comment that people would go apeshit if it were a popular anime, and they have. Naruto, for example, people would create RPC's and there was a lot of hate for it. That Vampire girl created "vectors" of anime and she got hate and banned permanently from this site. Just because most people on this site love MLP, they don't mind this being done because they most likely want to do the same.
I personally see no point to this and disagree with it and I dislike hypocrites.
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Because it was entirely relevant. You failed to understand the context of my post, so I supplied it. If anything you wasted time by not reading my posts properly prior to responding.
So? People gain popularity by covering songs, how is that any different? I disagree with any artist making it out like vectoring an image is hard, especially one like a shot from MLP which is entirely solid colours or, occasionally, gradients. That said, I have no issue with it. I've also seen no hate for anime vectors, but that's irrelevant-- you're comparing entirely different cultures on a website where, let's face it, the community is pretty terrible to begin with.
MLP fans and Naruto fans, for instance, have very different mindsets for the most part. That's like calling me a hypocrite for using my phone in class because someone else is using their phone in a park. You can't call hypocrisy on two unrelated groups for the other's actions.
No point? What is the point of any art? What is the function to the form, the method to the madness? What you mean to say is that you don't relate. You have no use or interest, but that's akin to me deeming tampons pointless because I'd never have a use for one.
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Would be nice to see this done in GIMP. Don't think it can cope with vectors though. Can't afford Illustrator, might be worth a shot in Inkscape or something. :3
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Thanks alot, Nemo!
Still iΒ΄m a GIMP user. I canΒ΄t get used to the layout from photoshop, Sai and all the other huge programs. With this tutorial i might have a chance getting the hang of it!
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Interesting.
Never thought you could do vector in Photoshop.
Thank you.
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This is actually in Illustrator, but you might be able to adapt these techniques to Photoshop. It won't be true vector, though.
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This is about 10 times more in depth than my tutorial. And quite possibly more helpful for users of pre-CS4 versions of Illustrator. I do believe I shall link it.
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THANK YOU FOR THIS SO MUCH!!
I recently got Illustrator and I vector in Photoshop, but I've always heard that it's better in Illustrator, but I didn't know where to start. Thank you!!
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