Anyone know how to use Illustrator?

[CelticPredator]

Having a **** load of trouble with this program. Mostly due to the fact that I have to finish this project before the program trial expires in 30 days.

Anyway, i'm used to drawing in photoshop, so illistrator is a pain in the ass to use.

I took my pixelated image and live traced it, but it became one solid image. Meaning it's not just the lines. I can't draw behind it to color it the way I used to, using the paint brush on a layer behind it.

I tried to do the live paint thing, and it worked, kinda, but the lines look a bit jagged, and I can't do any stylized shading.

I've tried tracing the image with the brush tool, but it looked poopy. So I killed that idea.

And to top it off, my computer restarted and had I lost the original image, so I all I have is the live traced solid image.



How can I go about with the coloring and shading thing? And could I possibly edit the image in photoshop without it losing too much detail? I'm aware it will cease to be a vector image....but i'd rather have a more quality pixeled image then a shoddy one.

Thanks!

 

[darthviper107]

Photoshop can actually use vector images, like text in Photoshop is vector before you convert it to raster. If you don't really need the vector features then I'd say just use photoshop.

 

[CelticPredator]

I personally don't think I do, but I'm trying to do those funky T-Shirts, and Vector is preferred.

But my issue is mainly the coloring. I can't figure out how to shade.

 

[seewhatyouthink]

It depends on how you want to shade really, if I was you, create your black lines on one layer, then shade on a layer below it. There's a ton of different ways to get blends, but if I'm understanding you correctly and you want subtle blends (same as airbrushing in photoshop) have a look at this https://vector.tutsplus.com/tutoria...g-with-the-gradient-mesh-tool-in-illustrator/
It's hard to explain without sitting over your shoulder, but that might get you started, plus there's other tuts on there that are probably useful to you.

Plus to get smooth lines, use the pen tool, the brush just won't get you what you want.

Sent from my GT-I9100P using Tapatalk 2

 

[CelticPredator]

Here's what i'm trying to do...

This is super rough, but i'm trying to get that type of shading. really basic, cartoony style. But your idea may work. See if it works with what you said.

 

[shocktrooper_au]

You can adjust the settings in the live trace to pickup more & more details,look to the right when you select live trace they will appear to shade an easy way is to draw your shadow over select the same colour then go multiply

 

[CelticPredator]

Yeah, the problem is, I can't go back. The real image is long gone.

I know i'm making this borderline impossible. And i'm sorry for that. I just have no idea what to do.

I like the traced image. It's the original drawing that never got saved, apparently.

And I already painted it. I guess I could just manually go in and do all the shading with a paint brush, and try not to mess up the black lines. But eh.

 

[CelticPredator]

Ok, so I figured out how to fix it...but the images aren't transparent. They are in Photoshop, so I simply drag them over to Ai...but they become solid again. So I can't color them in a separate layer. Any reason why?

 

[shocktrooper_au]

If you have a photoshop image, create a working path, save as eps then open it in illustrator, the excluded areas in the path will be transparent then you can draw your colour areas & send to back. You have to draw a shape to fill with colour

 

[CelticPredator]

Huh. I'll try that a bit later. Thank you.

I did also download Flash, which was much easier to use. Even though I had to trace the image again. Still....it's easier for a newb like me. It looks just like MSpaint.