Tracing with Corel, Illustrator, or Vectric questions

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Dublinman
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Tracing with Corel, Illustrator, or Vectric questions

Post by Dublinman »

I'd like to ask how to best achieve a good vector drawing from Dover Clipart CD's. Although the file types show EPS & AI, I cant seem to get a good vector representation. It behave more like its a bitmap or jpeg. I have Corel x3, & Creative Suite 4. What I'm trying to do is open a drawing in the most appropriate file type so I can get a good vector out of Corel, AI or Aspire, then model that in Aspire to get a good 3D relief . Dover Designer says the file types available are GIF, JPEG, BMP, TIF, PCT & EPS, I've tried them all & I dont think the results are satisfactory. Could anybody walk through the steps or the best SW to accomplish this. TIA Dubliner
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Greasetattoo
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Re: Tracing with Corel, Illustrator, or Vectric questions

Post by Greasetattoo »

Ok, here is what I did..

I went to Corelpaint, upsized the clipart.
Then I converted it to black and white.
Save as .gif.

Bring into Aspire and traced bitmap..
Pick what items you want to create into shapes

Pretty easy..
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celtic01.jpg

Dublinman
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Re: Tracing with Corel, Illustrator, or Vectric questions

Post by Dublinman »

Unfortunately that was my result too. I'm trying for "perfect vectors" I suppose. They seem to produce better reliefs. I used Vectorart clipart & they turned out very well, but they are limited in choice. I suspect I need to brush up on my Illustrator skillls.
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Greasetattoo
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Re: Tracing with Corel, Illustrator, or Vectric questions

Post by Greasetattoo »

I don't understand what you mean by perfect vectors?

This was made from vectors and not just the clipart.
I converted to vectors then did my shapes/reliefs.

With the vectors you can resize and lose no detail.
As with the clipart you would lose the detail if you made bigger.

Or you could manually draw out all the vectors.
Which in my eyes would just be as good! (not much better, though)
But, would take 3 or 4 times as long...

When I traced in Aspire, it made the clipart into perfect vectors.

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Greasetattoo
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Re: Tracing with Corel, Illustrator, or Vectric questions

Post by Greasetattoo »

Here they are tighter together..

I just used the offset selected vectors in Aspire..
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celtic02.jpg

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Greasetattoo
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Re: Tracing with Corel, Illustrator, or Vectric questions

Post by Greasetattoo »

Here is the EPS file..

You could manually go and edit it if you want.
Tighter corners, etc...

Is that what you are looking for?
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celtic.eps
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Greasetattoo
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Re: Tracing with Corel, Illustrator, or Vectric questions

Post by Greasetattoo »

Here is one I did manually..
Not as many nodes as the traced one..

I could have done much better, but I was getting tired..
I spent about a 1/2 hour on it, I used Corel X3.

I attached the eps too!
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celtic03.jpg
celtic02.eps
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Dublinman
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Re: Tracing with Corel, Illustrator, or Vectric questions

Post by Dublinman »

Looks better than anything I've been able to acheive. I guess there is no "Easy way" It just takes time. Thanks GT - Dubliner
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Re: Tracing with Corel, Illustrator, or Vectric questions

Post by rgbdisain »

For me is the easiest way to do such kinds of things with 3D programs, like Rhino. You can change every parameter very quickly.
At first i draw the vector in Corel (only 1/4 ) And in Rhino did cross sections and then copied it three more times to full circle.
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celt.eps
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celt.jpg

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Re: Tracing with Corel, Illustrator, or Vectric questions

Post by Dublinman »

Now that is very cool!, now I have to get Rhino - aargh! That is the type of result I want to get though. How long did that take to model & could you briefly describe the process. I'm enamoured with Celtic art, so would it be practical to learn "just enough" Rhino to be able to get as good a platform as that to work from? TIA Dubliner
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Erik F
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Re: Tracing with Corel, Illustrator, or Vectric questions

Post by Erik F »

I use Rhino also. I have had it for a long time, but have never been able to get to the point with 3d to be able to just do what I want. I suppose I haven't put a tone of time into the 3d portion of the program, but I use it for all my 2d drawing. I'm sure using Rhino for just 2d is a waste of a good resource, but I wish Aspire had a couple of the great features that Rhino has for 2d drawing. One of my favorites is that you can change your 0,0 point to anywhere you want and as many times as you want and then easily return it to the original origin. This makes it very easy to draw multiple parts and and locate vectors on or within other parts. Second is the way the snap tool bar works. It is right in front of you if you want it to be. With check boxes you can easily turn off and on snap functions like: near, mid, end, center, point and a few more. Anyway...learning the 3d portion of Rhino has not been nearly as easy. I can do some basic things, but once things start to get complex...I fail to be able to get things to blend properly.
Just my 2 cents.
Erik

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Re: Tracing with Corel, Illustrator, or Vectric questions

Post by James E »

Hi dublinman.
I think I see what you mean. It says .eps and you want to open the .eps in Illustrator and have vector lines instead of bitmaps to work with, and not have to trace it.
Are you Import ing instead of opening? Sometimes I have known clicking on the .eps file to open a bitmap in the default programme decided by some option in the PC, whereas if I open say Illustrator, and import file, navigate to the .eps and select.... Vectors arrive.
On the downside thought,sometimes the vectors are just rough traces of the clip art.

On the upside though, those Celts.....only had hammer and chisel, so how precise were they?

Jim E

There is a thread with some good advice about drawing/tracing, - looking at the basic shapes first, and working from them... just can't find it.
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dr_when
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Re: Tracing with Corel, Illustrator, or Vectric questions

Post by dr_when »

The EPS files in the Dover collections are bitmap images not vector. That is why you need to use the trace feature. If the bitmap image is pixelated with a lot of "jaggies" and stair steps, likely your vectors will be rough. You have a certain amount of control over this with the tracing controls. Look for real vector art when shopping around for clipart.
Bob

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James E
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Re: Tracing with Corel, Illustrator, or Vectric questions

Post by James E »

'
The EPS files in the Dover collections are bitmap images not vector'
There's the problem then.
The answer- Google free vector art, celtic. :)

Jim
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