Vector Question

[Lone Wolf]

Hey guys i need some help.

I want to convert a PSD file into vector format. If i open in it Illustrator and save it as a DXf file, does that make it into a vector format?

Also any advice on how to make vector format illustration without using too much Illustrator?

I am very new to Illustrator

Any help or advice is really appreciated.

Mack

[mikeorion22]

hey i'll try to help with what i understand, if you dont know programs like photoshop, and painter, are raster programs, meaning the stuff you make in them is made up of tiny pixels unlike programs like freehand, flash, and illustrator, which are vector based meaning stuff can be scaled to any size while still maintaining your objects crisp shape, they work independent of resolution, im not sure what a dxf file is, i havent heard of it, but you cant simply bring in a pixel based file into illustrator and make it vector, like i cant find a cool james jean piece online, put it in illustrator, blow it up and make a poster. depending on what you bring in, like a line drawing illustrator, has neat features in the newer editions like live trace and live paint, which can save alot of time when trying to get a vector version of a document, if you dont want to learn illustrator.

[mikeorion22]

by the way i looked at your site, you have some real nice work there

[Jason Ross]

actually you can bring a pixel based file into illustrator and make it vector. I do it all the time. especially line art. illustrator CS2 has a "trace bitmap" feature that is very easy to use and gets it about 90-95% accurate. You can do color but the pallete becomes like the posterize or cutout feature in photoshop.

[Lone Wolf]

mikeorion22- thanks for the info. I knew most of that stuff. I heard of live trace, i just got Illustrator CS2 and i want to learn some vektor basics for graphics work.And thanks for the compliment on my work.

Jason Ross-any good tutorials for the "live trace"? A lot of my work is lineart,which is good!:)

THanks guys, I really appreciate this.

[Jason Ross]

I dont know of any tutorials but what you do is open a new document. go to File> Place. locate your jpeg/bitmap to place it onto your Illustrator document. while the image is selected go to the top info bar and hit "live Trace" then hit expand. thats it really. every white will be a white shape and each black a shape. if the info bar isnt there then manually go to Object> Live Trace> Make and Expand.

[Lone Wolf]

Thsns Jason!:confident

[Jason Ross]

Glad to help.