The Outhouse - The Greatest Comic Book Forum

by **J.M. Hunter** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 9:50 am

Hah!

Sorry for lack of follow up, I've been recovering from the flu and therefore behind in my classes. So here's the prelim sketch and when I can get back to the pen tool learning I'll show what's the latest.

by **J.M. Hunter** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 11:04 pm

sdsichero wrote:

and a sample of tracing

Ohhhh I like SD.

I read through the section in my for dummies book first. Went into Illustrator and just messed with it a bit.

Then I watched your link youtubes.

Keep them coming if you want, it can only help.

by **Cat-Scratch** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 11:06 pm

J.M. Hunter wrote:Photoshop or illustrator?

I scanned it at 600dpi and saved it as a tif in photoshop. Then I went and opened it up in Illustrator. Tried the pen tool then shit got wonky.

So how do I "hand trace" a logo or something I drew where I actually have more control instead of dealing with a pen tool in Illustrator where it just sorta slices pieces and doesn't listen to me no matter how much I Yell at the screen?

Thoughts? Answers? Witty remarks?

You sir, are in a bit of a tif, aren't you? :-D

by **J.M. Hunter** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 11:07 pm

Cat-Scratch wrote:
You sir, are in a bit of a tif, aren't you?

Hah! Don't ever let anyone tell you, your humor isn't welcomed my friend! Good one. I love bad jokes!

by **Cat-Scratch** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 11:08 pm

J.M. Hunter wrote:
Hah! Don't ever let anyone tell you, your humor isn't welcomed my friend! Good one. I love bad jokes!

Someone has to say the old stinkers. :wink:

by **sdsichero** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 12:23 am

J.M. Hunter wrote:
Hah! Don't ever let anyone tell you, your humor isn't welcomed my friend! Good one. I love bad jokes!

Cat-Scratch has a gif for telling groaners.

by **sdsichero** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 1:24 am

J.M. Hunter wrote:Hah!

Sorry for lack of follow up, I've been recovering from the flu and therefore behind in my classes. So here's the prelim sketch and when I can get back to the pen tool learning I'll show what's the latest.

I tried tracing the image with the pen tool in Freehand (R.I.P.). Wasn't sure about some of your lines but this is what I got...

I exported to an Illustrator file so you can futz with it if you want.

EDIT for some reason it will not attach

by **J.M. Hunter** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 1:33 am

sdsichero wrote:
I tried tracing the image with the pen tool in Freehand (R.I.P.). Wasn't sure about some of your lines but this is what I got...

I exported to an Illustrator file so you can futz with it if you want.

EDIT for some reason it will not attach

Ok,. No. 1) I like how yours looks, it's what I'd go with for the animated version.

no.2) how the hell do you still have freehand?!!

by **J.M. Hunter** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 1:36 am

Also to add, Sd since you've now messed with the logo, what are your thoughts on the N-T-E connection?

Would you rather see them as separate characters?

by **sdsichero** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 1:48 am

J.M. Hunter wrote:Also to add, Sd since you've now messed with the logo, what are your thoughts on the N-T-E connection?

Would you rather see them as separate characters?

I like it. It really puts a unique spin on it.

I still have Freehand because I refuse to give it up. I like it much more than Illustrator.

by **J.M. Hunter** » Wed Nov 10, 2010 7:58 pm

Ok, update a bit...not so much progress, as I've barely scratched the surface in my own remedial form.

I finally cracked open photoshop today using a tutorial about basics of the pen tool.

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basi ... elections/

I got a refresher on clicking points, and closing the object to make a selection. Got a quick command even "ctrl-enter", cool right? Then I got stumped on this part:

Page 2 of the tutorial:

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basi ... page-2.php

This passage:
"As soon as I do, my path is converted into a selection, and the stop sign is now selected:

Photoshop Pen Tool: The stop sign is now selected after converting the path into a selection.
I'll switch back over to my Layers palette, and to copy the stop sign onto its own layer, I'll use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac), which places the sign on its own layer above the Background layer:

Photoshop Pen Tool: The stop sign has now been copied onto its own separate layer."

Well that's just it. I was playing with the pen tool and went about selecting the 'H' character in my logo just for practice. I was able to turn it into a selecting, but I wasn't able to make it into a new/seperate layer other than the background layer.

My image I was working with is a tif, and the background layer remains locked.

I remain stumped, I'm sure it's something I forgot to do originally with the document and when it comes to layers. I hope I don't have to go through the trouble of re-scanning the image just to get a jpeg or work with a psd. My stupid scanner's default is for irfanview and I'm working with an a3 large format mustek.

Like I said I'm sure it's gotta be something with the background layer and such.

But dumb question number 103. Can you work with the pen tool in pshop on a tif and only with the back ground layer?

I decided to go back and read up on layers:

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/layers/

by **subliminal** » Sun Nov 14, 2010 3:54 am

Scan your sketch in at 1200 dpi. Import it in Photoshop and change the mode to Grayscale. Then convert the mode again to Bitmap... choose your dither method. This will give you a super crisp black and white image.

For something more scalable (vector). As everyone else said, use the pen tool in Illustrator. If you have CS3 and up you can Live Trace the scan but the one you have previewed is super easy to trace with the pen tool. Switch to Outline view to see the forms. As a rule, the fewer points the smoother/better the final result.