Mrdesignerperson: you said something really interesting, could you go further?

[cromaclear]

about my question in a previous topic (on www.designchapel.com), you said (namely) "if you like, you can make the edges neater by using a very time consuming method of making vector shape layers above this one, by using the rough edges as a guide. i can explain this in great detail if you want. it's a little more complicated. " :)

It would be VERY interesting!
so please... :)

(but if you know where to find a tutorial that explain it well, give us the link!)

[sjkramer]

HUH?

[Edited on 3-9-2003 by sjkramer]

[Phil_The_Rodent]

http://www.photoshopcafe.com/cafe/viewthread.php?tid=4265

I think what he meant was using illustrator to trace out the various outlines using the pen tool, matching the gradients on the shapes using a small number of spot colours in your colour palette (in case you want global colour shifts afterwards), and utilizing the transparency options available in Illustrator. Of course, all of this is available in PS, but with the obvious limitation that your works will be anti-aliased for print, and the pen in illustrator is more powerful.

In Illustrator, a useful tip is to look at preview mode once your vector shapes have been set up and clean them in preview mode. I have been asked on a couple occasions by local designers how I keep my vector shapes so tight, and this is the important part of it. My original shapes are done without fill or stroke (just a blue outline pretty much) and almost all my cleanup work is done using the direct selection tool to smooth out the curves. You can export layers in Illustrator to PS5 with layers set to "on" to render additional effects in PS.

All it basically involves is good mastery of the pen tool in either application. Other than that, it's just tracing.

[mrdesignerperson]

...yeah. what phil said.
i generally do this in photoshop, mainly because i don't actually have illustrator.

want some screenshots?