2. Vector Tutorial: Eyes
Drawing eye with Illustrator

3. Vectoring hair

Tutorial demonstrate how to draw hair in Illustrator

live trace

Ok, let's find some wildlife image to transform it into vector graphics:

For example, this image:

wildlife vector art example image

With adobe illustrator select and open this image.

Next go to Object > Live Trace > Make
And thats it!

Result:

live traced image

Cheers!

transformation

After you decided what image to transform to vector (I found Olga Kurylenko )

1 ) Open it in PS, and duplicate layer.
Apply Desaturate and Sharpen to duplicated ( second ) layer and set it to 50% opacity.

desaturate and sharpen on duplicated layer

2. Merge first and second layer ( background copy + background ).
Select layer after Merge, and Open it in Illustrator.
( just select all ctrl + a in PS, and ctrl + c to copy, then paste it with ctrl + v in Illustrator, OR, drag and drop that layer from Photoshop into Illustrator )

3. After opened in Illustrator
Go to Object >> Live Trace >> Tracing Options

live trace

Check Preview option, and set Treshold to 30.
Click Trace.

4. Copy Traced layer from Illustrator into Photoshop.
Set Opacity in Photoshop to 20% to traced layer.

5. Go into Illustrator and UNDO tracing you did before.
Then go again to Go to Object >> Live Trace >> Tracing Options
But this time, change Treshold to 60.
Click Trace.

6. Copy Traced layer from Illustrator into Photoshop.
Set Opacity in Photoshop to 20% to traced layer.

copied trace

7. Repeat that few times, increasing Treshold
( here is increased by 30 every time, you can try different if you like, also you can experiment with opacity in photoshop, here is used 20% )

repeating

8. After you are satisfied with results, you can Merge it all and Desaturate, then paint it ( new layer with multiply )

Final results:

black and white

and

color

Cheers!

3d logo

1. Draw some simple object, like this:

object

2. Select logo ( or whatever this is, but imagine it's a logo ),
and put some lighter color, like blue ( for easier rendering, or to see what's rendering ).

select logo

3. Then while selected, go to Effects >> 3d >> Extrude & Bevel

extrude & bevel

4. Click OK, and while object is selected ( logo ), go to Object >> Expand Appearance

5. Okay, we expanded it now, but it's still in one group, so we have to ( while selected -.- ) go to Object >> Ungroup

Or you can select object and press Shift + Ctrl + G few times, that will ungroup it also.

6. Next step, it's ungrouped and we can select any parts of it.

7. Lets create some gradient, like this:

logo gradient

8. Apply gradient to every section, surface, bevel etc

more gradient

9. And final looks like this:

3d logo final

Thats it!

before and after

First step:

- open image you want to edit and then go to
Image >> Adjustments >> Auto Levels ( or just Shift+Ctrl+L ) to correct some levels.

Second step:

- duplicate your first layer and desaturate it to get black and white picture
Image >> Adjustments >> Desaturate ( or Shift+Ctrl+U )

Third step:

- copy desaturated layer, and then invert its colors
Image >> Adjustments >> Invert ( or Ctrl+I )

Now starting the fun part : )

4th step:
- click on third layer ( copy of desaturated layer ), and then change layer mode to Linear Dodge

linear dodge

5th step:
- select third layer ( with Linear Dodge mode ), and go to
Filter >> Blur >> Gaussian Blur ( 3.5px, you can change this if higher image resolution, so it's your choice )

Now it looks like this:

example

( after blur )

6th step:
- Merge third and second layer ( select 3rd layer and just CTRL+E to Merge Down )

Final step:
- Copy second layer ( we merged third and second, so now we have only first and second layer )
- Change mode of third layer ( copy of second ) to Multiply
- Blur to add some shading ( third layer ) Filter >> Blur >> Gaussian Blur ( 3.5px )

Final

final

Merge all and that that's it, hope you liked this
Cheers!