I know this is a very open ended question, so thanks for your patience.

I own Photoshop CS2, and I use it mostly for coloring lineart.

Are there things that Illustrator will do that Photoshop can't, and vice-versa?

Is turning photos into lineart easier with Illustrator?

Thanks,
Mark

I use both, but do spend the bulk of my CP time in Illustrator.

But when I want to convert something into line art, I start in photoshop.

Yes there are things the illustrator can do that PS can't. And vice-versa. I use both as well, but not as proficient in ILL. Still there are things that are much easier to do with it.

That being said, I'm not so sure you absolutely can't do something in PS that you can do in ILL. But you can do some things in ILL in minutes vs. hours in PS. And vice-versa.

As far as conversion to line art, Puh foinks... with live trace (CS3) it "should" be easier in ILL. But I still use PS for that too. I believe it's just the learning curve (that's quite high in ILL).

Generally live trace will give you a rough conversion but it's knowing how to convert it and how to tweak it once it's converted via live trace. There are a few steps to take after you convert to clean it up. The initial trace is usually pretty rough. (watched a demo on it somewhere) Quite tricky and not very obvious how to manipulate it after the trace but generally you can do what PS does in a fraction of the time once you get the hang of it.

And no, I ain't got the hang of it!

Ok, the two are different in this way.
Learn a few terms. Vector, and Raster.

Photoshop is a raster program. This means it draws with tiny square boxes called pixels.
Zoom in real close to one of your images. You'll see the square dots.
Raster is great for photos, shading, blending, all the things photoshop does so well. But... try drawing a circle with boxes. No matter how fine your settings, boxes are boxes. There will always be some jaggies in there.

Vector programs draw entirely differently.
You drop points and between two points, depending on the type of point, and where the points handles are dragged out to, the computer will compute it's vector between the two.
EVERYTHING you draw in a vector program consists of an outline, or stroke, and a fill. Or no fill. Or fill with no stroke. But every shape you make is both.

The advantage is your line is very sharp and smooth, and it can be resized. Draw a tiny circle and enlarge it to a billboard and it would be just as sharp. Remember it's a mathmatical vector. That stays the same no matter what size.
but... vector programs don't do photos.
Now you can import a photo to your document.

Picture drawing a nice sharp ipod. Leave the screen part blank, then import a photo. Put that under your drawing, and you have a very dandy image. Very sharp lines.

Vector programs take a good deal of practice. Count on that.
And photoshop actually has a vector tool. Your paths tool. (looks like a quill pen tip.) It's used mainly to crop images. Not to draw. Photoshop really isn't meant to be a vector program.


There... class is out. Hope this helps.

artmaker covered the jist...... but here's a tip for converting your photos....

Start in photoshop. After converting to greyscale Increase the brightness and contrast eliminating any unnecessary data, then save it as a tif. place it in an illustrator file, then converted it with live trace then manipulate from there.

I usually start my illustrations with hand drawings, then scan them in before doing the above.

vector examples ex:
http://www.brianhornung.com/vectorpage.html

good luck

quote:

Originally posted by artmaker:
Ok, the two are different in this way.
Learn a few terms. Vector, and Raster.

Photoshop is a raster program. This means it draws with tiny square boxes called pixels.
Zoom in real close to one of your images. You'll see the square dots.
Raster is great for photos, shading, blending, all the things photoshop does so well. But... try drawing a circle with boxes. No matter how fine your settings, boxes are boxes. There will always be some jaggies in there.

Vector programs draw entirely differently.
You drop points and between two points, depending on the type of point, and where the points handles are dragged out to, the computer will compute it's vector between the two.
EVERYTHING you draw in a vector program consists of an outline, or stroke, and a fill. Or no fill. Or fill with no stroke. But every shape you make is both.

The advantage is your line is very sharp and smooth, and it can be resized. Draw a tiny circle and enlarge it to a billboard and it would be just as sharp. Remember it's a mathmatical vector. That stays the same no matter what size.
but... vector programs don't do photos.
Now you can import a photo to your document.

Picture drawing a nice sharp ipod. Leave the screen part blank, then import a photo. Put that under your drawing, and you have a very dandy image. Very sharp lines.

Vector programs take a good deal of practice. Count on that.
And photoshop actually has a vector tool. Your paths tool. (looks like a quill pen tip.) It's used mainly to crop images. Not to draw. Photoshop really isn't meant to be a vector program.


There... class is out. Hope this helps.

THANKS! This explains so much!! Do you use a mouse or a drawing tablet? Any suggestions for a beginner?

Hi Emily,

Mouse or tablet? Well. I bought a tablet just to see but I got a small one. And I find it's way too small. The thing is the size of a mouse pad BUT the actual area where the pen works is about 5x7 and I'm forever going off the edge, then just switching back to my mouse.

But... I have a computer tech friend who loves his.
Then again, his is huge. For that matter I leave a good bit of drewl behind when I visit him. Guy has a monitor about three feet across!
And that's just for the image. He has another monitor where all the menus, pallets etc go. As homer would say, Aaaagggggghhhh!

Anyway no, you don't have to have the tablet to do amazing work. There are some tools though that require it. Photoshop has calligraphy pens that actually work just like felt tip pens. Push harder and the line gets fatter. Can't do that with a mouse.
That's mainly why I bought my tablet just to play with the pens.
But... I also have over 5000 fonts. Never really needed to make my own calligraphy.

As for advice? Just keep practicing. What you have so far looks great.
Look at WATERMAN's shop there. VERY nice work in that one too. Good use of blends and gradients to add to the realism of the images.

quote:

Originally posted by artmaker:
Hi Emily,

Mouse or tablet? Well. I bought a tablet just to see but I got a small one. And I find it's way too small. The thing is the size of a mouse pad BUT the actual area where the pen works is about 5x7 and I'm forever going off the edge, then just switching back to my mouse.

But... I have a computer tech friend who loves his.
Then again, his is huge. For that matter I leave a good bit of drewl behind when I visit him. Guy has a monitor about three feet across!
And that's just for the image. He has another monitor where all the menus, pallets etc go. As homer would say, Aaaagggggghhhh!

Anyway no, you don't have to have the tablet to do amazing work. There are some tools though that require it. Photoshop has calligraphy pens that actually work just like felt tip pens. Push harder and the line gets fatter. Can't do that with a mouse.
That's mainly why I bought my tablet just to play with the pens.
But... I also have over 5000 fonts. Never really needed to make my own calligraphy.

As for advice? Just keep practicing. What you have so far looks great.
Look at WATERMAN's shop there. VERY nice work in that one too. Good use of blends and gradients to add to the realism of the images.

I have the same sized tablet as you do. Oddly enough I got used to it pretty fast. I never even thought about the edges, how often did you use yours when you got it? It's just odd to me because the outlined area on a tablet is mapped to the edges of your screen, so unless you were trying to go off your screen while drawing.. I don't see how else it would work out like that.

Are you sure the settings are right?

Anyways.. I've been using Photoshop for years, at the moment I have Photoshop CS3, and just a few days ago I got Illustrator CS4, and to be honest.. I LOVE IT! I love how easy it is to make perfectly clean lines and vector images. It's also super easy to convert any image into a nice clean vector image. I've been using it every moment I can since I got it, and I haven't touched Photoshop once since then. I love my Photoshop, but Illustrator is so much fun and easier for doodling.

quote:

how often did you use yours when you got it? It's just odd to me because the outlined area on a tablet is mapped to the edges of your screen, so unless you were trying to go off your screen while drawing.. I don't see how else it would work out like that.

Are you sure the settings are right?

Oh not that often. And I know there are plenty of settings. Aside from what I click does what I didn't mess with it that much.

With me, I still like to do my drawing with a pencil. Then if I want vector art, I can scan that and redraw it easy enough.
And it could be my computer was maxed out on memory at the time too. Seems I'd sketch sketch sketch, then have to wait for the computer to catch up.

My techie friend with endless resources doesn't have that problem. And with a huge tablet he can make long sweeping strokes without being limited to a post card size pad. I should ask him for his site. He has some of his anime type drawings on deviant art somewhere.


Illustrator is great but I never heard anyone say it's "easy." Good for you!!! Honest.
I got to teach one semester at Purdue. Not art, but kids had to learn vector as a prelude to drafting type programs. So accuracy was more important than art.
I would have them scan in a simple black and white logo and redraw that.
Took the class, that met three times a week, for three hour classes, FIVE WEEKS to become proficient with the pen tool. Compared to photoshop which we spent all of one week on.
So if you find it fun and easy to doodle with, your ahead of the pack.

now... Im a bit of a dinosaur myself. When I took classes the program of choice was Freehand. So that's what I learned and mastered.
I have illustrator and I do know it's got some nyfty features the last version of Freehand doesn't, but...
I'm like the person who learned on windows and won't give it up. Mac is better but this is what was learned first.
Really the only difference is the pen tool. Illustrator has an array which I never found time to figure out. Freehand has ONE. It does it all.

sigh, some day. That and learning how to actually use Dreamweaver. Got that too and yet I still maintain my website with plain old HTML.

Think it's time to evolve?