Some questions about Raster and Vector drawings and coloring/shading them.

[Rydium-41]

Hi to all.

I have a number of questions that I need help on.

1) Which, in your opinion, is better for making sprites, Raster or Vector?

2) If I convert a Raster to Vector (Illustrator's "Live Trace" option, correct?), how do I go about coloring it? I have tried in photoShop, but it isn't working out, because of all the gray and white lines that appear when it is 'Filled-In' with colour. I have no idea how to colour vector arts, for that matter.

3) When a Raster is vectorized in Illustrator, the lines become way too thick and smoothened. How do I decrease this result?

4) Suppose I want to use Raster for making sprites. Say, I want to reduce the size of the pixels. Now, I have done this, in a way, but I think it can be done better. Example below:



This is a Raster image I made using Ms Paint, with the help of a reference image. This is the original height, of 390 pixels.

Below is the reduced size:



The upper image does look shabby, but it is the only way I have for reducing the pixel sizes. This is 45% pixel size of the original. Now what I want to know is, is there a way I can reduce the thickness of the blackness, or better yet, is there an even better way of reducing Raster image sizes, with minimum loss of detail, than the above example? Is there anyway I can achieve the "single-line" illustration of the scaled image? Take into consideration that I won't be decreasing the image size of the pixels any less than 45% of the original, which is almost half the size.

5) I need some help in coloring and shading. I have seen many artworks that are very well coloured. I have tried doing it myself, using the 'Dodge' and 'Burn' tools, but it never comes out the way I want it to. Can someone give me some good techniques on colouring and shading? For example, how would I go about shading the below example:



It is the same image above. The basic colour scheme is there but I can't seem to get the results I want. How can I make the details stand-out and make the overall illustration good to look at?

If the answers to these questions can be answered, I'd really appreciate it. I've done some researching myself but can't find the proper info, hence my posting here. Thanks again.

-Rydium-41

[Jolt]

Lots of questions.... Maybe this will help with a bit.

1) Either. You can use either Photoshop or Illustrator to create any basic image. It's only a matter of preference. Most sprites end up in raster format so even if you use Illustrator you can save to a raster format. If you need vector sprites, then obviously, you must use Illustrator.

2) There are a couple of ways.... If you are using Illustrator's Live Trace, have you then tried Illustrator's Live Paint? That's what it was designed for. You can also select objects and simply fill them with color. If you want to use Photoshop, simply place your outline on it's own layer and change the layer's blend mode to "Multiply" then add a layer BELOW the outline layer and paint on that layer. This will keep your outline on top and looking clean.

3) You need to adjust the Live Trace Options. You can do this by selecting the raster image and choosing Object > Live Trace > Tracing options. Play with the settings until you get something you do like.

4) When you reduce in Photoshop, try setting the interpolation option to "Nearest Neighbor" this may help keep your lines crisper.

5) Painting is a matter of study and practice. You need to pay attention to how light and shadow works against different surfaces and try and mimic that. The more you practice the better you will get. There aren't any real shortcuts.


Hope that helps

[Rydium-41]

I thank you for this info.