Welcome to RCF - WHF

fishead · Feb 09, 2005

Yesterday I decided to take another look in adobl ps help to see about making a vector image, and I have reached a level that helps me understand. I could copy and paste a bunch of junk about mathimadical equaltions, rasterizing etc., but thats not the fishead way, no, my way is to cut the crap and get right to it. And I found it is so simple, and might be best to let your preschool children make them for you.

How to make a vector image, the truth no one else will share:

Open a canvas, add a shape, any shape. Now add text. Now you have a vector image. Yep, just like that. Save it in layers as photoshop (for now till I learn more on formats for vestor).

Ok, but what about all those fancy logos with blending and shading etc, they're not just an oval with text?

Ok, the text was put on last so it is active, do this - click on layer style, you can use all the stuff in ps, like showing a drop shadow, a glow background etc., anything. Now click on the bottom layer and add effects there too. Now your vector image is finshed and you can resize it all you want.

I'm going to have to raise my fees now that I took the 2 minutes to learn how to make vectors.

I still want to make my own shapes, I don't know if this is possible, but I'll keep searching for answers.

Here is some copy and paste data:

In Photoshop Elements, shapes and text are vector graphics, which means they are made up of lines and curves defined by their geometric characteristics. Vector graphics are resolution-independent--that is, they can be scaled to any size and printed at any resolution without losing detail or clarity. You can move, resize, or change them without losing the quality of the graphic.

Because computer monitors display images on a pixel grid, vector data is displayed as pixels on-screen.

rb2d2 · Sep 25, 2004

I haven't tried this yet but HEY! I want you for my teacher. I like cutting through all the crap, LOL!! Eventually you HAVE get back to the crap but I like to see some results in a hurry to start with.

Soon as I have time I'm giving this a whirl. Thanks fishead!

blob8

fishead · Feb 09, 2005

rb, I think you already make vectors, its just a matter of saving it in layers, ps format works.

Here is one I made this morning, now I can resize all I want, I can make it banner shape and move things around, etc. This is good for simple logos and logos with flare. I cannot find anywhere how to make my own shape tools, don't think I can (not with adobi ps elements 2 anyway), and can't use my cartoon characters.

I falttened this vector image to post as a jpeg on the web -

rb2d2 · Sep 25, 2004

Dave, I'm sitting here looking and drooling. If I could create something like that in Adobe anything or Paint Shop Pro I think I would be in 7th heaven!

Send me direction to your house and I'll be on your doorstep tomorrow morning bright and early! By midnight you should be able to teach me how to do that.

blob8

bigR · Oct 14, 2004

Fishead, you should be able to use any .wmf file, if you want clipart. Most of them are not clean, and they use polygons, so they're messy to modify, so I use only the simplest of those.

You should be able to draw freehand, also, with some pen tool in Photoshop. Or you can take a shape, add points to it, them move them and modify their properties to change the curve before and/or after each point.

I hardly ever use Photoshop, or Illustrator, so I can't give you specific tips.

Also, you can put text on a curve. Make your curve or shape, then add the text to it, and it will follow the curve. Sorta neat effect sometimes.

fishead · Feb 09, 2005

Thanks bigR, I am finding there are a lot of possibilities. Luckilly I can use everything I learned about layers, so shouldn't take too long to get to know it better. I do still want to make my own shape tools, if its possible.

rb, I've seen your work, and the logo pic you made for me, so I know you already make these. Like I said, just don't flatten it. When its done, combine the layers to resize and save.

I'm a little confused on the formats, there is psi, and another photoshop format, can't remember but there is two for photoshop, maybe pds. I don't know what else works, I think png does, that is popular but hard to understand for me - like the transparent is grey, and seems slow loading.

bigR · Oct 14, 2004

fishead · Feb 09, 2005

Thanks, I remember using the ems, I'll stick to that. I think all the layers should be merged when finished? Otherwise it doesn't downsize right.

I'm going to put this to good use, I have a client that wants too many words in too small a logo, and I've tried and tried and now his son writes saying they want different, and back to square one after 2 months. So this time it will be a vector, and when he agrees to it I will send it as a vectror so he can't look at it. grumble grumble. violent1

bigR · Oct 14, 2004

Fishead, the vector image should work great. You can resize cleanly as big or as small as you want. The smallest sizes will run into problem with fuzziness when you run out of monitor pixels to work with; when you're down to 3 pixels per letter, there's no way to make clean text.

Are you putting each piece of your vector drawing on a separate layer? Vectors can be on the same layer, and stacked within that layer. You can move a shape or letter up or down in the stack, and overlap them.

What I've done is put all the text into one layer, all the image pieces into another. You can also group vector shapes, so you can move them around as a unit, and resize them as a unit within the layer. For example, when I've made the shadow animations as a vector, the stick figure is one layer (or several, duplicated then changed as needed), the shadow is one layer, and any other images are another layer.

fishead · Feb 09, 2005

Yes, I,m grouping layers when I'm finished, or in sections so i can still work on it. Its already been very helpfull. I just made some sample logos as vectors, but the guy picked the graphic painting instead. Its good to have both styles. I can combine them. This is a giant step.