: Is it possible to make vector from hand drawn artwork? I just wonder is there any way to make vector from my hand drawn artworks. I tried auto trace and some settings, but lots of shades

@Nimeshi706

From my experience nothing anywhere is going to adequately convert the image you posted to vector content. There is quite simply too much intricate detail for most tracing features to pick up well.

The only possible exception is if that artwork is exceptionally large (like poster sized - 16x20" or greater) thus defining the details clearly. Then there may be a chance a tracing feature would work. In some instances you can enlarge raster image to achieve a larger size more suitable to tracing. In many cases you can't. All sort of depends upon the art. And often due to size, this means tracing in *sections( then piecing things back together (meaning you still need to be familiar with the vector application).

Tracing, in general, is not meant to be a 1 to 1 conversion from raster to vector. It's a "best guess" feature (more like a fax machine than a photo copier). Some tracing features guess better than others. And some artwork is more adept for guessing than other artwork.

If you are seeking an accurate representation of the detail and depth of work similar to what you've posted here, the only real method to achieve that with vectors is to actually draw it where you can control each individual stroke and fill. Time consuming I know. This is also why many artists will abandon paper and pen for anything more than an outline, then add all the detail within an application using a tablet and possibly some "natural drawing" plug ins for applications. That way they aren't continually redrawing what they drew by hand.

Vote Up Vote Down

@Margaret771

Drawings can be vectorized. It is called "Tracing"in vector drawing programs (Inkscape, Illustrator). and it's semiautomatic - you give a bunch of rules (=adjust tracing parameter sliders and give some numbers) and the program creates the curves for you.

You must do extensive trials to find the combinaton of the tracing parameters that gives a recognizable result from a drawing this complex. You will find that allways some details are missing until you vectorize every pixel individually. But that is total nonsense and trashes the whole idea of the vectorization.

Worse: Many things that you consider to be one piece will be splintered to several separate shapes and many individual shapes contain pieces of several objects. This makes extremely hard to edit the result or extract some parts for reuse.

As already commented, if you use software tracing, you probably must consent to have a much less rich result than the origunal. Or you must redraw it manually in vector domain. That's not impossible if you get a high quality graphics tablet and practice to adapt yourself with the ballistics of the new media.

The most important tool sits between one's ears and seemingly you have got it.

Vote Up Vote Down

@Carla748

There are many techniques for converting bitmap images into vector artwork, and they give varying results, depending on the source material.

Illustrator’s image trace feature can be used.


Working with Image Trace in Adobe Illustrator CS6


Photoshop can convert selections to paths.


Convert a selection to a path


There are also other tools, like Vector Magic. And, the final option is hand tracing, using the pen tool (takes a lot longer, but typically gives better results).

However, given your source material, I don’t think there’s a way to convert it to a vector file that will preserve the details you’ll probably want (unless you’re after a simplified, more stylised version?).

Vote Up Vote Down