The Best Way to Vectorize Your Detailed Photoshop Art

Рет қаралды 78,239

Күн бұрын

As an illustrator who works in Photoshop, I still have to provide vector files to my clients sometimes, such as with T-shirt graphics. The problem is that my style has a lot of subtle textures and details. I've had very little success using the Image Trace function in Adobe Illustrator - it always takes away too much detail and renders the artwork unusable. Luckily, I've found another way to create perfect vector files that preserve my analogue textures and details that result in perfect prints. In this video, I share how I use Photoshop itself to vectorize my artwork and export it to an Adobe Illustrator (EPS or AI) file.
TIME STAMPS
0:00 - INTRO
1:42 - Why not use Image Trace in Illustrator?
3:07 - Step 1: Save a copy of the file
3:24 - Step 2: Save all layers as Smart Object
3:46 - Step 3: Create a Threshold Adjustment Layer
4:01 - Step 4: Apply Gaussian Blur to Smart Object
4:44 - Step 5: Refine Threshold Adjustment (if necessary)
5:20 - Step 6: Copy All Artwork to the Clipboard
5:35 - Step 7: Create a New Alpha Channel
5:46 - Step 8: Paste to Alpha Channel
5:54 - Step 9: Invert the Alpha Channel
6:03 - Step 10: CMD + Click to Load Selection from Alpha Channel
6:34 - Step 11: Create Paths from the Selection
6:52 - Optional: Rename the Path
7:06 - Step 12 : Export Paths to Illustrator
7:38 - Step 13: (Now in Illustrator) Apply a Colour to the Paths
7:56 - Final Step: Use Exclude in Pathfinder Tool to Separate Negative and Positive Shapes
FIND ME ELSEWHERE
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Skillshare Classes - www.tomfroese.com/teaching
1 on 1 Illustration Coaching - www.tomfroese.com/coaching
Thoughts on Illustration Podcast - www.tomfroese.com/podcast
Patreon - / tomfroese
Substack - mrtomfroese.substack.com
Instagram - / mrtomfroese

Пікірлер: 264

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Thank you for watching! Take my full illustration classes on Skillshare - Get 30 Days Free when you Use My Links. www.tomfroese.com/teaching

@strawbunnyoat 7 күн бұрын

Actually? My 17 years of photoshop and illustrator knowledge has been blown out of the water, this is nuts. Complete game changer and thank you for not putting it behind a paywall, that's amazing!

@andrewgunter1947 Ай бұрын

Just wow dude. How did you even begin to figure this out? Twenty plus years working with PS and AI and you just blew my mind.

@Navigator777777 Ай бұрын

I agree. Illustrator is my money maker. Photoshop is just a needed tool. I'm always bitching to Adobe to combine Illustrator and Photoshop into one program to do exactly this.

@TheDocPixel Ай бұрын

This technique is about 20 years old. Nice to see someone going through the old magazines and making tutorials about some of those "Oldies but Goodies". FYI: I think Deke McClelland was the first to do this. His Mad Scientist experiments were always great and still are.

@eartho Ай бұрын

more like 25 years old and Deke definitely wasn't the first.

@yeknommonkey Ай бұрын

@@earthoit was in the ye olde instruction manual that shipped with p shop

@TheDocPixel Ай бұрын

@@eartho you‘re right. Time sure does fly. Because I remember it was in the handbook too.. remember the days when we read the handbooks?! It was the only way to learn the software, and maybe an article in How or Macworld magazine.

@KuttyJoe Ай бұрын

@@yeknommonkey Is that right??? This was actually in a Photoshop instruction manual? It's interesting because it says something about how Adobe thought people were using the software in those days.

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Well they did build that "selection to paths" function in there for some reason, right? They must have had this in mind.

@artbygarth Ай бұрын

This is a fantastic approach! I’ve been struggling with this for years!!

@michaelmccrory2220 Ай бұрын

That took a Sherlock Holmes level of genius to solve a problem and make it simpler to use. Thank you for sharing your excellent solution. 👍🏼

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Elementary, my dear Watson! :)

@eartho Ай бұрын

it's a technique we've been using since the 90s...

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

@@eartho That actually makes sense. LiveTrace came in the 2010s, and I remember using clipping paths Photoshop 4 or something around that version. I didn't know it was that easy to convert selections to paths in the 90s though. My earliest experience using PS was on a monochrome Mac with maybe the original PS on it.

@eartho Ай бұрын

@@TomFroese yeah, Selection to Paths has been around since some of the earliest versions of Ps. I remember using it frequently in my prepress days iin the early to mid 90s.

@michaelmccrory2220 Ай бұрын

@@eartho @eartho We never stop learning and it is good that Tom has taken the effort to remind and tell people who have never seen this technique that this is an option.

@CoffeeScribe Ай бұрын

Wow, the only person on the internet that shows every single step, and doesn't assume that people know where the various windows are or even why things are called certain names too. THANKS!!!

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Here for you!

@randomuniicornn Ай бұрын

I am incredibly grateful for this tutorial, the last few months I have worked on my works with photoshop and fresco, which allows me to have my lines vectorized and with a very good resolution, however I have older art that is great and I want to use it for merchandise and I have been looking for a long time for something that would help me vectorize without having to do them from the beginning again, the image tracing of course did not help me at all, since I lost a lot of details and it was frustrating since my works in general contain many details, this has been the tutorial that definitely gave me a solution, I have tried it and it was simply incredible and the details are still there, I am very grateful! 🦄

@lynmeredith8405 19 күн бұрын

I love this! It preserves hand drawn looks better than any other method. Thank you!

@TomFroese 18 күн бұрын

You are so welcome!

@Szczurzyslawa Ай бұрын

You just expanded my brain sir! I knew all these tools but would never think to use them that way it's so genius, thank you so much!

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Thank you! Glad it helped!

@blahokay1 2 ай бұрын

What a fantastic tutorial. Love it

@clairemardesich8576 Ай бұрын

Omg, thank you so much for sharing this invaluable information!

@IIAspire Ай бұрын

This is super helpful! Thanks for sharing!

@JohanEnriqueArteagaLopez 2 ай бұрын

¡¡¡¡This is gold !!!! This technique is a step above the technique you taught in your courses at Skillshare. It's very kind of you to release it for everyone. God bless you Mr. Tom!

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Thanks! This is different from my skillshare classes but uses similar techniques. The difference is that the goal is vector output in this video.

@johntnguyen1976 Ай бұрын

This is also going to be a huge time saver (and a quality booster) for my motion design! I spend so much time prepping elements for animation in illustrator. Thanks so much!

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Excellent!

@BLTDFRNT Ай бұрын

stunning flow, thank you so much

@jeremygordonstudio Ай бұрын

This is so helpful, thank you!

@arlofarts9 Ай бұрын

holy wow. this opens up so many possibilities. tysm

@tueminh9663 Ай бұрын

So helpful! Thank you

@mr_ocean5598 Ай бұрын

Brilliant - I had never thought to use this approach. Thanks for your generosity!

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

You're very welcome!

@vincema4018 Ай бұрын

Fantastic method!!! I'll try it in a while!

@FranklinKirby 21 күн бұрын

This is simply amazing! Thank you so much for sharing!

@trollenz Ай бұрын

That's a nice approach 👌🏻 Thanks.

@nasdriver3583 Ай бұрын

Good workflow! Never had to use threshold before, but will deffo use it now

@drawwitheli4697 Ай бұрын

Thanks so much! This is really useful to know

@Mark-ql5ni Ай бұрын

LEGENDARY!!

@supbra1 Ай бұрын

Really cool!

@mommasoto Ай бұрын

Love this! Been wkg both PS and Ai over 17yrs and I never knew this! Ha! I stick to illustrator mainly but am so excited to switch to this method! Thank you!

@kennethreaume6380 Ай бұрын

Wow, an amazing alternative to Potrace! Thank you! 🙏🏻

@maximoibarra5866 Ай бұрын

Lo mejor que pude haber aprendido este año

@veerababu9933 Ай бұрын

Thank you for sharing the technique

@patrickwright8805 17 күн бұрын

This is fantastic, both is content and presentation, thanks!

@TomFroese 17 күн бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!

@karlgustafson7850 Ай бұрын

That is awesome. Thanks for this tutorial!

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

@MarcoTheHEXican Ай бұрын

INCREDIBLE! MORE PLEASE!

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

OK!

@brianpeterson6481 2 күн бұрын

This is BRILLIANT!! Thank you!

@Taumisch Ай бұрын

Well done !

@hs1865 Ай бұрын

Wow what a great tip! Thanks 🙏🏼

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

You're so welcome!

@WiremuTeKani Ай бұрын

This is brilliant. Thank you!

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Glad it helped!

@sumuph Ай бұрын

Great tutorial. Thank you!

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Thanks for watching!

@itsamegrabbins Ай бұрын

Great video! Really informative and helpful. I’ve had to wrestle with image trace for years now but l I’ll have to try this next time.

@VisualTimmy Ай бұрын

Instant sub.. bro this is nuts! I never though of using this method. Image trace is unreliable and I end up reworking it all by hand. This is has so many use cases, much appreciated!

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Thanks so much for the sub! Any other questions send em my way.

@alicea.8645 Ай бұрын

Thank you for sharing!

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

My pleasure!

@mubbashirmumtaz8585 Ай бұрын

Really helpful

@marcromanbravo Ай бұрын

🤯 thank you sooo much!!

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

You're welcome!

@alejamclean Ай бұрын

You are my new god! #Amazing trick! Thank you!!❤

@DJDLS Ай бұрын

very helpful thank you!

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

@Meko_J Ай бұрын

Amazing

@mikeinscho987 Ай бұрын

Mr. Tom - You're amazing. Thank you. Sincerely, Mike

@ziocalli9479 Ай бұрын

Image vectorization sometimes requires an old-fashioned way, like video. Thank you.

@ventiladordesuco Ай бұрын

This is a great technique, I would say that I've seen it before but your explanation is easier to follow. However, as a screen printer myself, I couldn't see why your print shop would ask for a vector even though your Image is 600 dpi and bigger than the final print. As far as I know, that is more than enough to print your shirt, furthermore, the printing process is already lossy, so giving them a lower fidelity artwork sound counterintuitive. Vector artwork is mandatory for stationary print, but the mesh on the screen is also finer than on meshes for garment. In the end, you're saying that the 600dpi (possibly more since you said your artwork is larger than the final print) is not enough for your print shop, that uses a process that is inheritable lossy (we are talking about max 200tpi - threads per inch) and is physically impossible to produce a higher fidelity final print. I think they might prefer a vector, but they're perfectly capable of dealing with 600dpi bitmaps.

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Thank you! Two points here: first, I agree, vectors are totally unnecessary. I work with letterpress and silkscreen often and prefer to send colour separations as bitmap files. But I have found there’s no convincing some suppliers about this, and they will refuse to accept anything but vector. Second, the 600dpi in my file is more about having enough resolution for the smallest details in my artwork to come through in the vector, less about retaining fidelity in the final print. But it would be interesting to compare output of 300dpi and 600dpi versions with this process.

@reevartang564 Ай бұрын

@@TomFroese The only reason for the supplier to refuse (that I can think of) - file size on vector files should be lighter in general.

@keithartworker Ай бұрын

Great video! Having worked in Photoshop and Illustrator for 30 years, I have preferred Photoshop's "simple afterthought" path tools to Illustrator's dedicated ones. This tutorial is further evidence.

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

@mrtahirjavaid Ай бұрын

Great Job!

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Thanks!

@DustSeeker163 Ай бұрын

You are insane and I love you! This is amazing!

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Haha, feeling the love!

@jswanson859 Ай бұрын

This is brilliant! Makes total sense on how you did it too. I could have used this 100 times. Now I can. Haha Thanks for sharing.

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Happy to help! I wish I knew this years ago myself.

@andrespalacios1909 2 ай бұрын

Thank you SO much for this Tom!

@TomFroese 2 ай бұрын

Hope it helps!

@damarisk8252 2 ай бұрын

OMG!! You're a genius! This is soooo much better than image trace ❤❤❤ Thanks for sharing!!

@TomFroese 2 ай бұрын

Thank you! It took me a long time to figure this out!

@dphstudioz Ай бұрын

Thank you

@tortera Ай бұрын

Wow! This is huge! Thank you so much!

@ryanrockers Ай бұрын

Cool, good tip. Select to path for the win

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

That's the idea in a nutshell!

@SL_UNIQUE_CONTENT Ай бұрын

subscribed 💪💪 good luck

@passion_proh-jects Ай бұрын

Such a long laborious process for something that CorelDraw does in a few clicks. That said, still very helpful for PS users. Thank you!

@Gwennie363 14 күн бұрын

Awesome tip

@TomFroese 9 күн бұрын

Glad you think so!

@waleedkh9769 Ай бұрын

Many steps, but could be useful one day. Thanks! :)

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Feels like just a few steps to me after years of trying to figure this technique out 😂

@painted_in_thick Ай бұрын

Nice. Thank You.

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Thank you too!

@ohyeah7432 Ай бұрын

You’re reale hero

@envadd.6556 Ай бұрын

Amazing how tools we all know can do a lot more then we are aware of

@mangjose5446 Ай бұрын

thanks so much for sharing this.. this method is superb 😎

@Ebersol_Inc Ай бұрын

Bravo! I would have never guessed that the PSD make maths would retain that level of fidelity. PSD file size (pixels) is critical for sure. But one must ask, "Why can't Illustrator autotrace do this?!"

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

A very good question!

@StudioHoekhuis Ай бұрын

Great tip! I always wondered why Adobe never updated the Trace Image function, it must be ancient by now...

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Good question!

@user-tc1dz6hb2m Ай бұрын

This guy is just fall from sky to us 🖖

@sirako Ай бұрын

I knew it was possible cause I saw someone getting a vector so clean from an ink drawing they scanned like 20 min before and it wasn't on that awful trace look but I never figured that out. Thank you so so so much

@meratcompany5279 Ай бұрын

WOW!

@TimiDesign Ай бұрын

Thanks

@arcasa-ho9su Ай бұрын

Interesante, tomo nota. 👍

@alphanumericskeptic Ай бұрын

Wow! ...Wow!

@Hamiltron_ Ай бұрын

I've seen far more complex videos demonstrating how to do this. Well done simplifying this process. Less steps is better :)

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

That makes me happy! If you ever have the time, I'd love to see some of those more complex videos, just out of curiosity. Thank you!

@3DJapan Ай бұрын

I don't have illustrator. There are several very good vector AI tools on the web. I also love a program called Vector Magic.

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Are they free? Or do you pay a sub? Curious how they might compare.

@glaucobass Ай бұрын

@@TomFroese thank your for sharing this tip. I have both, Illustrator and Vector Magic. Using this technique I could get better results than both of them.

@user-fx2zz4tb5r Ай бұрын

great video like the actions. I don't have adobe Illustrator, could you tell me other programs that I could export to?

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

You can actually do the exclude paths operation directly in PS. If you create a fill layer using the path in PS you should be able to see the result there. I’ve heard good things about Krita if you’re looking for a free vector based graphics app.

@paulkinnaird7015 Ай бұрын

Great video. How do I separate colors as you suggested. Do I create a channel for each. Thanks

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Great question! I'll make a video about this soon.

@sidsinnocence Ай бұрын

I was literally looking for a solution like this a few days ago. Trace image was not working. Ended up cleaning the image pixel by pixel. Thank you so much!!

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Glad I could help! Wish it could have come sooner for you though!

@sidsinnocence Ай бұрын

@@TomFroese That it was available at all is a godsend! Google results being as they are, all it provided were alternative ways to toggle trace image options. That wasn't the last time I'll be in that position and now I have an easy solution. Plus- pixel by pixel editing was a great exercise in attention to detail XD

@patriciofreire3375 Ай бұрын

Absolutely awesome! I hate the Illustrator tool to vectorize.

@KaiBuskirk 2 ай бұрын

Thank You! After 40 years your technique will save me massive amounts of hours linking people to your video… DIY - greatest Tutorial !!! Only i missed was the file start resolution in photoshop?

@TomFroese 2 ай бұрын

Thank you, please do share away! Resolution is in there. This file was around 14x16 “ at 600, if I remember correctly. That’s because of how small the lettering and texture details were.

@MoolahZaga Ай бұрын

That's pretty cool bro!, never knew that functionality! Especially the last littlebit "pathfinder - exclude"

@PaulMDavidson Ай бұрын

I've never gotten good results with "create path from selection" in Photoshop. Maybe my resolutions were too low.

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Could be your resolution, or could be that there are gradients and blurs which can never be translated to single colour vector art. Hint: try using halftones or dithering after doing the threshold part, to simulate a gradient.

@jazzlehazzle Ай бұрын

Brilliant technique. Now we just have to figure out how to get this working for multi-color w/o having to get too deep into the weeds of seps...

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

The holy grail

@adamrosenthal7574 Ай бұрын

Selecting the path and adding a solid color layer creates a masked shape. Do this for each color layer. Save as psd and open in illustrator, retaining layers. You will have all your colors saved in separate layers in illustrator.

@SSHK237 Ай бұрын

*This is brilliant!* Thanx. Actually I was under the impression that the lesser the anchor points in any Illustrator file. This way the artwork is filled with thousands of anchor points. Can we apply the *Object* ... *Paths* ... *Simplify* to lessen the anchor points?

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Not a bad idea to experiment with this but it may be an unnecessary extra step.

@adamfunk7112 Ай бұрын

WOW.

@simplesime1 Ай бұрын

What tolerance setting do you recommend when creating path in photoshop ?? You neglected to mention that step

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

I’ve never had to make this decision. Where would that step be necessary?

@jmikekeith Ай бұрын

Is this method possible in Affinity Photo? I have followed along as best I can to the point where you are in the channels panel, but it doesn’t seem to function the same way as Photoshop. I can’t figure out how to create a new channel, paste the selection, invert, and select just the white portion.

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Hey I hope someone here can answer this! I have never used Affinity.

@olivier0092 Ай бұрын

Always suprised me that there isnt a better intergration between il and ps in terms of filesupport. Id even worde 😢

@xonx209 Ай бұрын

After the blur trick, would illustrator be able to vectorize it better?

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

I tried it. It still struggles to balance fine detail and clarity in my experience.

@kgou1 Ай бұрын

How would you do this with a color graphic?

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

It would depend on the image. Are we talking 2 or three colours already separated, or many colours all blended like an oil painting or photo?

@renata_sene Ай бұрын

W O W. Just W O W

@lemurdream Ай бұрын

What if Illustrator had an image trace function that actually worked?

@PunxTV123 Ай бұрын

how about multiple color?

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Thanks for the question. Can you give me an example of when you'd need to vectorize multiple colour and what sort of illustration or image you're using as your starting point?

@fatherpucci6111 Ай бұрын

Does this work in a multi colored artwork with gradients?

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

No I doubt gradients would work. Multiple colours would have to already be separated (I mention this early in the vid).

@directedbyericsattler Ай бұрын

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. May your future generations be blessed beyond earthly limits.

@fernandodealmeidaraasch9032 8 күн бұрын

Does it also work for colored images?

@TomFroese 5 күн бұрын

Depends. Which image and for what purpose?

@utmostkibbles9125 Ай бұрын

How well does this work with color images? Definitely need to give this a try regardless!

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Thanks! See 0:34 for colour notes.

@utmostkibbles9125 Ай бұрын

@@TomFroese somehow I totally missed that xD thanks!

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

One or two comments say the first 3 minutes were useless ;)

@rhorho2 Ай бұрын

The artwork seems it was better suited to be created in Illustrator than in Photoshop?

@TomFroese Ай бұрын

Except I don’t work in illustrator 🤷‍♂️

@Isaacspellman 28 күн бұрын

When I'm creating the work path, somehow the path isn't covering every pixel, it's still wobbly like an image trace in AI, any idea why this happens?

@TomFroese 26 күн бұрын

If your goal is very smooth curves, this technique won’t help. Zooming in you’ll see stepping which is just the path following the selection made using the alpha channel, which is based on pixels. The purpose of this technique is to preserve detail for screen printed output.