How to turn a photo into an illustration
August 14, 2007 – 11:37 am
Remember Adobe Streamline? Adobe stopped upgrading its vector conversion application some time ago. But with the advent of CS2, Illustrator’s old Trace Tool became the new super Live Trace and opened up a new world of possibilities!
As soon as you place or paste a photo into Illustrator a button on the Control Palette offers a Live Trace option. However, I like to see all the options first off by going, Object > Live Trace > Tracing Options…
Here you can choose Color, Greyscale or Black and White from the Mode drop down menu of the Live Trace pop-up box. Marilyn Monroe below was done by colouring up Live Trace with the default, Black and White option.
This is the Illustrator/vector equivalent of Photoshop’s Image > Adjustments > Threshold…
The drop down menu next to Presets: in the Tracing Options dialog box gives you thirteen different tracing presets. However, if you ignore the presets and choose Color from the Mode drop down menu and enter a value in the Max Colors box you will see an identical effect to Posterizing in Photoshop – a finite number of tones within a colour picture. There are only 5 colours in the illustration of a dog below.
Photos are made up of pixels and making them larger makes the pixels larger too and the result can be blurry and jagged or “pixellated”. They are bitmap images and their file formats are .BMPs, .JPGs, and .PSDs. Vector images are composed of mathematical formulas that consist of curves and points. They can be resized without losing quality. Vector’s file formats are usually .EPS (although EPSs can be bitmaps) and .AIs (Adobe Illustrator’s native file format).
You may find the colours chosen by Illustrator are a little dull. Hit the Trace button and go Object > Expand… to turn your pic into Vectors. At this point you cannot go back and edit your trace (only with a Cmd/Ctl-Z). Another advantage of these resulting vectors is the ability to re-colour them as above with Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Towers.
To re-colour: simply select one of the colours you want to change with the Direct Selection tool (A) and go Select > Same > Fill Color and move those sliders!
Lastly, play around with the blurring option in the Tracing Options panel in order to create more figurative, impressionistic illustrations as with Big Ben below.
Overview: Go Object > Live Trace > Tracing Options once you have Placed or pasted your image into your Illustrator document. Make sure you have the Preview check box checked so you can see your chosen options before you hit Trace. Remember you have to go Object > Expand to turn the trace to outlines/vectors.
Amazing.. I never thought that it’ll be that much easy.. but yet to try it
17 Responses to “How to turn a photo into an illustration”
hi i enjoyed the read
By Kianna on Aug 19, 2007
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Kianna.
By Rob Cubbon on Aug 19, 2007
This is likely a view that stems from me being an illustrator, but feel like this mentality is behind a lot of the lackluster illustrations and even logos in a lot of publications. While i’m not averse to photo-reference being used, or even using photos as part of the illustration, photos aren’t illustrations, and just throwing a few filter-driven modifications at it wont change that fact. It seems to me like a case of ’stick to what you excel at’. Much as design, this is something that takes a lot of time to get right, and every time I see a designer cutting corners like this, I can’t help but think of the great illustration that could’ve accompanied the lovely design. It’s something that i can see being used as one step in a time-saving process, but not the first and last step.
And I apologise if this seems offensive, it’s mostly meant as a way to get a discussion going, and certainly not as a stab at your work. I love reading your blog, it’s indispensable for someone just trying to get into professional design.
I’d love to hear what you think about it, so, what do you think?
By Michael on Aug 20, 2007
I just realised this was also partly in response to another post in which you stated that this could be an easy way to get around hiring an illustrator. See, i just feel threatened, haha.
By Michael on Aug 20, 2007
Hello Michael,
I understand exactly what you mean. I really should have titled this post “How to use Live Trace in Adobe Illustrator CS2 & CS3″ but I didn’t because I thought the above title would better satisfy my traffic greed!
Did you see my post about using illustrators to help with designs where I showcase some work of an illustrator, Rory Walker, I’ve used? I included 2 illustrations of his, both I could never have done on the computer, or even come close to. There’s a contact of an illustrators’ agent there, if you’re interested.
Basically, you’ve got a very good point about lacklustre illustrations. It’s the other side of the DTP coin that gave us the greater and more democratic scope for creativity. I agree with you that an illustration should produce something you couldn’t achieve with a photo.
In defense of the above technique - This can be used as just one technique within others to manipulate imagery to create something unique and creative. Also, it can be a quick fix way of getting a vector (an outline of Australia, for example) without incurring any financial or time cost.
You certainly don’t seem offensive! This is just the sort of comment I love because as you say it get discussion going.
Also, Michael, if you’d like to write a little piece on this or anything else, you could publish it here with some of your samples. Just a thought!
By Rob Cubbon on Aug 21, 2007
I did happen to see see that post, yes, as well as the one where you’re asking for portfolios. I love nothing more than to see expert design (layout/type/logo) coupled with beautiful illustrations. I’m trying to get a job as an artworker now, and I almost feel like the illustrator pretending to be a designer, and as if I’M using tricks like these just to get by, hah. To be fair though, I was trained to be a designer, so likely I wont do all *that bad.
Thanks for the suggestion, by the way. Maybe I will write up a little article about this, it’s an interesting topic. It’s great that we have the technology, automated vectorisation is wonderful, it just gives the same ‘power’ to people that photoshop filters do. And I love filters as well, it’s just that when a work smacks of filter-abuse, it’s rarely any good
Now i’m off to my prospective ‘workplace’ for a trial-week. That is, if the shutters aren’t drawn again, as they were yesterday when I was supposed to start. Not a good sign, that.
By Michael on Aug 22, 2007
Best of luck in your new job, Michael. Artworking does improve your design eye, I believe. You make another good point about filter-abuse. I’m sure the visitors to this website would love to read more of your opinions!
By Rob Cubbon on Aug 23, 2007
Very interesting blog. I like your simple and practical tutorials. Cheer!
By Blogging Mix on Aug 25, 2007
@Blogging Mix. Your site looks very interesting too. I shall check it out soon. Thank you!
Matthias Guenther from Quark in Hamburg who is a regular visitor to this site has pointed out that these effects can be achieved in Quark through their Picture Effects palette. Of course the tool is not as powerful as Illustrator’s and it doesn’t convert to vector but for a quick effect it is a fast and easy thing to do.
Have a look at the example he sent me.
By Rob Cubbon on Aug 25, 2007
fantastic..have gain some ideas after reading your blog…thx for sharing your exp…
By Miss Lingerie on Oct 12, 2007
Both the photo and the drawing of Marilyn were excellent.
By Marilyn on Jan 14, 2008
Thank you for your comments, Miss Lingerie and Marilyn. I can do the drawing of Marilyn to a certain size and colour scheme in return for a link, if you want.
By Rob Cubbon on Jan 14, 2008
Excellent tutorial Rob. I am always looking for good design blogs. You have another RSS reader now and probably a link in an upcoming article.
Continue to Be Awesome.
By Awesomeness on Feb 25, 2008
Thank you, Awesomeness, I’m sure they’ll be lots of stuff of use to find here. And I’ll always welcome a link. Cheers!
By Rob Cubbon on Feb 26, 2008
Nice Tip.
I will check my illustrator, lets see if its easy for me.
I should have come across this blog earlier, anyways am still glad I atleast found it now.
Jonathan,
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By Jonathan on Apr 2, 2008
Give it a go, Jonathan, it’s easy!
By Rob Cubbon on Apr 3, 2008