A while ago I did an article explaining how to create a country,s flag inside its map outline and I used as an example the Australian map and flag. I’ve since had a lot of interest from Australians who wanted to use the image so I thought I’d do one for Americans as I get a lot of visitors from the United States.
I employed a very similar technique for this one as I did the other one. First, I got from a Google image search the country outline of the USA and a picture of the stars and stripes. I turned the country outline into vector form by using Adobe Illustrator’s Live Trace. The flag I re-created manually in Illustrator.
Once the flag was finished, I grouped all the objects and position the country map outline over the flag and, with both selected, I went Object > Clipping Mask > Make (Cmd/Ctrl-7) to give the flag the outline of the country.
I then copied this and pasted it into a Photoshop document and added a Bevel and Emboss and a slight Drop Shadow layer style.
Lovely image.
I like the shading. It looks very patriotic.
I may design a similar one for the UK.
Fantastic job but not easy for a newbie like me. Although you have given details but it is still not possible to create that.
Thank you Article Rewriter and Qaswer. Qaswer, do you have Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator? Did you follow the links to earlier tutorials I’d written? Let me know exactly where the problem is. 🙂
Nice trick 😉 Photoshop is such a powerful tool, isn’t it?
Wow, I like it!!! Cool…
Very cool image, I find live trace very difficult – vector magic is a good bitmap to vector tool also, but you have to pay for a subscription. Cool image though man, good work. 🙂
I like the little shadow around the US. It makes it pop more. Good Work!
Thank you, Roll top desk, GolDenOne, Free Vector Clip Art and dshot for your comments and support.
Wow , Very nice image
I have Adobe CS2 and I think that I can do this with that. Truly I visit many other photoshop blogs but I haven’t seen such stuff anywhere else.
Thank you Rama kanth and Safety Protection Technology. You can definitely do this with CS2.
I wish I was able to do these kind of graphics myself. I’m always in awe at people who can. It looks so real to me. How long did this take to make anyway?
Hello Victoria. If you have the relevant software just follow the instructions and you’ll be creating this sort of graphic easily. It didn’t take me long, less than half an hour.
Good Layout and Design. I like your blog. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. .
Very, very, cool. Just what I am looking for a project that I am working on.
M
Thanks, for your comments guys, always good to get subscribers. Thanks, Marz.
Cool image. Thank’s +)
Your techniques,thinking and ability to implement makes your post so interesting, Excellent image and skills which you have used.
i like vector much … thanks lot american flag vector inside country map outline very cool.
Hi Rob,
I know this post was from years ago but what you’ve done with these two images is EXACTLY what I’ve been trying to do for about 5 hours now. I’ve been on the adobe forums to try and get help but nothing is working. I’m using illustrator which I’ve never used before (I’ve never used any programme of any sort to edit photos, do graphic design etc.) and no matter what I try I cannot create a clipping mask. Either both images disappear altogether or the country outline remains black and opaque on top of the flag… Don’t worry if you have no time to spare, this really is a last resort (I pretty much gave up about 20 minutes ago) but is there any chance you would be able to impart some of your wisdom and tell me step by step how to do it? It would be very much appreciated! Thanks 🙂
SUCCESS!!! Just as I was about to give up I did it! Thanks for your inspiration! 😀
I’m really glad you were able to sort this out Sophie. Please let me know if you have any more questions. It’s just a matter of using one shape (country) as a clipping mask for the background (flag). Cheers! 🙂