A question of preference or application:

RR
Posted By
Rene_Rivera_300
Dec 16, 2008
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438
Replies
18
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Closed
I’m illustrating a story I wrote using Adobe software. I’m constructing environments of photographed characters, layering those characters into the environments, and tracing and coloring over the photographed characters to further incorporate them into each shot. So far, I’ve been doing this with Photoshop CS4. However, I’ve been told that Illustrator is the software to go with regarding this project. I’m a slightly better than intermediate Photoshop user, but barely a beginner with Illustrator. I love the idea of vectoring my images, but it doesn’t seem like I can do much in the way of the gritty feel I’m looking for with regard to shadows, light angles, and brush stroke variety (with tools other than the brush alone) as far as Illustrator goes.

….or am I missing something in my ‘noobiness?’

Thank you for your input.
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JJ
Jim_Jordan
Dec 16, 2008
If you do not have Illustrator yet and want to experiment with vector brush painting, consider a free app like Creature House Expression. You can grab it from the links at the bottom of the Wikipedia article. Expression was bought by Microsoft and re-worked into a new app – – but you can still download a free version before Microsoft got its hands deep into it.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creature_House_Expression>

The last I used it was on PPC and OSX10.4. YMMV on Intel and OSX10.5

Creature House Expression is a good blend of Ilustrator’s and Photoshop’s capabilities as it does both vector and bitmap work.
M
Maxxlava
Dec 16, 2008
If your final output size is a fixed, smaller size (a book), you don’t have a compelling reason to use just vector.

The shading & grittiness & tracing you noted are easier achieved in Photoshop, either with a combination of vectors & raster brushes, or all traditional raster art.

To add: the learning curve is steep, but Corel Painter X is the most full featured software package from a purely drawing perspective.
CP
christoph_pfaffenbichler
Dec 16, 2008
Rene, could You post or link to some sample of the kind of style You aim for? You might also consider mixing the two programmes as one can place Illustrator-vector data as Smart Objects and then apply various things like Pattern Overlays, Smart Filters, Warps to »grittiefy« them.
RR
Rene_Rivera_300
Dec 16, 2008
radicaldreaming.net
R
Ram
Dec 16, 2008
If you’re too lazy to post a properly formatted clickable link, why should I make an effort to copy and paste it?
R
Ram
Dec 16, 2008
Duplicate post due to the abysmally poor performance of the forum this morning.
RR
Rene_Rivera_300
Dec 16, 2008
There’s really no call for rudeness.
RR
Rene_Rivera_300
Dec 16, 2008
<http://www.radicaldreaming.net/>

….Happy?
R
Ram
Dec 16, 2008
…Happy?

I couldn’t care less now, Rene.
JJ
Jim_Jordan
Dec 16, 2008
But he cares just enough to post how little he cares.

Welcome to the forum Rene. I hope you’ve enjoyed your introduction to our resident curmudgeon.

Your sample shows basic graphic novel art. You can google for plenty of visual tutorials that show various techniques. The reason why someone might want to use Illustrator or any other vector drawing program is that you can draw and easily re-work clean, tapered lines. If you have a drawing tablet with Photoshop, you can create the same kind of tapered lines… but you will lack the editing control of a live vector line in Illustrator. It is more difficult to modify a line in Photoshop once you draw in pixels. The art sample you showed clearly requires Photoshop for most of the work.
P
progress
Dec 16, 2008
Ramon. If you have 1/2 a browser, pasting just that into it works…

You might look at AI, but having done what your doing from other angles, working from photographic source is faster in PS. Just a question of techniques. Sometimes I just have slapped "cutout" on it and a find edges tidied up and slapped on black on top… job done.

Depends
RR
Rene_Rivera_300
Dec 17, 2008
Thank you kindly.

So ultimately, would it necessarily be a bad thing if I did the entire thing on Photoshop? I feel as if I might be missing out on something by not using Illustrator.
RR
Rene_Rivera_300
Dec 17, 2008
Sounds intriguing. Know where I might find a tutorial that would go into that in depth?
R
Ram
Dec 17, 2008
progress,

Are you drunk, or are you hitting that crack pipe again?

If you have 1/2 a browser, pasting just that into it works…

Read freaking #5:

If you’re too lazy to post a properly formatted clickable link, why should I make an effort to copy and paste it?

Geeze, you haven’t struck me as that dense before…
RR
Rene_Rivera_300
Dec 17, 2008
How much time and aggression do you have on your hands that you should find it appropriate to start an arguement in a forum?
JJ
John Joslin
Dec 17, 2008
How much time and aggression do you have on your hands

Obviously lots! 🙂
JJ
Jim_Jordan
Dec 17, 2008
Rene, if you have issue with the rudeness of Ramon, you can alert the forum hosts to his inappropriate posts here:

<http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b6c036/207>

The hosts are volunteers that casually moderate these forums. If they are too casual in removing Ramon’s malice, you can contact the forum operator, which is John Cornicello. You can google for his personal web site from Seattle or you can contact him at his Adobe email address < http://www.adobesurvey.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/messagevi ew.cfm?forumid=41&catid=222&threadid=1340620&ent erthread=y>. He is very good at cleaning up Ramon’s messes.

Another tip: The Mac Photoshop forum is poorly hosted/managed and Ramon is not alone in being rude. For general Photoshop questions that do not relate to a specific platform, consider also posting in the Windows forum. There are more users in that forum (much more active) and they do not seem to have the arrogance of some in this forum.
RR
Rene_Rivera_300
Dec 17, 2008
I wouldn’t call him arrogant, since he hadn’t provided anything to be arrogant about. Also, I imagine people who are willing to waste their time and energy by typing insults that aren’t even remotely humorous are personally miserable to begin with and not worth the effort. Better to just bypass their posts.

Thank you kindly for the tip.

Must-have mockup pack for every graphic designer 🔥🔥🔥

Easy-to-use drag-n-drop Photoshop scene creator with more than 2800 items.

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