Vector graphics in photoshop. Vector drawing tools in Photoshop

Final result

As you know, vector illustrations are currently very popular in web graphics. Professional designers can create such illustrations in a matter of hours. If you are a beginner or an amateur, web graphics lessons will certainly be extremely useful for you. The purpose of this tutorial is to shed light on the process of creating the selected image. I will demonstrate the entire process step by step and explain all the steps with the help of my comments.

To create a really cool image, you must choose the right program and follow certain rules. If you want to draw a vector illustration, you should keep in mind that editors such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw. At the same time, Photoshop has sufficient funds to develop vector illustrations. I will clearly show this in my lesson on how to convert a drawing into a vector. I chose a sketch of a cat as the basis for the illustration. I decided to depict a blue cat with pink flowers in its paws.

Step 1

Let's start by creating the background. Let's draw a shape using the selection tool () (in mode Shape Layers(Shape Layer)). Settings - (Fill Opacity) = 0% . Now use a gradient overlay: ( (Layer Style - Gradient Overlay)) to fill the created shape. All settings are default, you just need to change the angle (I will indicate the degree) and the gradient. Add Stroke(Stroke) ( (Layer Style - Stroke)). We use all the default settings, except for the width in 1 px and colors.

People often ask about how to make a vector image in Photoshop. As you know, Photoshop is a program for processing raster graphics and is not intended for working with vectors. Special graphic editors work with vector graphics. But if you really need it, but don’t have time to learn a new program, then with the help of some manipulations you can convert the image into a vector.

What are raster and vector images and how do they differ?

A raster image is also a grid of pixels (dots). The familiar digital photo to all of us is precisely a raster image. A vector image does not consist of pixels, but of geometric primitives: straight lines, rectangles and other shapes.

If you reduce and then significantly enlarge a raster image, its quality will be irrevocably damaged. Because each pixel is a point of a certain color, and all these points together make up the picture. When you reduce an image, extra pixels are thrown out, so you can't return it to its original appearance.

Scaling a vector image allows you to change the size without losing quality. This is possible thanks to mathematical recalculations of the sizes of the geometric shapes that make up the image.

A raster image allows you to reliably convey visual information; a vector image does not have this advantage. Vector graphics images can be useful for visualizing logos and line drawings. You won't get photographic beauty from them. Or they will be very complex images, consisting of a huge number of primitives that actually replace pixels.

A simple example of how to convert a raster to a vector

So, the vector consists of geometric shapes. Photoshop has tools for creating paths. The contour is a geometric figure. To make a vector image in Photoshop, you need to create an outline of the image. The group's tools will help us with this. “Selection”/Select: Rectangular Marquee Tool, Elliptical Select Tool,** “Magic Wand Tool” , **Quick Selection Tool And “Pen”/Pen tool.

To make the vector neat, you should choose a raster image of the highest possible quality, otherwise you will need to draw the contours manually.

Open the raster image in Photoshop (the most common raster image format is JPG). Logos, outline drawings, and sketches are very easy to process. To get a vector sketch of a portrait, you can first convert the portrait to a sketch using "Filter Galleries", or use ready-made pop art. About how to work with "Filter Gallery" and quickly create pop art from photos, we talked about in previous articles. For this example, we will take a ready-made pop art portrait. We deliberately prepared it from a photo of not the best resolution. Therefore, the vector version will show us a noticeable difference.

To work with contours, you need to call the bookmark "Contours"/Path to the layers palette. To do this, go to the menu "Window" and check the box "Contours"/Path. The bookmark will appear in the Layers palette.

The image has 4 colors (we do not count the background). Take the tool "Magic Wand Tool" and select the first color. To select all areas scattered with islands across the image, hold Shift.

When the first color is selected, select the tool "Lasso"/Lasso or Rectangular Marquee Tool and, without removing the selection, click the right mouse button. In the context menu select “Make Work Path”.

In the dialog box, specify the maximum smoothing "Tolerance"(from 1 to 10; the lower the number, the better the contours will be repeated). Click Ok.

On the bookmark "Circuit" the first outline will appear. In the image it will be noticeable in the form of curves with dots. They can be aligned and adjusted using a tool “Node Selection”/Direct Selection Tool. Using this tool, select a point and either adjust the curve by moving the point's tendril, or move the arc itself.

On the bookmark "Circuit" change the name of the contour. To do this, double-click on it and change the name in the dialog box.

We carry out all the steps described with the remaining colors. As a result, we get four contours for each color.

Having received the contours, all that remains is to create a vector. Go to the bookmark “Layers”/Layer on the layers palette, create a new layer Shift+Ctrl+N. We set the main color to the one in which we paint the first outline.

Returning to the bookmark "Circuit", we stand on the first circuit. In the main menu in the item "Layers" choose “New Fill Color”/New Fill Layer - "Color"/Solid Color. In the window that opens, click Ok.

Now, going to the bookmark "Layers", you will see the first vector layer on the new layer.

In the next dialog box, as usual, specify the file name and path.

That's all. The method is quite simple.

If you often work with vector images, perhaps this article will inspire you to explore new graphics editors. In any case, you have learned another useful method. We wish you great work.

Even more about Photoshop - in the courses.

The photo you will be processing had a white background. If you do not have a photograph of this type, then first remove the background using the program options (eraser or magic).

Use the shape selection, and then copy what you selected to apply to a new layer. Rename this layer "shape". Create a new layer and name it "background". In the panel, move the layer so that its position is below the “shape” layer. By merging two layers we get a layer called “Base”.

After that, apply the Isohelium tool to the “Main” layer to get a silhouette of a black and white composition. Next, you need to apply an Isohelium correction to the “Base” layer to get a black and white silhouette. Apply (Image – Adjustment – ​​Threshold), which translates to Image – Correction – Isohelium.

Next, use the Diffusion filter to smooth out the jagged edges. (Filter – Stylize – Diffuse) Filter – Stylization – Diffusion. Now, in order to transform the edges of the picture into clearer outlines, apply (Image – Adjustment – ​​Levels) Image – Correction – Levels, bring the right and left sliders closer to . For normal image adjustments, zoom in to 300%.

Apply the technique to the layer called "Base_1". To do this, use (Image – Adjustment – ​​Threshold) Image – Correction – Isohelium.

Repeat steps from step 4 for “Base _1”. Create a new layer and fill it with black, then place it below the "Base" layer. Change the blending mode for the “Base_1” layer to the following “Difference”.
It turned out to be not a sufficient option, but it is possible. Use the “Base” layer as the active layer, add a layer mask. Using an eraser, remove unwanted areas on the girl’s face.

Set the “Base_2” layer visible. Apply Isogelia so that the eyes. Next, you need to repeat step 4. Apply the “Lasso” and select the eye area to transform it into a layer mask.
Next, the drawing will be converted to vector. To do this, you need to create from the resulting image

Select the entire black area using the Magic Wand. Next, go over the RMB image and select “Create work path” in the menu that opens.
Next, use (Edit - Define Custom Shape) Editing - Custom Shape. Give the shape a name and save it.

Sources:

• how to make a vector drawing from

A vector mask in Adobe Photoshop can be used in different cases. In this case, we will look at how to use it to apply color correction to a separate area of ​​the image.

You will need

• - Adobe Photoshop CS5

Instructions

Launch Adobe Photoshop and create a new document. To do this, click the menu item “File” > “New” or press the hot keys Ctrl+N. In the new one, set the width and height to, for example, 500 each, in the “Background Content” field (Adjustment) set “Transparent” and click OK.

Click the menu item “Layers” (Layer)> “New layer fill” (New pattern fill)> “Pattern” (Pattern) and in the next window immediately click OK. The “Pattern fill” panel will open. On the left side there is a button that opens a drop-down menu from which you can select the desired pattern. Using the “Scale” setting, the pattern can be zoomed in or out. After setting the required parameters, click OK. The background of the document will take the outline of the selected pattern, and later vector masks will be applied to it. Using the Move tool, you can move this pattern.

Select the “Rectangle tool”, click on the “Outlines” item in the settings panel and use it to create a small frame in any part of the work area. Click the menu item “Layers” (Layer)> “New adjustment layer” (New adjustment layer)> “Hue / Saturation” (Hue / Saturation) and immediately click OK in the new window. A new window will open in which you can change the “Hue”, “Saturation” and “Lightness” parameters by turning the corresponding sliders. Please note that changes occur only with the selected area, i.e. with a frame created by the Rectangle tool. Actually, this rectangle on which various effects can be applied is a vector mask.

Sources:

• Rectangle tool

Vector drawings are increasingly used in various printing tools to create beautiful designs from wood, plastic, metal, paper and other materials. Today, we will figure out how you can make a vector drawing with your own hands using Photoshop. Having spent very little time, we will get a high-quality vector drawing, and we will be able to use it in the future without any problems.

How to convert a drawing to vector?

First of all, it should be noted that only drawings that are depicted on a white background can be converted into vector format. If the background is not white, then first you need to remove everything unnecessary and clear the background.

1. Using the selection tools, we select only the element that we want to convert into a vector drawing and copy it to a new layer called “shape”. Then create another layer and fill it completely with white; this layer can be called “background”. Now, move the “background” layer under the “shape” layer and merge them. We call the resulting image “Base”. Copy the “Base” layer twice and name them “Base_1” and “Base_2”. We turn off their visibility.

2. Let's begin our operations to convert the drawing into vector format. First of all, apply the “Isohelium” correction to the “Base” layer in order to get the drawing in black and white format. The first correction does not always produce the image we need, so we can make several copies of the layers and make corrections with different values ​​until we get what we need.

So we got the most normal effect.

3. Next, we apply the Diffusion filter to the resulting image to remove jagged edges. The path to enable the filter: “Filter - Stylize - Diffusion” (Filter-Stylize-Difuse). In the window that opens, select “Anisotropic”.

4. The next step is to smooth out the edges so that they become sharper, to do this, click “Image - Correction - Levels” (Image-Adjustment-Levels). In the open window, move the left and right sliders closer to the center. In order to see the result of the correction, it is best to enlarge the drawing to 300% before opening the levels.

5. We repeat points 3 and 4 in the same order.

6. Turn off the visibility of our main layer and turn on the “Base_1” layer. Perform the action “Image - Correction - Isohelium” (Image-Adjustment-Threshold). Set the parameter at level 138.

7. We perform the operations specified in paragraphs 3,4 and 5 with this layer.

8. Create a new layer and fill it with black. Let's call it "Background". Set it below the “Base” layer. In the “Base_1” layer, change the mode to “Difference”.

Here's what we get:

9. The picture turned out to be a little scary, but we'll fix that now. Make the “Base” layer active and add a layer mask. Then, using an eraser, we can remove excess areas on the girl’s face and body.

10. Now we have a drawing, now we need to convert it to vector. We use the “Magic Wand”, select the entire black area of ​​​​the picture, and on the image, press the right mouse button, in the menu that opens, select “Create work path”. Set the value to 1.0.

To begin with, we will look at two basic concepts in Photoshop, such as raster And Vector graphics.
On a computer, all images and information are presented digitally. This is what gives us the opportunity to view, store and process images in different graphic editors, for example, Photoshop.

An image in Photoshop is made up of pixels are square graphic elements.

Let's take a closer look at the pixels. Open with Photoshop some image: click FILE - OPEN, select, for example, a photo you like on your computer and zoom in. For clarity, I took a picture depicting a zebra, and enlarged its scale. What do we see? We see many multi-colored squares - this is pixels. Where are the numbers, you ask?! It's very simple - the color of each pixel encoded digital value. That is, a digital description pixel is a description of its color.
Choose in Photoshop from the toolbar, which is located on our left, the tool PIPETTE. We click on the lightest pixel (in the picture it is in a red circle) - its color will be displayed in our palette.
Do you think it's white? pixel color? Let's check. Click on the “white” color in the palette. The following window opens:

Our white color is in the upper left corner and has digital value ffffff. What do we see?! The green arrow in the figure shows the color of our pixel(it doesn’t reach white a little), and the red arrow shows it digital value. In the same way, you can try to determine in Photoshop the color of the darkest cell (pixel), which appears to us as black (in the figure it is in the yellow circle). She also won't have digital black pixel value, which is equal 000000 .
So what is it raster images? These are images presented by pixels.

What is the difference between vector graphics and raster graphics?

IN vector graphics images are not described pixels, but by lines, figures, i.e. vectors. In vector editors it is convenient to draw pictures where there are no smooth color transitions - logos, tables, diagrams.

Another difference vector graphics from raster- this is because vectors tolerate scaling well.
For example, if we enlarge a raster image (discussed this above in the picture with a zebra), then the picture will look grainy, i.e. we will see many squares ( pixels).
An image in Photoshop consists of pixels. But when the vector square is enlarged, the picture will not be smeared, i.e. will not look grainy. For example, we drew a square. By pulling any corner of it, we will stretch the square (increase in size), but at the same time our image will remain clear, unlike a raster image.