Alternative to Vector Magic?

[vaderag]

I'm on the last stage of my artwork... I'm okay at making vectors in PS, but I'm not an artist and I have one final element to finish my cab - a castle as seen on the front of Bubble Symphony box.

I've actually found the attached vectorization of it, but the artist has only posted the JPEG and is unresponsive (which is unsurprising since it's from 2009). I've tried myself and it looks totally naff, and Vector Magic gets close but not close enough to work (too jagged)

So, are there any alternative to Vector Magic, or should I just give up now and try find something else to fill the gap?
It's literally the last element I need for my side art so it's driving me nuts!!

Thanks!
   

[vaderag]

Nobody able to offer any help? Can't believe there is only one thing out there that does this? I'm at a brick wall...

[yotsuya]

Learn how to use Illustrator and vector it yourself?

Sorry there's no other real solutions to offer you, trust me, if there were, people would be using them.

[thomas_surles]

Watch some adobe illustrator tutorials. Learn how to trace and vectorize.

[vaderag]

Learn how to use Illustrator and vector it yourself?

Sorry there's no other real solutions to offer you, trust me, if there were, people would be using them.

Can it not be done in photoshop? I don't own illustrator

[yotsuya]

Learn how to use Illustrator and vector it yourself?

Sorry there's no other real solutions to offer you, trust me, if there were, people would be using them.

Can it not be done in photoshop? I don't own illustrator

I taught myself how to use Illustrator to make vector graphics. Even then, for something that complex, I'd just use Vector Magic - especially if you HAVE to have that piece.

[vaderag]

Yeah, it's really frustrating - i need that piece to finish off a blank space... I might just deal with it a bit blurred or try find a filter that works for it...

[HaRuMaN]

Inkscape is free, and does a pretty good job of vectorizing rasters.  Give it a shot.  You may have to play with the settings a bit.

[Malenko]

Can it not be done in photoshop? I don't own illustrator

Use smart objects on new layers over top the castle. Smart objects are treated like vectors in photoshop

[vaderag]

Can it not be done in photoshop? I don't own illustrator

Use smart objects on new layers over top the castle. Smart objects are treated like vectors in photoshop

That's what i'd been doing (afterall if you look at the image it's essentially blocks - wouldnt think it would be too difficult), but whatever i do it just looks naff, loses all life

[vaderag]

Inkscape is free, and does a pretty good job of vectorizing rasters.  Give it a shot.  You may have to play with the settings a bit.

Downloading Fingers crossed!

Negative. Just don't think the source is high res enough to get a good automated copy

[Shekel]

I don't like Bubble Bobble but use these for tracing or VM instead. They're not amazing, but always start with the highest sources you can find.

http://thekoalition.com/images/2014/06/bubble_bobble_wallpaper_01_by_cybaBABE.jpg

http://smspower.free.fr/borne/bubble.jpg

Sure you could find a Taito vector on the Hyperspin forum or elsewhere if you wanted.

[vaderag]

Oh I have everything but the castle from that wallpaper you posted. It's literally just the castle bit I need, and it's tiny on every source I can find...

[mahuti]

To me this looks like 5 minutes of Illustrator work. PM me to highest res version of this castle and I'll take a crack.

[vaderag]

To me this looks like 5 minutes of Illustrator work. PM me to highest res version of this castle and I'll take a crack.

I'll owe you forever! PM incoming

[mahuti]

I sent you a PM. I'll be working on it today. I forgot that I reinstalled this machine I'm working on from a backup... which hosed my license for Adobe CS3. I have to remove and reinstall it before I can get to work on your file, but I'm going to get that taken care of today.

[mahuti]

Here you go. I had to take a little artistic license since there was so little detail... and since the original was some kind of hand illustration.

Castle.ai.zip is attached.

[vaderag]

Thank you so much!!!!! 

That is plenty for me to work with! I'll post up what I end up doing with it soon 

[Mike A]

Some people complain, but there are a bunch of really helpful people here.

[vaderag]

Some people complain, but there are a bunch of really helpful people here.

Couldn't agree more. If it weren't for this forum I may not even have a cab to be creating artwork for!

[mahuti]

I'm glad it works for you. Working up so close (a zillion times magnified) I kept thinking how awful my version looked. When I zoomed out it looked fine in context. Sometimes you look at something too long and you lose perspective.

 

[vaderag]

I'm glad it works for you. Working up so close (a zillion times magnified) I kept thinking how awful my version looked. When I zoomed out it looked fine in context. Sometimes you look at something too long and you lose perspective.

 

Tell me about it. I've been working on my artwork 6 months (on and off) - easily 100 hrs. Once i'm done with this i might finally be in a position to send it to the printers!
(then, watch me slip with a knife and rip it to shreds accidentally )

[mahuti]

I recently had to remove some artwork I'd applied ten years ago to pull out a trackball mounting plate. What a sickening feeling that was, ripping it all off... sigh..

[vaderag]

I recently had to remove some artwork I'd applied ten years ago to pull out a trackball mounting plate. What a sickening feeling that was, ripping it all off... sigh..

Did it survive?!

Incidentally, here is my rasterized 'tweaked' version of your castle, which i'll be applying to my main artwork as soon as i get chance!

Edit. no idea what's happened to the colours on that upload - looks great here!