Soul Calibur sideart

[headkaze]

I am looking for vector versions of the attached images for side art on my cab. I have searched the forum and searched the web and even tried using tracing tools to convert it directly to vector art. The results are terrible using auto tracing tools. I have no experience in hand tracing to create vector art. What are my options now?

[Ad_Enuff]

Option 1.

Pay someone to do it for you. Could be very costly.....

Option 2.
Or simply use the images you have ensuring the images you have are large enough and hi-res enough to do so.

[headkaze]

This is the best quality I can get from tracing a bitmap. I used quite a few techniques to get it the best I could. Is this still too crap to use as side art? Will the bad quality show printed for side art?

Sorry but I had to make them jpg to allow upload.

[Ad_Enuff]

Auto trace programs have been discussed here before and really dont contain best results when compared to hand drawn/trcaed vector images/files.

The problem occures when scaling and produces poor results.

I'm unsure even if the autotrace will be as good as teh JPG you posted.

If you want someone to actually do the work for you, you will need come up with some serious funding.

BTW, can you post your autotrace AI file?

[headkaze]

If there is somewhere I can upload the 13 MB AI file, no problem.

I can give you a little instruction on how I got the results I did.

1. I used the original jpg files posted on this page. I used Photoshop to resize them to 1000% using Bicubic scaling.
2. Then I imported the image into Flash and scaled the image down (using shift to hold proportion) so it will fit the screen. Then I selected the image and traced using the following options...

Color threshold: 50
Minimum area: 8 pixels
Curve fit: Normal
Corner threshold: Normal

3. Now select the white areas around the character and hit delete on the keyboard to remove it.

4. I had to patch up some places that were white and were removed with the background, so I use the pen tool to close up the gap and fill it with white again.

That's it, and probably the best results I will ever get without tracing by hand.

I'm still not sure if I'll try and print this yet.

[mahuti]

If its zipped, and under 7mb, you can upload it to the AAL.

Otherwise, later tonight I'll open up an FTP for you.

[headkaze]

Here's two more characters.

mahuti: If I break them up into separate AI files, one of them is just over 7 MB

Also, can someone please give me the names for these characters I've posted.

[headkaze]

And here is the logo I might be using for a marquee. Any ideas on a background?

[headkaze]

I'm now seriously thinking of getting the first two images printed as side art (the vector versions) on adhesive backed vinyl with laminate. I'll show pictures of the final product. If it comes out ok, then I believe tracing could be a good alternative to people who can't afford to hire someone to make the vector or have the time to do it themselves.

[Crowquill]

I could probably give you some high-res scans from Soul Calibur 2. I have the art book around here somewhere. Vectorizing them would lose some of the nuances of shading and take quite a while.

I'm not sure if you ONLY want Soul Calibur art. Other illustrations by Takuji Kawano would blend in together well. Some of his Tekken art is really nice and if you could find high enough resolution pics, the Namco X Capcom art would be awesome for a cab. Check out the pic of Taizo Hori (dig dug).

Some more pics can be found here: http://www.rpgfan.com/pics/namcoxcapcom/art.html

[headkaze]

If you have the first two images in print, it would be great if you could scan them. Even though I'm a little worried about the artifacts of scans from paper print, they might be better than pixelation of the current low quality source images I have. If you can do a high res scan I can try and convert them to vector I may get a better result (about 300+ DPI should do the trick). I'm pretty sure I'm going to use the first two images for my side art, so I'm hoping for the best quality. Thanks for your post on that.

[Felsir]

Also, can someone please give me the names for these characters I've posted.

Names of characters

Heihachi (PS2 exclusive character - actually a Tekken character as bonus)
Mitsurugi
Kilik
Spawn (XBox exclusive character)

The last character is unknown to me, I own Soul Calibur 1 & 2 and the character is not Soul Calibur.

[mahuti]

Duh, dude, don't you know that's Taizo Hori, AKA Dig Dug?? Susumu Hori's Dad. Susumo Hori, AKA Mr. Driller??? C'Mon, man, follow along.

You can read more about his latest adventures here

[Felsir]

AAAaah ofcourse! It's the context that tricked me!

[grueinthebox]

Check out the pic of Taizo Hori (dig dug).

They could've done some cool things if they made HIM one of the special characters in the console Soul Calibur...

[namedos]

Headkaze,
Where did you find the first two images that you posted?  Thanks.

[Crowquill]

Found the book. About 2/3 of the characters have full-page illustrations. The worst part might be that a few have some overlapping areas.

Unfortunately the three platform-specific extra characters aren't in there. That includes Heihachi, Spawn, and Link (from Zelda).

Which characters (besides Mitsurugi and Kilik) would you like scanned and how big do you need to print them?

Just let me know and I can start scanning.

Most of the art on this page is able to be scanned:
http://www.creativeuncut.com/artsc2.html

[headkaze]

Crowquill: Don't worry about it because if you don't have Heihachi then I'll just go with my original source images, thanks for the offer though I appreciate it.

Here is my marquee design.

[headkaze]

Just got my Heihachi and Mitsurugi auto traced images at 594 x 1141 mm back from the printers. I must say the quality is far beyond my expectations. I also had my marquee printed on translucent film which also came out quite good. For anyone who is a bit dubious about using auto traced art, I can say it's not all bad.