Super Girl - Vectorization - **Finished**

[jhsmith321]

Hello everyone, I

[jhsmith321]

This is what I have so far......

[javeryh]

Nice work - Supergirl is hot.

[jopenner]

Excellent work.  This is my first time over to the artwork portion of the forum.  By doing the vector artwork you have shown here, are you using it as artwork for your arcade system?

I assume you take a .jpg image and try to replicate it with vector art so that it can be printed out?

Excuse my ignorance on the subject, but I'd like to learn.  I just downloaded a how-to tutorial, but have yet to try it.

I'll be checking back periodically to see your progress.

Thnaks for sharing it with us.

John

[jhsmith321]

Thanks!!! and yes jopenner you can take any image, vectorize it and print it out, the good thing about vectors is that the can be enlarged without any pixelation, you should check out Felsir

[Bones]

Its looking good but she needs bigger cans.

[RayB]

Yeesh,  You might want to fix the positioning of her upper chest/ribcage as well as fix that elongated stomach/upper abdomen.

I think you picked a poorly copied version of a drawing (looks like it's a drawing someone drew, copying another drawing, and they messed up on some of the body proportions)





Leave it to me to rain on your parade.... sorry.

[Bones]

Yeah I agree with RayB, I just didn't have the balls to say it.

Her body is all wrong and even bigger cans won't improve her shape. <much>

[Crowquill]

I'm pretty sure the art is by Michael Turner. It's not that uncommon to find screwed-up anatomy in his artwork.

This is part of the reason I don't understand why he's one of the most popular artists in comics. Sure, he can draw hot women, but on several occasions I've not been able to even follow the story he's trying to tell.

Maybe you should have gone for some of his Lara Croft artwork.

[RayB]

The face and hair are great though. I didn't mean to be only negative.

[dfmaverick]

If he likes the way she looks, it shouldn't matter what the rest of us think. He is doing a good job on the vector end.

I've gone back and looked over a few of the old comics with a Turner Supergirl, and that's just the way he draws her. They pretty much all have the elongated abdomen.

I personally liked the version of her drawn by Ed Benes. If I can find a sample, I'll post it.

Don't let us drag you down...keep up the good work.

[dfmaverick]

Here's an Ed Benes sketch. If I can find a color one, I'll post it.

[Invader70]

Very nice work, keep it up can't wait to seethe finished piece...

[Havok]

Its looking good but she needs bigger cans.

Sweet - but yeah, bigger cans and a tighter belly. Maybe a little more definition in the legs too...

[jhsmith321]

An update of her belly and left arm, ...... about the cans they remain the same size...... at least for now 

[mahuti]

Turner's still drawing comics??  That guy's a hack.

[pgielen]

How about this one

[jhsmith321]

How about this one

Really nice, even when this image would be harder to vectorize, as it is more of a "realistic" drawing rather some of the other "comic" like arts. Probably I'll give it a try, and see how it works in vectors. 

[jhsmith321]

Turner's still drawing comics??

[dfmaverick]

I'm very impressed by your vector skills. Looks great.

BTW: Here's a new pic someone posted in the newsgroups of Supergirl from her new comic:

[Ad_Enuff]

An update of her belly and left arm, ...... about the cans they remain the same size...... at least for now 

I say keep going and leave her cans alone! If you made them bigger they will look out of proportion. If you want to make her sexier in that region, I suggest you add nipples. Other than that she is in teh right proportion to me ie athletic.

Gorgeous work by the way!

[jhsmith321]

Finally! after another couple of non sleeping nights, it is done!

[jhsmith321]

Here is another shot of the head, side by side with the original


BTW, this is the image that I will be working on, just in case anyone was interested... I think it's an awesome drawing.... well I did like a lot the GI Joe series, so maybe that's why.....   

[dfmaverick]

Looks like a great job.

Danger girl would be nice too.

BTW Yo Joe!

[Bones]

Looks great. Very well done.

Still needs bigger cans though. 

[Felsir]

I do not want to sound rude, but is it really vectorised?
I mean, in the finished picture I notice several parts that look like they were taken out of the original image (like the outlines that have aliasing errors to blue background - something that should not happen in a vector image). Some of the lines don't look like calculated vectors but looks like it is cleaned up with regular brushes in Photoshop? Don't get me wrong - it is still a hell-of-a-job to clean up an image like that, so well done anyway!

If it's a really vectorised image, it is terrific!

[jhsmith321]

I do not want to sound rude, but is it really vectorised?
I mean, in the finished picture I notice several parts that look like they were taken out of the original image (like the outlines that have aliasing errors to blue background - something that should not happen in a vector image). Some of the lines don't look like calculated vectors but looks like it is cleaned up with regular brushes in Photoshop? Don't get me wrong - it is still a hell-of-a-job to clean up an image like that, so well done anyway!

If it's a really vectorised image, it is terrific!

Hi Felsir, yes it's a vectorized image, and you are correct there are some corrections that needs to be made as I did in fact vectorize by mistake(probably because of my tired eyes), some portions of the blue background. Here is an enlarged image of the vectors or her head, a close up of her right eye, and without selecting the vectors

I used photoshop to take the background out (clouds) and then worked on this image in Illustrator.

No offese taken, on the contrary I really admire the quality of your work, in my opinion, you put far more details to the images that I would probably do, because of the time it will take (besides, this super girl, has much less details than your previous work of Battlechasers, so probably you would have finished this piece much faster) any feedback is appreciated. I'm glad that you looked at my work, Thanks!

[jhsmith321]

the eyes.....

[RayB]

huh. Looks like you used Flash's TRACE BITMAP.

 

[Felsir]

I just expected more along these lines (see att.)

The way you traced looks like more work... a trace around every pixel group. The vector-version still won't print smooth when you enlarge it now. A good trace will produce sharp lines folowing the shape you are tracing, not the exact pixels because they "approximate" the shape.

(note: attachment made quickly without colour matching etc.)

[Ad_Enuff]

I just expected more along these lines (see att.)

The way you traced looks like more work... a trace around every pixel group. The vector-version still won't print smooth when you enlarge it now. A good trace will produce sharp lines folowing the shape you are tracing, not the exact pixels because they "approximate" the shape.

(note: attachment made quickly without colour matching etc.)

felsir,

I think what RayB said is correct, as you can see from his tracing the amout of work that is required to create such detailed yet flawed image would only be created by a tracing program.

Why woudl he say he needed to make corrections? surely you would make a vector drawing perfect as you go.....after all you have perfectly demonstrated my point with your image above.

My other suspicion is how fast he created his image. If you look at the WIP posts its far to fast to create such an intricate image like that.

Even with your expert godlike skills cant go at that speed with such detail.

I say.....TRACE Software has been used!

[RayB]

Hey, let's not make this sound like he was trying to pull a fast on on us guys... I think what happened is he just didn't understand that what you need to do is literally hand-trace...

[Ad_Enuff]

Hey, let's not make this sound like he was trying to pull a fast on on us guys... I think what happened is he just didn't understand that what you need to do is literally hand-trace...

Yeah but from felsir's point of view and mine, is that we were "led" to beleive it was hand traced rather than using a tracing program.

So it has gone from "WOW!" to "meh, anyone can do that".....

It's a bit of a let down.......even though the image is really awesome.

[zorg]

even though the image is really awesome.

the image you see look's great because it is a a low scale, but if you want to enlarge it in order to have it on a cab, it will be as blurry as a bitmap image scaled.

that's the problem with the autotracing software, they produce crappy trace that can't be enlarged.

[Ad_Enuff]

the image you see look's great because it is a a low scale, but if you want to enlarge it in order to have it on a cab, it will be as blurry as a bitmap image scaled.

that's the problem with the autotracing software, they produce crappy trace that can't be enlarged.

Ahhhh I see, I didnt realise that...so whats the point of using tracing software if the results cant be scaled without loss?

What software is there? Any links....I'm interested on what the websites claim it does exactly!

[zorg]

Ahhhh I see, I didnt realise that...so whats the point of using tracing software if the results cant be scaled without loss?

it depends on the source you are trying to trace, if it's simple and with straight shapes, uniform and well delimited colors you can obtain a quite good enough quality.
but generally they produce crap.

example to trace a circle you just need 4  points at 90 degrees each one.
try to autotrace a circle and look at the result, you'll see what I mean 

What software is there? Any links....I'm interested on what the websites claim it does exactly!

google will point you to a lot of raster / vector conversion tools.

[RayB]

Ahhhh I see, I didnt realise that...so whats the point of using tracing software if the results cant be scaled without loss?

What software is there? Any links....I'm interested on what the websites claim it does exactly!

The point of tracing software is primarily for high contrast line drawings. Like say you hand-draw a cartoon, and scan it in, you can then turn it into a black and white vector fairly easily. Same goes for drawings that have alot of clearly defined solid shaped.

The problems come when you try to trace images with too much detail. The software ends up tracing lots of little shapes (small groups of pixels).

[fixumdude]

I liked that picture of Supergirl flying out of the explosion!

[AE35]

Sorry to revive the thread, but was Supergirl ever in a game?

And, if I wanted that artwork on my machine, what should I do?

Thanks,

Nicholas

[fixumdude]

AE35,

Not sure of any arcade game that features Supergirl.  It was mostly an exercise to get started tracing artwork for me.

Some people liked it and some hated it.  If you would like the artwork just let me know and I'll email you the finished product (it's in adobe illustrator 10 format).  The colors should probably be adjusted from the original bitmap and it would definitely look better smaller rather than larger on a cabinet, etc.  The original bitmap is also in this thread if that would work better for you.

Mike