[ Music ]
>> Hello, and welcome to this video tutorial brought
to you by tastytuts.com.
In this video I will be showcasing a particular tool
called the image trace tool known in early versions
of Illustrator as the live trace tool.
We will be taking a look at this tool and how it works.
And later on I will be discussing its pros and cons
and why we may or may not want to use it.
To follow along with this tutorial you will need
to open this document.
This can be found in the "test project" folder
in the "project" folder.
You can download this project folder for free.
The download link is in the description.
So with the project folder open click test project, set up,
image trace, versions and select the version
of Illustrator you're using.
In my case it's CC, and open the image trace file,
and you should have something that looks like this.
Now, we are going to be covering various topics in this tutorial.
If you wish to skip ahead to any point in the video
or back you can do so quite simply.
The topics covered in this video are listed
in the description along with their times.
So be sure to check that out.
So let's get into it.
In the last video we looked at how to set up a document
and place a bitmap pixel-based image
into our composition ready to trace.
In this video I'm going to use this document example
to demonstrate and introduce you to the image trace tool.
If you have this document open you, too, can follow along
and have a go at it yourself.
So what is the image trace tool?
Well, the image trace tool is a way
to very quickly convert bitmap pixel-based images, pictures
and photos into vector artwork.
If you have an image selected
on your canvas area you can find the image trace tool button
up in the control panel.
As you can see I have a button here called image trace.
In most recent versions
of Illustrator this tool has been changed.
This tool was formerly called the live trace tool.
If you're using an earlier version you may have
to follow along using the live trace tool.
They pretty much work in the same way.
Though in recent versions
of Illustrator the tool itself has been slightly changed.
You can still find it up in the control panel
as the live trace button.
So why use this tool?
Well, the image trace tool is very popular with artists
and illustrators who wish to turn their paper drawings
or reference photo images into vector artwork
which they can refine and apply color effects to.
In my case I have a hand drawn sketch here which I want
to convert into vector artwork, potentially adding lots of color
and experimenting with some effects.
We can use the image trace tool
to quickly convert this sketch into a vector.
Now, the great thing about vector artwork is
that it can be shrunk to the size of a pinhead or blown
up to the size of a building and still retain clarity
and sharpness and not become pixilated like what can happen
with pixel-based graphics.
So if we look at the first art board this is a drawing I have
prepared earlier.
It's been scanned and placed into my document.
At the moment this is a bitmap image.
This is a pixel-based image.
If we select the image with the selection tool we can see a
bounding box around it.
And if we zoom in close we can see the paper texture
and the drawing in more detail.
So if we come onto the next art board we have another
example here.
Though this time with the selection tool
if I select this image we can see it is,
indeed, a vector shape.
And if we zoom in here we can see all the anchor points
that make up the artwork.
This example here was created from our pixel-based image here
to the left using the image trace tool.
If I come across to the next two examples we can see we have some
other color effects.
When you convert your hand drawn sketch or image
into a vector using the image trace tool,
you will find you can apply color very easily.
If I come over to the right here we can see this image has a
stroke effect applied to it.
If I select this example and look at the color arrangement
in a tools menu, we can see it simply has a stroke
with a gradient color applied.
If I click on the swap fill and stroke button,
we can see this is simply the vector of our hand drawn sketch
with a color gradient applied.
So upon using the image trace tool you can quickly apply
effects to your drawings
that would otherwise take you a long time.
So how do we use the image trace tool?
So I'm going to toggle the visibility of the example layer
so we are not distracted by this.
And to use the image trace tool in CC you will need
to have your image trace panel open.
And I'm just going to drag it out so we can clearly see this.
If you cannot see yours come up to the window, scroll down
and select image trace.
If you're using an earlier version
of Illustrator don't worry about this for now.
So first come over and select the blue example and delete it.
Come to the left and select our pixel-based image.
Press command C to copy and command V to paste
and drag our copy image over to the right art board.
Once we are happy with the positioning of the image,
make sure the image is selected with the selection tool
and has the bounding box around it.
Now we need to come up to the control panel and look
for the image trace tool button.
It should be towards the middle of the control panel.
So I'm going to go ahead
and click the image trace tool button once.
Upon click you will see Illustrator begin
to process the image, and suddenly the image appears
to have been converted.
Though it's not done quite yet.
Next we need to toggle a bunch of properties
to get the effect we want.
And this is done in the image trace tool panel here.
If you're using the live trace tool you will find the tools
in the top control panel.
So if we look in the image trace tool panel here we have a number
of options to choose from.
Starting from the top we have a series of buttons here.
We have auto color, high color, low color, gray scale,
black and white and outline.
These are a few presets that upon click will apply an effect
to our live trace image.
Now, it's important to mention
that the image trace tool can take a lot of processing time.
The bigger your pixel image the longer it will take
to apply the effect.
We have a really simple example here.
It's just a black and white sketch.
So I'm going to go ahead and click
on the black and white button.
And that's going to optimize the settings
for a black and white image.
Now, if we want to we can click on the preset tab and select
from a range of other color options.
Though we are just going to keep it set to black
and white on this occasion.
We are going to keep view set to tracing result
and mode to black and white.
Next we have the threshold.
Now, this is probably one of the main properties you want
to pay attention to as this can alter the effect entirely.
For earlier versions of Illustrator this can be found
in the control panel next to the live trace button.
So with the image selected I'm going
to toggle the threshold down to 50.
And we can see the amount
of black used decreases but quite subtly.
If we decrease the threshold down to, say,
25 we can see this time the amount
of black decreases significantly.
If we put the threshold
up to say 169 we can increase the depth of the black.
And if we push the threshold
up to 244 we can see a significant increase
in the black.
So you can toggle the threshold
to get an effect you're happy with.
On this occasion I'm going to go with around 200.
That's looking quite bold there.
On the image trace panel we also have an advanced option,
and if I click this we can also toggle paths, corners and noise.
Now, these toggle subtle details of the vector.
For example, we can push the paths up
and bring the paths down.
We can toggle this to further refine the appearance
of our image trace.
I'm going to place my paths to 80 percent
and just toggle away the advanced option for now.
So now we have a good image trace example,
and that's looking pretty close to my original scanned drawing.
So now I'm ready to move on.
Notice how our current selection has a bound
in box still around the image.
Well, this is because we now have to expand the artwork.
So once you have toggled your image trace properties
and you're happy, next we are going to come up
and click on the expand button.
This button can be found in the control panel
where the image trace button was.
Upon click we have now essentially expanded the
vector artwork.
And now we can see all the vector anchor points that make
up the vector artwork.
So now this image is no longer a pixel image,
it is now vector artwork.
And we can expand and shrink this as much as we like
and we will not lose any quality.
So I'm going to click off for a second to deselect
and then click back on.
Though notice now it's all selected.
What we have here is a black and white vector composition
that is currently grouped.
When you expand your image trace the artwork is always grouped.
If we right click and select ungroup, click off the deselect
and then select the white area just next to the black,
you will see we have now made a selection
of a vector containing the white space around our drawing.
So now all the shapes that make up this black
and white vector composition have been separated.
And we can change the color of this.
For example, I've selected green from up in the swatches panel.
Easy. Though I don't want this vector shape
so I'll simply delete it.
So now with the selection tool we can click
around our new vector artwork
and select the various vector shapes
that make up this composition.
And if we want to with the various white shapes inside our
black outline we can select them and add color.
Easy. So I'll just undo that to get back
to my black and white image.
So if it's that easy to convert a sketch
into vector artwork then why spend a lot
of time tracing a sketch using the pen tools?
Well, it all really comes down to what effect you want
to achieve in your artwork.
Here is a document I've prepared as an example.
You can also find this in the project folder.
So, yes, it is very quick to use the image trace tool and, yes,
it does take a long time
to trace a sketch using the drawing tools.
But as you can see here the comparison says it all.
If you want an organic,
hand drawn appearance then definitely go
with the image trace tool.
Though if you want an outcome like the one you see here
on the right you will have
to spend a little more time tracing using the drawing tools.
When you trace a sketch using the drawing tools you will get a
much cleaner graphic and stylized outcome.
As you can see here this is an example I traced using the
drawing tools.
And I have also taken the artwork further by adding
in some details around the eyes and on the decoration.
So that's a brief introduction
on how you can use the image trace tool
to quickly convert your sketch into vector artwork.
In the next video we are going to use the drawing tools
in Adobe Illustrator to trace a drawing.
We are going to be using the pen tool, the brush tool,
the blob brush tool and the eraser tool
to convert this drawing into vector artwork.
See you in the next video.