[HELP]How to smoothen lines?

[Zek]

Hi everyone... I'm new here...

I have this scanned pen-work, below. Hope to smoothen the lines, enlarge it, and fill it in with colours.

However, I can't figure out how to smoothen the lines, hopefully turn it into vector. Is there a way to trace it in Illustrator using Auto Trace or something? (I tried, but the lines are too loose, not sticking to the artwork.)

Smoothening in bitmap is also OK, I just need it to be around A4 size yet still pleasing to the eyes.

Thanks for your help.



Zek

[NikitaDarkstar]

Heh I think the best but msot time consuming way to do it would be to trace it by hand with Illustrator.. don't use the pen tool though.. there is a tool that lets you draw and twist lines.. I don't remember it's name right now but use that, gets better results most of the time..

Hopefully soemone with more Illustrator/Photoshop experience can help you here though.

[Denart]

there MUST be a 1 click filter

[Kei-th]

I don't think it can be done with just a few clicks.
But I think you scanned this in in Black/white am I right?
If so try to scan it in in Greyscale
that helps, for me

[Zek]

Hey guys,

Thanks for your replies! I'll try scanning in greyscale, and see what I get. Maybe I'll use the pen tool then.... torturous stuff....

Someone suggested doing this:

(In Photoshop)
Select > Color Range > Fuzziness [200] > OK
Path Tab > Make Work Path > Tolerance [1.0]px > OK
File > Export > Paths to Illustrator > Save

This was the result:



It's much more accurate now, but somehow doesn't have the same quality and spirit as the original...

[Cookiedough]

Trace by hand with the brush tool (there are several brushes in the brushlibrary, experiment or create your own) in Illustrator. It will give you more control over the linethickness and you can vary the colors and such. Try making it all in Illustrator next time. Thumb and then detail in Illustrator will save you time.

I like both the pieces, but the first one sticks more to my mind than the second one.

[eonfaiths]

if what you want to do to the original is highlight all the black or all the white... then... the layer it is on is currently the background. Double click the background and make a layer out of it (layer 0) Then while holding either alt or ctrl (i forget) click on layer 0. It should select everything on the layer (all the black, even with all its intricacies). If u want to select all the white, do what i told you and then go up to select, and hit 'select inverse', that will select all the white and leave the black unselected.

[happysoda]

There is a one-click way to turn line art to vector in Flash. I believe you import the image into Flash, then hit modify, then Trace Bitmap. It worked pretty well for my logo animation, although I'm sure it would be cleaner if you were to do it by hand.

[Zek]

Hey, thanks eonfaiths and happysoda!

eonfaiths, I think you misunderstood what I said... but thanks still...

happysoda, I don't have flash, but it's OK, I used another graphic instead for the project. I'll try next time if I get my hands on Flash.

cheers