I'm desperately striving to learn more about how to harness the capabilities of what I believe is vector art. I say believe because I'm not even entirely sure if that's the correct term.

Check out the digital section of http://www.hybridheart.com/ . That's really what I want to eventually accomplish. Something to that degree.

There is, however a problem. And I hope it's not too big of a problem. The problem is - my software. I have Paint Shop Pro 7 and 8, Studio MX [and all it's attributed applications], and a few other low-budget GFX programs. However, I do not have PhotoShop.

I don't know if this is going to be a big problem or what, but I don't have Photoshop. And I know a thousand people are going to tell me to "Just Download It," but I really don't believe in that. Call me stupid.

If anyone can just point me in the direction of some tutorials I could follow to help me understand this form of art, and how to understand just the basics of it, I would be sincerely thankful.

-CC

Well first of all Vector Art uses vectors not pixels. So PhotoShop, Paint Shop Pro , Fireworks or any other image editing program won't work. Though many people use them to create vector styled work.

What you want is Freehand, Flash or Illustrator (even Corel Draw). These are all vector programs. If you have Studio MX then you should have the 1st two.

Unfortunately it has been quite some year since I have used Freehand (Version 6), my preference at the time and still is Illustrator, so I don't know any Freehand specific tutorials, though Illustrator ones will work in most cases.

Check the Macromedia Site, i would assume they have something similar to the Adobe Studio Exchange where you can download files of stuff for free. You could even grab EPS files from Adobe Studio Exchange and open them in Freehand.

Hope that helps a bit.

:)

MOST of the stuff that site has for art in the digital section is not true vector art as Freaky so aptly pointed it out. It has the appearance of being vector art but I can almost garauntee that the creator of those pieces took simple photos and "thresholded' or level adjusted them in Photoshop for that 'vector look' its really very easy to do (depending onthe photo of course).

You can tr it very simply by cutting out an image of an insect or whatever in Photoshop from a photo then put it ina ne doc on its own layer and going to Imag --> adjustments ---> threshold and play with it for a bit -as you can see it will problably get something similar (although there wil be tweaking required) in just these 2 or three steps. Once the image is cleaned up to your satisfaction you could creat a clipping path and export the path to illustrator for further editing or placement....but thats another story. ;)

What those two said...

And actually those things on that site is quite easy to make (technically), i think maybe you wanna study design rather than a specific program or style for that matter.

What i mean is, it looks cool because it's a well preformed combination of coloures and shapes not because it's vector. Vector has in my oppinion a much more characteristic look, example:

http://www.inosteve.dk/lure.jpg


Remember, this is just my point of view

John is really good at vector especially using some of the new exffects in illustrator... http://www.johnschwegel.com/


And you can find amazing stuff here: http://www.illustratorworld.com/index.shtml

Hey they threshhold thing worked really well. I was scared I wouldn't be able to find it in Paint Shop Pro, but I did. :cool: Anyways it works well with photos that Are on a pretty simple white background, and I like it.

I checked out all the links that you guys posted as well. (I'm very very very fond of Shwegel's work, freakyclean :grin2:). The edges aren't as smooth as I had had an initional desire for, but I suppose that can be adjusted using the smooth edges tool. :cheeky:

So has anyone had any experience in creating vector artwork in Freehand? That program seems rather confusing. I'm not too bright, heh.

And Cone - did you create that image yourself? If so, what program did you use? That's almost exactly what my goal to eventually get to is. Excellent work if it's yours. :grinning:

Thanks all;
-CC.