Illustrator tracing/quick selection

lada90 · August 30, 2018, 5:43pm

I am working on recreating a graffiti piece, and I’m using a photo I have of the piece. My goal is to make it into vector, but I’ve used photoshop first to remove the unwanted elements/background.

My question: is there a function in illustrator like that of the image trace, but with more direct control like that of the quick selection tool in photoshop? I’m envisioning the quick selection tool in illustrator, but with a vector/path output instead of pixels. I know you can export paths from photoshop, but they don’t typically turn out as smooth as I’d like.

Any advice?

Biggs · August 30, 2018, 5:53pm

you can certainly try AI’s not-so-new ‘Image Trace’ feature. It wont isolate portion or sections of the art however.
Make you can can dissect the piece further is PS, then trace the componts in AI and ‘pathfinder’ them back together?

How sophisticated is the graffiti?

lada90 · August 30, 2018, 5:55pm

That’s what I think I’ll end up doing - I realized while typing out the question I could try making working paths in PS for each portion and exporting them, then trying to smooth them out in illustrator. The graffiti has lots of color splotches, but it has crisp edges, so it seems like it should be easy. Unfortunately the only images we have although high res, are not as high as I’d like for tracing, and the piece has now been painted over. But I’m thinking your idea might be the best route! Thank you!

Biggs · August 30, 2018, 8:54pm

No problem. Sorry for my partially illiterate response!
Busy day.

silence04 · August 31, 2018, 5:18am

The trick with exporting paths with photoshop is increasing your dpi/ppi. Put the sucker up to 3200 dpi before you convert your selection to a path, then simplify at 99% in illustrator to smooth it out even more. This method is actually more accurate than anything “trace” in illustrator can do.