How to make a REAL vector silhouette!

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How to make a REAL vector silhouette!

By Ps graphiX | September 16, 2007

Yep, that’s right! Every element of the outcome is in vector and you can resize it to any size you want and it will still look great. Vector silhouettes are cool and often used in other artworks. Just google it and you will find many cool pictures. Even apple uses it in their commercials. It’s actually the first hits when you google “Ipod commercials” in pictures. I will also tell you some tips I have figured out while using the pen tool. So what are you waiting for? Let’s learn this cool technique!

First you will need a picture of a person (or another thing if you’d like). The picture should show the entire picture (or object) so that the silhouette won’t be cut off or something like that.

Below you can see the stock image I used (click to enlarge). The image can be found here.

We are going to use the pen tool, so if you aren’t familiar with it, just play around with it a bit (click and drag and just click…) and see how it works. It might take some practice, but you can do so much with it, so it’s worth learning!

OK, with the pen tool start drawing around the person. One very important thing is that you have the option showed below selected. It is standard I guess, but if this isn’t selected, you might have to do it all over again!

One thing you might notice, is these holes in his arms. I used to panic before when i saw these, but when you have drawn the person, I’ll show you a way to get rid of this. So don’t think of it yet.

And here are some handy tips when drawing with the pen tool. The most obvious is that you should zoom in a bit first. But what do you do when you want to move around the image? I usually hold spacebar while dragging around with the mouse.

To get a better view of the image you are painting around, hit F on the keyboard until you have a view that you like.

Another thing that is almost a must, is to lower the opacity of the shape layer to 0% wile drawing so you always know where to draw

So here’s what I have now after drawing around the person (click to enlarge):

You might notice that I didn’t add his headset thing in the shape… I just didn’t want to have them there. And now we are going to remove those parts that we don’t need/want. First you got to have the shape selected. When you have the shape selected, you should see a gray line on the outside. And now use these options with the pen tool:

This will make the pen tool remove the parts we draw around. So lets lower the opacity and start draw around the holes! BUT this only works if you have the shape selected (click the shape in the layers palette, not the layer) as I mentioned before!

Here is what you should have now (click to enlarge):

Wohoo! Now you have a pretty basic vector silhouette and you can actually resize it without losing quality! But isn’t it a bit ugly with that background? Lets make the background in one color and in vector.

It’s easy. Just draw something like a square around the picture under the silhouette. And then you should have what I have below. Of course you can change the color if you want to. (do I have to say it…? CLICK TO ENLARGE!)

But why stop there? With the technique I showed you, you can add his cap, shorts or t-shirt!

But I went a bit further and drew a simple iPod! I’m not a pro or anything, but I just tried to draw an iPod and this is what i got after my first try (contest: guess what should stand here!)!

You might also see that I’ve added a little reflection from my reflection tutorial.

Here is another example something I made with this technique (click to enlarge ):

Ok, the iPod thing wasn’t actually going to be in this tutorial, but it is cool and fits good. But I hope you have learned a bit about making vector silhouettes and liked my tutorial.

Wondering on something or want to say that you liked the tutorial? Use the comment form!