Best method to live trace in Illustrator

In this quick tutorial I am going to show you how to convert detailed Raster images to Vector in illustrator without losing much if any quality.
If you ever had a detailed image that you wanted to live trace but keep getting sub part results; in this tutorial you will learn how to avoid losing those details!
Prints:
www.inprnt.com...

[@jonathankoon1960]

Didn't even know this was possible. Thanks for sharing

[@PixelChomp]

No problem, I'm glad it can help!

[@user-kn2xs9ly7r]

If you get illustrator and are wondering why your screens look different than his go to window > workspace > classic essentials it’ll give you a toolbar at the top and more icons on the right

[@kimfella4770]

Mother freaking f'er. THANK YOU SO MUCH for saying this! Hahahaha. I was like, 'well, I can't even get through the 2nd step because mine looks completely different than his.' And was about to go start searching other videos because of this. THANK YOU.

[@captaincompensation3572]

I'm going to create 5 other accounts just to give it a thumbs up. I had such a difficult time getting an accurate trace of my drawing so I could edit the color of it. You're a legend sir.

[@PixelChomp]

Haha I am very glad to hear this helped you out! :D

[@samhebel]

THANK YOU!!! 🏆🤩Using this method I was able to beautifully vectorize a full color illustration I did in Procreate (with stipple brushes!). Luckily I had worked in layers, so I was able to export & process each color/screen individually. Tedious but SO worth it -- image trace could never!

[@PixelChomp]

Hey! Woo! I am really glad this worked for you. Thank you for sharing your experience.

[@alphanumericskeptic]

Short, sweet, concise, and simple... Gotta like that!! Thank you

[@PixelChomp]

Haha I appreciate those tutorials myself, so definitely aim to provide that as well! :)

[@riccemorales9647]

Amazing! Thank you for the tutorial!

[@PixelChomp]

I am glad I can help. :)

[@adamrylander488]

I can't thank you enough. Was about to trace an entire map by hand since image trace kept messing up the lines.

[@PixelChomp]

I'm so glad to hear this saved you from having to do that. I have definitely been there myself! 😅

[@jose828]

Thanks for this video! I feel like I just discovered gold!!

[@PixelChomp]

You're very welcome! I'm glad it could be of use.

[@RRReyes999]

That was amazing.

[@shripadsonawane7851]

thanks you so much for video...its really helpfull...

[@TanChoonHong]

Great shortcut. Thx for sharing.

[@lovwishes]

omg, thank you so much !!!

[@pumpkinpatch5]

Thank you so much for this! I've been using Illustrator's live trace for years, but I needed to convert some really detailed linework drawings I'd created for a mural and it just wasn't capturing the original essence of my work. This sorted it straight away. You learn something new every day! Thank you! Life saver! 🙂

[@PixelChomp]

You are very welcome! I'm glad this technique worked for you.

[@victoriaacosta5410]

I have no words to thank you! thank you so much! I have been looking for this solution for a long time!

[@PixelChomp]

You are most welcome! I am glad it could be of use to you. :)

[@jameswrath268]

Bro…THIS IS GOLD. Thank you so much

[@marc6003]

Perfect explanation, thank you!

[@PixelChomp]

I'm glad it helped!

[@hootdesignstudio9898]

Needed this, thank you!

[@PixelChomp]

Absolutely! Glad to have helped. :)

[@fauzalfadhil]

I owe you a lot, thanks mate

[@masterfulmind85]

this was amazing! thank you

[@dalanlurus99]

Thank you

[@chardupre5971]

Thank you for this video! This is exactly what I needed.

[@PixelChomp]

Absolutely! I am glad it was useful to you.

[@user-dj4lj5lb7m]

Amazing man, helped a lot!

[@lisahourin2113]

omg, SO helpful! thank you!!

[@PixelChomp]

I'm glad it could be helpful to you! :)

[@klebersilva5084]

Thanks! Helped me a lot. Greetings from Brazil

[@PixelChomp]

I'm glad to hear that! Saúde!

[@Ai-us5hr]

Great tutorial thank you

[@PixelChomp]

Thanks! I'm glad you found it useful.

[@ExtremelyRareInc]

Nice video thank you

[@electricblue5619]

Great Job!!

[@jinwhofreeces7682]

YOURE THE BEST!!!!

[@PixelChomp]

I appreciate the kind words! :)

[@RobinSchneider]

Nice Tip!

[@PixelChomp]

I'm glad it was useful. :)

[@sofianealloui]

❤❤❤🔥 BIG UP

[@andretheguitarman3711]

works with this example but not with images with lots of colors then you have to select the pixels with the magic wand tool and experiment with the settings

[@PixelChomp]

I have another video which goes through the process of multiple colors. You are right though, it takes user experience to get perfect results.

[@andretheguitarman3711]

@@PixelChomp link?

[@andretheguitarman3711]

do you have the original file of the flower? i know a better way to do the job

[@PixelChomp]

@@andretheguitarman3711 kzbin.info/www/bejne/d4XJiHqZfJiGpLM

[@PixelChomp]

@@andretheguitarman3711 Unfortunately I don't have the original flower file. I would love to learn a better way though, always great to learn something new.

[@ukaszaleksandrowicz1321]

Very usefull. Thank you.

[@PixelChomp]

I'm glad you found it helpful, thanks for watching!

[@Endventure]

Thanks so much for this!

[@seb1273]

Nice one! Quick feedback: While this is a great method I think there's 2 major points to note: 1. DPI/PPI is completely irrelevant for this as it is a number stored in the metadata of an image to tell applications like InDesign etc. what 100% size means for an image. If you print at 300dpi you set your image dpi to 300 so you can see in InDesign if an image is scaled over 100%, which would result in too little data in one line for example to allow full 300 dots per inch to be printed in said line, which results in a lower perceived image quality. PPI is pixels per inch, also applying to printing. Both numbers change nothing about the image resolution or quality on screen. 2. Technically this is live tracing in Photoshop ;) Yes, cleanup is done is Illustrator, it just makes the title of the video misleading. Anyways, great tip to share!

[@PixelChomp]

I appreciate the feedback.

[@chrisolson84]

@@PixelChomp For what its worth I don't feel misled at all. This is exactly what I was trying to accomplish, and I didn't even know you could do this in Photoshop. People like me would never even know to search for something like that. So keep doing what you're doing, +1 sub here.

[@PixelChomp]

I appreciate the feedback@@chrisolson84 This is definitely a method I use often for a lot of my commercial work; so I figured others might find it useful as well. I am glad it helped you!

[@user-tc3ci9ue4i]

You're a legend

[@gamerboi3687]

Thx man!!🙏

[@PixelChomp]

Happy to help!

[@brendanlacey1805]

dude, awesome

[@julietsierra22]

Hello, thanks for the relevant and practical video... it's hard to find anything on autotrace these days which is so weird to me. Anyway, how could we do this for a photograph? Right now I just do a high fidelity photo autotrace, but wondered if there was a better way that doesn't look so "autotracey" 😅

[@PixelChomp]

I'm glad you found it useful! Yea I don't even remember how I came across this method years ago, it was definitely more file prep related but I find it absolutely useful for this purpose. To answer your question about photos, What I would personally do is first edit the photo in photoshop to minimize colors then isolate and export those colors. I have another video showing how to do multiple color illustrations which is how I would export photo layers as well. You can watch it here. kzbin.info/www/bejne/d4XJiHqZfJiGpLM I hope this helps guide you in a direction that works! Thanks again for taking the time to comment, I appreciate you!

[@strawberryzozo]

Does this work if my drawing is more than 1 colour and the details aren't differentiated by white space?

[@PixelChomp]

It does! It requires you repeat the paths export step for each color individually; but it works the same. Here is a video on that process: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d4XJiHqZfJiGpLM

[@heathermelling8163]

What about pictures with more colour? Same process? Great tutorial btw thank you!

[@PixelChomp]

I would do a very similar approach. The few things to note is: 1. When you create the path for the first color, rename that path layer before you make another because for some reason adobe will re-fill the same path layer. 2. I like to add an alignment point in two opposite corners so that way when I import all the paths into illustrator it's easy to align them accurately. I hope that makes sense? If not I can make a quick video showing the process for multiple colors?

[@VivekKumar-ue2jv]

@@PixelChomp it would be more helpful if you can make a video about it, thanks in advance

[@PixelChomp]

I'll add it to one of my upcoming videos to make. I appreciate the feedback from you both.

[@fredytexis1]

That actually does make sense. It's kinda like putting a registration mark for screen printing, making sure all of the colors align exactly right on top or next to each other. This video was incredibly informative I'm definitely going to take a crack at this later. Appreciate you for this!

[@PixelChomp]

Exactly! Just makes life a little easier in alignment. Thank you for the support. I am glad you got value out of it and I will definitely be making the second part soon!

[@JerryN7970]

At my workplace, people send us low res, pixelated logos and I often live trace them as best as possible in Illustrator and then use the pen tool to clean up the paths. Does this method work in a situation like that?

[@PixelChomp]

Hey Jerry! Thanks for the question. If the logo is more illustration/complex art I think this could potentially work. However I've found that typically it's easier to just re-create a logo with the pen tool from scratch over using this method since most logos are more simple and this would just create weird artifacts and take away from the detail. Also I definitely feel your pain about people sending over low res files.

[@nartz5361]

how about different color to trace?

[@PixelChomp]

Here is a video breaking down multiple colors: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d4XJiHqZfJiGpLM

[@gabrielschristianstore8069]

how to do it for multi colour images ?

[@PixelChomp]

Here is a video I did that explains multiple colors. kzbin.info/www/bejne/d4XJiHqZfJiGpLM

[@FinesseMediaPro]

I am struggling with tracing a color logo that has a lot of details. Illustrator makes it look all blotchy and not smooth. Not sure what I’m doing wrong can you point me in the right direction? Thanks in advance

[@PixelChomp]

Without seeing the artwork it's hard to give an accurate answer because it could be a few different factors. If you like you can email me the logo; I will be happy to look it over and see if I can help. pixelchompart @ gmail.com (remove spaces)

[@t-love8351]

less than 1k subscribers, what a shame!

[@jfinley01]

Does this work for art that isn’t the same color?

[@PixelChomp]

Hey Jason! Thanks for the question. It absolutely does, and I am literally working on a 16 color file for a client right now. Only difference is you have to rename the work path before making a new one so Photoshop doesn't overwrite the paths. When exporting you will be able to select the path from the pop up export window. I am currently working on a thorough video explaining that process from start to finish and hopefully will have it up within a week for all the viewers.

[@suryasudharsan3815]

is it possible to get the same result with images ?

[@verrel-julio]

i've tried, but when i open the file exported to Ai, "can't open the illustration"

[@PixelChomp]

I think something must have went wrong, I would have to see the file to better help you. I haven't had that issue come up using this method.

[@HungTran3636z]

my computer is so low and I don't use it to effect this, I hope I'll find other ways to

[@PixelChomp]

I completely understand. It definitely is a performance heavy technique, but sometimes the only method to get the most details possible. I hope you find something that works for your PC.

[@HungTran3636z]

@@PixelChomp thanks

[@ashwinkishore9936]

can we convert to vector....if you have any of your videos please link it

[@leonvandenberg8]

Whattttt

[@helloianzakharov]

DPI doesn’t exist and not relevant to any monitor exists on Earth. Anyway video is good and helpful

[@PixelChomp]

Ian, from my experience the DPI plays a large factor in Photoshop when trying to isolate and convert a color to paths because the lines will have more detail in them. Otherwise it gets more difficult to get clean paths. I appreciate the feedback and I am glad the video was helpful as well.

[@helloianzakharov]

@@PixelChomp yeah, I know, anyway it’s just a virtual number of ink dots for printing machine. Never mind, video is still helpful 👌🏻

[@lts_Hyde]

If you cant clearly tell the difference between 300 dpi and 72 dpi then you have bigger problems

[@andrerey29]

@@lts_Hyde well, ppi is pixels per inch, which talks about resolution. Dpi, is dots per inch, essential in printing, specially when working with half-tones and shirt printing. So yeah, two different things but equally important in their own context.

[@lts_Hyde]

@@andrerey29 no they are quite literally the same thing. I know you don't know what your talking about tho.

[@johnwhitaker9094]

ABSOLUTE KING! This is exactly what I needed thanks @pixelchomp