Line Drawing to Vector Image for Complete Beginners Copying a Drawing into Illustrator C6 and simplifying it Open a line drawing (scanned or a digital photo) in Photoshop. The drawing is likely to be quite light and illustrator might not pick up all the lines you have drawn. Use Photoshop to clear the image up so you have a clear, dark line drawing. The more accurate your drawing is the easier the next steps will be. Once you re happy with your drawing open it in Illustrator. Below is a page of line drawing of animals I took from line drawing to laser cut pieces. I will use the rhino drawing to demonstrate the process I used to do this. (The drawings were pencil, scanned then darkened on Photoshop to make them clearer.) The 2 most useful tools are the black and white arrows at the top left of the screen (as indicated in fig 1) (Fig. 1) The black arrow selects the whole drawing - selection tool The white arrow selects individual lines and/or anchor point regardless of grouping - direct selection tool The image above shows the drawing at 100%. To make this bigger or smaller you can enlarge/decrease using the zoom key at the bottom left of the screen or the zoom tool (as indicated).
The scanned drawing is now ready to be traced into illustrator. N.B. If at any time you lose your object or remove too much information you can go to edit and undo (Ctrl+z) to get back to your previous step. Image Tracing - Fig. 2 Use the black arrow to select the whole page or use Crtl+A (You can use this selection tool to select an entire page, or, if you click and drag you can choose just one of the images. In either case you will see a blue box around the object you have selected.) Click the object menu (see fig. 2), choose image trace from the drop down menu Click on make and expand If make and expand isn t highlighted, ensure you selected the page with the black arrow. You ll probably see a message that says this process may take a while, click it anyway! (fig 2) Your image is now traced into a series of lines and dots which will enable you to make a clear image.
Selecting an image fig 3 and 4 (fig 3) (fig 4) I zoomed in on the image of the rhino to see it more clearly. Use the black arrow (selection tool) to select the rhino (click and drag). The box around the rhino tells me he s selected. The eye is a separate object so needs to be selected too - hold down the shift key and select the eye. For simplicity I copied and pasted the rhino selection into a new document so I m not distracted by the other drawings. Use the edit menu to copy and paste or use shortcuts (Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V). (fig 5)
I enlarged the image again so you can see that my black drawn lines are surrounded by blue lines with tiny white circles. The circles are anchor points and represent changes in line direction, the less you have of these, the simpler the drawing. The blue lines surround all the feathery little points of the line drawing. These need to be reduced in order to make a smooth drawing ready for laser cutting. You will also notice that the blue lines appear on both sides of the black drawn line. You need to delete either one of these lines so you are left with one clear line. To do this you need to clarify which line is which. Clarifying the Lines - (fig 6) Click the window menu click pathfinder on the drop down menu click the 5 th icon on the pathfinder box as indicated. (fig 6) This will separate the 2 lines and you can begin to delete either one. (click on the double arrow at the top right of the pathfinder menu to hide it when you re finished) Deleting Anchor Points Click on the white arrow (direct selection tool) to choose the line rather than the whole object. Now you can delete individual anchor points click and delete If you find you delete the entire thing go straight to edit and undo (Ctrl+z) to get it back. Once you have isolated one line (fig 7) you can begin to rationalise the drawing. It helps if you make a firm dark line for the image so you can see what you re doing (fig. 8). It is also helpful to view the lines without stroke, brush or line weight so you can see stray anchor points and lines when preparing lines for laser cutting. These stray lines and
anchor point will still be detected by the laser software and could potentially give unexpected results. Go to View and Preview to view lines only. (fig 7) Making a Firm Line fig. 8 (fig 8) Select the rhino using the black arrow (selection tool). Click and drag. Click on the outline command (black outline box at bottom left of screen) and choose black Choose stroke point 1 to get a clear black line Ensure fill colour is not selected (with a red line through it) At this stage the image still needs tweaked but it s a lot simpler.
Simplifying the Object figs 9 12 There are 2 ways to do this. One method allows you to simplify on a percentage scale the other way gives you more control but requires you to take away each anchor point manually. By Percentage Select the black arrow Click on object Click path Click simplify You will get a box that allows you to choose the percentage curve precision. A smaller percentage usually works best see figs 11-12. Click Preview so you can see the results before committing to any changes. (fig 9) (fig 10) (fig 11) 52% simplified
(Fig 12) 90 % simplified. Manually (this allows you to choose exactly which anchors you want to remove) Choose the white arrow Click Object Choose Path Choose Remove anchor points You can use the same process to add anchor points, but click add anchor points at the end of the sequence. Changing the Nature of the Drawing There are two bezier control handles attached to each anchor point. These can be used to change the direction of the lines on your object. This allows you to radically alter your drawing once it s in Illustrator. If you are new to drawing on Illustrator then I would advise using Adobe tutorials to familiarise yourself with how the drawing tools operate. The following online tutorial explains how to go about drawing directly in Illustrator: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-illustrator-cs6/essentials-of-the-pen-and-pencil-tools/
(Fig 13) Choose the white select arrow click on the lines of the rhino You should see there are blue lines and circles around all the hand drawn lines of the rhino. The circles are anchor points and have control handles Click on a white circle (anchor point) to reveal the control handles. These turn blue once selected. Click and drag on the handles to change the direction of the line Figs 14 16 show how this works: (fig 14)
(Fig 15) I zoomed in to 1200% on the horns of the rhino to see it more clearly. Some of the lines are changes via the handles on a couple of anchor points (Fig 16) Fig 16 shows just how much you can change your drawing should you want to!
Joining Lines It s also possible to join loose or open lines. Choose the white arrow (direct selection tool) Click on the last anchor point on the line hold down shift click on the last anchor point of the other line you want to join Right click and click join (Ctrl+J) it then gives you the options to turn this joint onto a corner (no control handles or a smooth with control handles). Figs 17 and 18 show this process used to join a gap in the original drawing of the belly of the rhino. Fig 17 Fig 18 Saving for laser cutting - The final drawing ready to be sent to Ethos for laser cutting! Make sure your lines have no fills and outlined only, if you are engraving or raster engraving elements then colour these accordingly. To help see if your files are clean (i.e. contains no repeated/stacked lines or any rouge anchor points.) Just select View > Outline (Ctl+Y). Here you can view your vector lines as data only and has no stroke attributes or fills. This helps you see exactly what the laser cutter will cut and avoid elements that could potentially give you false results. You can save for file as -.ai.eps or export as -.svg.dxf, all which can be opened in Ethos.