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Turning photos into T-Shirt type graphics?


D

dragonfly

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Hi,

I want to create some T-Shirt designs & I notice many designers use stock to create their designs but edit the photograph image somehow into only 1-4 colours so they are converted to T-Shirt type graphics.

Can you please point me to a tutorial how to do something similar or show me how - I've attached 2 examples of what I mean with an original photo and a T-Shirt design using that photo of the kind of look I'm after. They almost look cartoonish/painted. I've attempted playing around with threshold and also used a gaussian blur technique to make it look like a sketch, messed around with the filter gallery etc. But I just can't get images to look as clean, clear lines and nice colours as these designs attached, not sure how they do it..? It looks more advanced than just using threshold.. Are they painting on it to get those clear crisp colours and highlights?



attachment_64716476.jpegHot-Toys-Star-Wars-The-Force-Awakens-Kylo-Ren-Collectible-Figure_PR12-600x420.jpg

Lord_Darth_Vader.jpgScreen Shot 2015-12-05 at 1.29.06 am.png
 
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Cut out the picture.
Desaturate it (shift+ctrl+U).
Apply a 'posterize adjustmentlayer on it. (level 4)
Apply a hue/saturation layer and brighten (example +30) to fade a bit like in your example.

Posterize.jpg

(Note: I did a very quick cutout - its up to you to do it right)
 
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ah thanks! I just changed the images.. as I thought it was just a threshold adjustment on that image.. but obviously not, thanks for those tips!
 
They look like vector illustrations of the original images to me. Where the artist has taken time to draw them up in Ai (Adobe Illustrator).
 
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oh ok thanks! - so what's the difference between doing it in Adobe illustrator [Ai] vs Photoshop C6?

Would they have drawn it all by hand that whole image? Then painted in all those highlight & shadows etc manually over the top of the image like doing an original drawing illustration on paper?

Or would they have used some tricks & techniques with the actual photo in Ai to make it into a vector and give it that look? (I've never used Ai)
 
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The primary difference is that Illustrator is a true vector based program.

While Ps does have so called vector tools and can save some vector content in some formats (psd, pdf, eps), it always saves both vector and raster information and can never create a true vector file.

In Ps, the Kylo Ren poster would have to be completely drawn using the original image as guide. I'm not as familiar with Ai, so I'm not sure if it has a much easier way of creating the effect out of the original image.
 
there is a software bundle called 'seperation studio'
specially for making multicolour t-shirt imagery.

there are some specifics you need to take in consideration before uploading the file to this program such as highlights and tonal gradations.
 
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