Disclaimer:
I use Adobe Illustrator CS3 so certain things may be slightly different depending on what version you are using, however I use very basic techniques for this so it's doubtful it will have any impact. There are many different ways to do this so play around and find what works best for you. Vectoring something depending upon what it is can take a great deal of time and just like playing World of Warcraft requires a lot of wrist, hand, and elbow usage. I recommend everyone no matter what the age take at least a 5 to 10 min. break every half hour to avoid many of the health problems artists, graphic designers, and web designers face in later years. That little public safety blurb aside now we can get the good stuff.
What is vector art anyway?
Vector art is basically describing a type of art that unlike JPEG's is mathematically based so you don't have little squares of color that will blur when you try to resize your picture.
Well that's right Lil'XT. Unfortunately vector images take up a lot of space and most things just aren't programmed to handle them. So we end up converting our work to jpgs and other pixel pushing file types to share them. ...sigh one day the world will evolve past the blurry squares.
Because art need to be resizable, clear, and unchanging to go on anything from giant semi trucks to coffee mugs and even the tiniest of business cards. Vector art is most commonly used for logos since they can be seen in so many sizes. It's also very easy to edit and update vector art. If someone wants you to change the colors in your picture you don't have to redo it entirely.
How do we vector screenshots?
Take your screenshot that has the item in it you want to vector and place it in a layer then duplicate it. You can do this many ways, but I tend to select it and then slide it over with my mouse while holding alt and shift. (command shift if you're on a mac) Move the duplicate up in to its own layer and lock that layer. Then go back down to your original screenshot and bring the opacity down to about 75% or even further down if it's a darker image because the lines we will be using are black and if we're going to use black on top of black we won't be able to see our mistakes. Lock this layer and make a new one where all the magic will happen. Take a good look at what you want to vector. Every shade of every color is going to become its own shape that we are going to make with the pen tool.
A lot of people refer to vectoring something like a screenshot or a photograph as tracing. While not entirely inaccurate it's a big simplification and the majority of these people don't know how to do it properly. It's more like tracing if when you trace something you're putting sewing needles on the most important parts of that image and then running a string through the eyes of the needles and sending it along the curves and turns that image when most of the time does not want to go where you want to and change one part can have a great effect on the rest. That said the pen tool can be mastered with just a little practice. I use the pen tool for almost all of my vectoring purposes and while there is a specific tool in illustrator called the auto trace I don't recommend using it. It'll make your file size giant and is anything but accurate. This may not be the case with the latest versions of illustrator but it will never be a replacement for your own hand. There are some instances where the auto trace is useful, but they are few and far between. If you do vector something like a photograph do remember you need the rights to that photograph to then sell your work or use that in any of your own original art you plan to sell. If there is a person in the photo you also need that persons permission even if they are a model working for the photographer you purchased the image rights from.
Making your shapes
When making your shapes it's an important thing to remember that Illustrator works in layers. Not just the ones on your side menu, but for the shapes we make. You have to think of it like a layered puzzle only you are making your own pieces. The tricky part is shapes can't occupy the same space they'll either go above or below one another so you have to make your shapes keeping this in mind. If we used our pen tool to make the shape of the eye and then to make the shape of the body when we color them we wouldn't see the eye at all because it would be below the body. It makes it easier to determine what to put where and then make section in separate layers. If you're having trouble manipulating the pen tool remember you can always go backwith the smooth tool or adjust things while your adding color if they don't look entirely correct. Once you're done with all your shapes you can start to add your own style with either different brushes for your strokes, different size strokes, or like what I do after I'm finished coloring is remove all the strokes altogether and then make one thicker outline to go behind the image to give it a more cartoony flair. This is easily done by making a copy of your shapes, deleting anything on the copy that is not defining the outside and then filling it in black and giving it a thick stroke. After that you simply place it behind your work and if your work is grouped you can use the align tools to get it just right where it needs to go. You can also experiment with different effects like drop shadows, inner and outer glow effects, and all sorts of things. Vector art can also be used in Photoshop for making things like T-shirts and anything else you may want to do in that program.
