site to convert stills into vectors

Org Profile · Post by **808-buma** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 7:42 am

http://vectormagic.stanford.edu/

I'm not quite sure if this would be of help to anyone, but it's a site that converts image files into vector files. Has a few options to play around with, but it seems uber cool if you wanted to do a zoom or similar effect - might be other uses too, but so far, it's just sorta cool...

it accepts a few different image formats (png and jpg just to name a few) and outputs to png, SVG (scalable vector graphic) as well as EPS files - something to try out

Here's a test run I did on an image I just happened to have...

so, have at it...

Bauzi · Post by **Bauzi** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 8:07 am

THAT`s what should spare me a lot of work for an effect. No let´s try it!

Thx for the info.

Bauzi · Post by **Bauzi** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 8:26 am

Small test:

Worked fine with a still image of my ava. I tried it with an RGBA image too. It doesn´t seam that it is supported (note: I don´t know how good vector graphics can deal with RGBA). You might want to prepare you images first in AE or Photoshop and place some red or blue offer the things you don´t want. Do you know what I´m thinking of? Afterwards you could just key this blue parts out and tada! You have your RGBA mask with vector graphics. Sounds good. I better test this method too.

If you use images with a blur on it, the blur fails badly.

post-it · Post by **post-it** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 2:27 pm

hmmm .. that would be a nice filter to have in Video Editing if they ever perfect it ^___^

Bauzi · Post by **Bauzi** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 2:53 pm

@post-it:
Yeah an effect would be nice or... at least an offline version, but I´m sure it will come some day.

Has anybody an idea how I tell an vector graphic file (like these here in the thread!) that I only want the black outer lines? Or how I could give it AE as vector path?

Qyot27 · Post by **Qyot27** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 3:35 pm

Bauzi wrote:@post-it:
Yeah an effect would be nice or... at least an offline version, but I´m sure it will come some day.

Has anybody an idea how I tell an vector graphic file (like these here in the thread!) that I only want the black outer lines? Or how I could give it AE as vector path?

You can do bitmap tracing to vector images in Inkscape, and it should let you preserve lines through some means (I know it'll let you do brightness extraction, as I've done that before, I'm just not sure about doing something selective like just outlines - setting brightness detection at a low value might do it satisfactorily, or it might not). You could probably ask trythil about that, though.

As for using it in AE, Inkscape can export to PNG, just in case AE doesn't support using vector-based images (I've never tried that, so I don't know).

Bauzi · Post by **Bauzi** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 5:14 pm

Ok I´ll go back to it when I need it. Thank you.

As for using it in AE, Inkscape can export to PNG, just in case AE doesn't support using vector-based images (I've never tried that, so I don't know).

I think it does... Mhmm. I often heard the word "Flashanimation" sometimes with AE in the same sentence. Can´t remeber though. I better try out.

Minion · Post by **Minion** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 5:35 pm

tried it a couple weeks ago. sucks with gradients, as do all other auto-vectoring tools.
don't take the half-assed approach. make vectors yourself in illustrator.

Org Profile · Post by **808-buma** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 5:46 pm

Minion wrote:tried it a couple weeks ago. sucks with gradients, as do all other auto-vectoring tools.
don't take the half-assed approach. make vectors yourself in illustrator.

yes, it does suck with gradients - but for most cel-shaded images, it should work well...

I'm still wondering what to use it for, however...