I have volunteered to redo the website for my kids school and had a quick question about vectors. They have asked me to redo the logo for the school and I was wondering how photo realistic can a vector be? Meaning if you were to take a photograph and create a vector from the person in the photograph how close to the original photo can it be made to look? I have seen many tutorials online of how to use the trace functions etc but the end results (for me anyways) is not photo like at all. Maybe it can't be done and maybe I am not explaining it right but I figured this was the place to start to find out. Thanks for any help.
It can be as realistic as you want but it will be up to your skills , however if you're not an expert or you don't have a good machine i don't recommend you go this way. Using 2 M anchor points is awesome but it can also be your worst nightmare . Going with something that looks that it was made in zBrush or Maya should be good enough .
A vector image will never look photo-realistic. It's not possible. In reality every object, landscape or person have a complex dispersion of lights and shadows which are impossible to be accurately done with gradients in any vector program. I don't understand what is the connection between a website and vector images.
Why do you need to make a photo realistic image into vector format for a website redesign? Unless they need the vector for something that is viewed off the website, you would just be converting it to a raster image so the browsers can display it anyway. In that case, I don't see what the advantage is over using a real photograph.
The reason I ask about vectors is because as I mention I volunteered to redo their website and they asked me for a new logo design. The logo design will be used not only on the website but also for print and I want to be sure that the logo is scalable for all media.
Why are you asking about photo-realism in a logo? It's very good that you are making it vector but a logo shouldn't be too complicated.
It is a Catholic school and they want to use the Virgin Mary. Basically something similar to http://betweenthefoldsofhermantle.com/wp-content/gallery/initial/dscf1599.jpg But cropped just below the hands and the background stripped out and such but I am having trouble with the face. I was just trying to get a little insight into the vector process as I usually farm this kind of work out for my other sites but since I am doing this voluntarily I was hoping to get it done myself and I didn't know how close to the original photo I could get it.
It's very complicated to vectorize the face and for a logo I don't think it's the right thing (I mean to look like a photograph). Why don't you try to stylize the Virgin Mary? something like this: www. istockphoto. com/stock-illustration-7249447-madonna.php?st=93d913b
That is definitely something I will suggest to them. I am just trying to give them what they want. Thanks for the info. Just found this and it is almost perfect for what I need once I strip out the background. http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-illustration-6531692-virgin-mary.php?st=2d6d469 I normally use a different photo site and they have a lot less available. Thanks Again
Photo realism in vector is not impossible. There are people who turn raster to vector using mesh tool and other techniques to achieve breathtaking results. It is just a matter of expertise. So the upshot is - there is no direct and easy method to convert raster to vector. All you need is time and practice.
You can get very realistic with vectors from a photo. The more skill and time you have the better. Here are a couple of samples done in Adobe Illustrator I did. Here are some more realistic vectors from photos http://www.dezineweblog.com/10-realistic-vector-portraits/
They are not as realistic as could be, and do appear kinda flat. I didn't spend much time on them. But in the link I included there are stunning examples of vector realism.
Your work is great and the link that you provided is absolutely fantastic, what I was saying is that they look like paintings more then photographs. As much work was put in vectorizing an image it will never replace a photograph. It's impossible to reproduce through vectors the small details (e.g. human skin texture). In the best case it will look like a very realistic painting, but not as a photograph. Each program and technique has it's own strengths and weaknesses. It's not cost effective, neither time effective, to cross those lines and try to do with a program/technique what you can easily do with the other.
Use the Live Paint feature in Illustrator. It will take raster art and create vecotor art. You control how many color and paths, so essentially you control the depth of detail.