Stencil Revolution Welcome Message

[GHEEK]

****Im tired of answering questions that could be answered if said person put a little bit of effort into figuring it out...if you're still having trouble please PM so i dont answer the same questions over again*****

**EDIT** MUST HAVE BASIC PHOTOSHOP SKILLS****

*******i couldnt post in the tutorials, so i put it here...please move*******

I wrote this tutorial because i wasnt satisfied with the way Illustrator was live tracing my images. i like to keep my layers down to 3-4 and unless you are going to use 6-8 layers you loose a lot of detail in the live trace. Also this will allow you to convert a low res image to a vector allowing you to make the stencil any size without distortion.

you will need to have Illustrator CS2 for the live trace feature (and inkscape does something similar but the results are crappy)

Most of these steps you my already know, but i put them in here anyways just to be as specific as possible


1. Find an image and isolate from the BG


2. duplicate the image to however many layers you want it to be


3. make only the layer your working with visible


4. image>adjustments>threshold.


5. set it low because this is going to be the dark tones of of the image


6. select>color range. click on the white part of the image to select it, then press delete to erase it leaving only the black part


7. move the layer to the top


8. do the same thing with layer 2 only this time leave the threshold higher because this is going to be the mid tone of the image


9. after you delete the white press ctrl+i to invert the selection, the choose a gray color and fill the selection


10. this should be what it looks like


11. make the top 2 layers visible and it should look like this


12. on the 3rd layer just select it and fill it with a gray...this will be the first layer you paint (white...this is the light tones of the image)


13. save each layer individually as a separate image


14. open image in illustrator CS2


15. click the drop down menu next to the live trace button and press "tracing options"


16. select grayscale and lower the max colors to "2"


17. your image will look something similar to this, now click the expand button up top


18. after that select the "direct select arrow" and delete the whit from around the black


19. do the same thing for the next layer and then align the stencils ontop of each other, this is the final result....print each layer separately, cut and spray


this is what it woulda looked liked if i just used the live trace


if you want more layers then you would just create more layers and increase the threshold for each one

[SoopaFrndlyDlite...]

excellent tut yo... propers.

[filth.]

good one gheek. props

[FIRD]

blinks tut?

[GHEEK]

no, i wrote it last night, i was having trouble coming up with a solution for what i needed and i ended up with this procedure....im sure someones written it already, but this was written from scratch

[goblin]

Or you could click posterise in photoshop and then use the trace function in illustrator.

[GHEEK]

you have more control over each layer by using the threshold....posterizing doesnt always give the dark and light tones the way you want them, and if you posterize and use the trace function you get that last picture i posted.....the point is to trace each layer individually to preserve detail with 3-4 layers instead of needing 6-7

[psychodiagnostic]

mmm but with this mode you lost the details....I always using only illustrator, and free hand drawing or pen tool, for example...with thees method you dont lost the verry important details....

[GHEEK]

thats pretty cool man, great work, but this is not a free hand tutorial

[psychodiagnostic]

thats pretty cool man, great work, but this is not a free hand tutorial

ohhh sorry

[DTA]

could you explain more steps 18 and 19.

I did the tracing and everything but I am not sure what else to do. Also in illustrator how do I get the different images to layer one on top of the other in the one window?

[GHEEK]

hope this helps

[DTA]

thx I figured out the direct select. However, everytime i drag in a new image, it goes to another window instead of adding it to a new layer. I don't know if this is because CS4 is different from older versions but I will try to find out.

[GHEEK]

idk, im using cs2..i just drag the image from the folder to the workspace....try copying the layer and pasting it in the original workspace

[Rave Gloves]

Move this to tuts.

Cant let a good tut go to waste.

[wakisaki]

this is a great tutorial, i havent tried that technique before

[GHEEK]

thanks man

[NattyPJ]

can you get so smoth edges in PS on each layers or is Illustrator the way to go?

[GHEEK]

illustrator for clean edges

[NattyPJ]

ok thanks so much you are the best

[FIRD]

you can get clean lines by marking them in or just by doing them in the cutting process, dont depend too much on the computer

[GHEEK]

^^ very true, if you are working with a low res image and you have it blown up big and your not going to vector it, you can always smooth out the lines in the cutting process

[NattyPJ]

i wish i found this tutorial earlier becouse i am already cutting a stencil and i just realize that it looked much better this way =/

[uielouie]

illustrator for clean edges

if you dont have illustrator you can go to Filter>Artistic>Watercolor in photoshop.
it doesnt work as well but it cleans the edges up somewhat

[Conscious]

how do you save each layer as a separate file?

[NattyPJ]

in PS just click on the layer you want to save or unmark the other layer so you just se the layer you want to save..then File/Save As/

[GHEEK]

make only the layer you want visible, and then file>save as

[FMF]

gheek: the last image link seems to be dead [live trace example]

[GHEEK]

ill check it out, i dont remember putting any of the images in as links

[Freud]

How do you get that low-fi pixelly stroke?