Photoshop vs. Illustrator

[Vacajun]

All the recent postings on line art and problems with colorization prompt me to ask a basic question. But first, as they say on TV, some background.

About five years ago, when I started an interest in digital profile art, I did some quick communicating with experienced digital profile artists (Tullis, Styling, etc.) and was surprised to find that although everyone used PS for rendering, about three different methods were being used to lay out the aircraft lines before colorization:

Method 1. Scanned image with white remover in PS (no Illustrator), no paths created.
Method 2. Illustrator used to generate line work from scanned image then imported into PS as paths
Method 3. Paths created in PS from scanned image; paths then made into selections and saved for efficiency.

I started out with Illustrator for digital art, and finally became rich enough to afford PS, so there was a natural tendency to go the second method. Basically I find that available 3-views are often inaccurate, so method 1 doesn't appeal to me, plus modifications are not easily done without paths.

I have been using method 2 for all my profiles, but I'm having second thoughts about this and think that method 3 is the way to go. I find that once imported into PS, I am always tweaking the paths, plus I'm not careful in creating closed paths--resulting in having to use selection tools to re-trace path lines.

I'm a big supporter of the profile method described by Supah in another thread:

"I'd put each colour on its own layer yes. That way they are relatively easy to edit if you ever want to adjust the layout of the paintscheme. What I do is define all the basic parts like wings tails engines air inlets as shapes first. They make very clean selections later on, you can anti-alias them, and this way you always have the same selection. Another hint is to keep your PSD organized by using the groups you can make in your layers pallette. This is sort of like a directory on your HDD, you can put layers into these groups and name the groups. Put all your paths in one, your paintscheme in one, your highlights and your shadows. These makes the file a lot easier to work with. Work at atleast A3 size and 300 DPI otherwise you will not be able to sell prints of it later on."

I think another secret is to form as many closed paths in PS as possible to permit efficient selections to be made and minimize use of the polygon selection tool.

Sorry for being so long, but here's my basic question to you experts:
For doing our type of profile work (and only profile work) does Illustrator give us any capability that PS (V. 7 and beyond) doesn't already provide??

Thanks!

[Supah]

Well the best way to test it is to try it I never used Illustrator at all but then again I dont create my own drawings. I just use what I can get from people who do or what I find in books.

[BLOWHARD]

Nice rundown Aside from a few things I think it's really more choice, which application suits you. I think the best of both worlds is to use both, at least for finished work, line drawings done in Illustrator and rendering done in Photoshop.
Photoshop allows for infinite rendering possibilities, may of which aren't available in Illustrator. ***BUT, in Illustrator the lines and shapes will always be superior from a printing standpoint as you can enlarge and reduce the image and the lines stay constant. That right there is what Illustrator does best, allows for resizing without any loss in sharpness.
At least that's what I know based on my experience

[mjag]

Do you use both Blowhard ?. I reason I am asking is I started a profile, (first one) In PS-cs3 have done basic shading and just about all the panel lines, with paths. If done in illustrator you cant export paths to PS right ?. I just cant seem to wrap my head around how I would be able work in photoshop with no paths that have been done in Illustrator. Either way I'm still very new at all the aspects of profiling.

Any opinions or tips or help or well you know

Mjag

[GrubbyFingers]

Hi Mjag,
To get Illustrator paths into Photoshop, select the paths you want to copy in Illustrator with the path selection tool and copy them to your pasteboard using the Copy command. Then, in Photoshop, use the paste command and you should get a dialogue box asking if you want to paste as paths or pixels. Choose paths and your Illustrator paths will then be pasted as a new Photoshop path. These can then be selected individually and made into masks or clipping paths in your individual Photoshop layers. Double click on the new path window in the Paths pallette to be able to name it and change it from being a Work Path, then it won't disappear if you create a subsequent new Work Path.

If you are trying this and the paths are coming in like a placed image, rather than paths, there is an option in Illustrator that may need changing. In Preferences, go to the File Handling and Clipboard section. In Clipboard on Quit section, enable Copy as PDF, enable AICB and Preserve Paths. This should give you paths when you paste into Photoshop.

I hope this helps.

Grubby.

[mjag]

Thanks Grubby for the info. I will play with it a little tonight to see if I can work with it.

Mjag

[BLOWHARD]

Hey Mjag, keep fiddling, you'll get it. I had trouble with that too a while back. Unfortunately it was too long ago and I've forgotten how. But if I figured it out, anyone can

[mjag]

After messing with it for a while I got some paths to slide over to PS. But ya know being the same company that made both. I would think one should be able to export/Import all in one shot to either program.


Mjag

[BLOWHARD]

Once you see how differently the vectored paths are handled buy both applications you'll understand why. I'm sure you are familiar with the type tool in Photoshop? You know how you need to rasterize the font to modify it? The vectors in Illustrator are like fonts in PS, they are un-rasterized shapes in Illustrator but they are only path selections tools in PS. Or at least that's how I understand it

[Supah]

You can covert text to shapes and paths in PS CS2 just fine Blowhard