Question?

[Vacajun]

Six years ago when I joined SPS I used the technique of drawing linework in Illustrator and importing and painting in Photoshop. When Photoshop 7 came out I found I could use it to do the whole job using vector paths and masks to do the entire profile.

I'm aware that many of us still use the PS-Illus swap game, while many use only PS.

My question is: Can anyone give me some specific examples of drawing and rendering in our profiles that cannot be done entirely using PS? I'm interested only in the mechanics of drawing and rendering.

I'm trying to rationalize whether I should continue to update my old version of Illustrator ($$$) as computer systems change.

[GrubbyFingers]

Hi Vac,

I'm using CS4 so these comments may not be appropriate. I still use Illustrator for the initial set of paths because of the options Pathfinder gives you for merging, cutting etc. I find I can get some very complex shapes quite quickly that I can't make in PS CS4.

Grubby.

[inkworm]

Could probably still get away with version 9 for the basic path features as they are still much better than photoshop has ever been, I also use Illy for all the stencils and roundels which I import as smart objects so resizing isn't an issue (that's the bit that I couldn't do in Photoshop), just lift the bit I want. A lot of the stuff with CS5.5 is non essential but still the odd feature that is useful, not that I've really noticed enough changes to warrant an upgrade.

Like Grubby I will continue to produce the line art in Illy (then there are nice line drawings for John!) and import to convert to vector masks.

[Vacajun]

Great comments--Thanks guys!!

[Serval]

Is one of you guys willing to make a couple of small tutorials explaining the basics of the techniques you use in Illustrator?