Okay, I've done a little reading and one or two dry runs but I think I've got the hang of this vector lark business!

Anyway for this one I chose a simple scan of Tomo out of Azumanga Daioh. The style of how I'm doing this vectoringinging was inspired by a really good vector wallpaper I saw here. Simple enough and after three hours of solid work..I'm about a quarter way through...



Anyway as you can see this is obviously a work in progress. I have no idea if I want to keep that lime green bar in the middle (I just wanted to fill up the centre of the screen) and the final product will have Tomo chan with some trousers. Also as you can see, I started experimenting with the "simulate pressure" option on the Stroke path option. Trouble is...I only started experimenting on the right side of poor Tomo ^^;;;

Anyway tell me what you think and give me some hints.

UPDATE! (06/07/06)



I've just finished the final draft. Finally found a way of filling up the background behind Tomo without doing something which would look horrible! I think fragmenting and blurring the vectors really does make it look awesome.

(07/07/06)



Changed the background to a nice pastel colour scheme, found a nice pattern to put on the background (note: will need to put the nod to the creator of the pattern in the final.) Also added proper shadows to the shirt.


Added proper skin colour and FINALLY fixed the eyes for GOOD!

(8/07/06)


Completely redone Tomo's head and hair and cleaned it all up so it is not so jagged anymore. Gone back to the white face and done some more complicated skin tones (well I think they are anyway!)



Removed the lines on the shadows on Tomo's head and face and changed the nose and lightened the lines on the bottom left hair.



Changed the background slightly and added the classic Azumanga symbol. Still thinking of what to put in the background.


LATEST!

Wait! What is this on yonder horizon! A total change in direction (and character in fact!)



Basically listened to some Prodigy, thought of olde neko and had a totally genius idea. Heart464 must take the credit for the inspiration for this one. I'm kind of terrified that this is kinda Heart464 by numbers.

Anyway, any ideas or comments?

Lol you need anime eyes, not coal balls for eyes LOL

i think for the lime bar, just put vertical bars and tech it up and it will look great

Mis shading in quite some places.
gotta fix up the eyeball. mind showing us what you're vectoring this from? because then we can see the shadows highlights needed.

Oh oh! I must stress that the snowman's eyes will be fixed! This is like only 30% done xD

Anyway without further ado! The original scan!



Edit: After a good night's sleep I am back up and awake now! So today I'll continue this wacky vector stuff with gusto! Wish me luck!

Right, okay. Woke up to find that I didn't save the vector so after crying back to sleep for a half an hour lie in I woke back up and started off at basically just after I had stroked the outline and added the basic blue colour.



This is HEAVILY Work In Progress hence why Tomo has eye sockets but no eyes and only one proper arm and looks like she is covered in blue paint. There is method to my madness though.

Edit: Looked up...realised I had hotlinked by mistake and have frantically replaced it with a thumbnail.

Getting slightly closer now. Will begin to work on the shirt soonish.



Added lines to give Tomo proper sleeves and arms! :D

Showing irresistable progress I have now added the shirt lines and EYES! OMG! EYES! xD

I'm surprised they look so nice actually. The chap who draws Azumanga Daioh really does nice simple eyes which are easy to trace so thanks to him.

I've also done some nice housework cleaning up the lines, etc. Soon I will begin on her pants! :D

Here it is!

The final draft!



What do you guys think?!

The background it cute, but the main character looks.. weird.
Try thicker lines, with no blurring. The eyes are also too life-like.
Also, the wallpaper dimensions are weird. I don't think it'll be accepted into animepaper.
Hope that helps.

*cries* how could they be life like?! *laughs* after 24 hours of hard practice I've now gone from one extreme (i.e. awful vector-ing-ing) to the other!!

Anyway thanks for the point there. I think I was a bit too worried about the eyes looking too blocky and amateurish so I blurred them slightly. I'll redo them before blurring and see what you think. I've noticed an error with them anyway (the eye on the left is twice as blurred as the one on the right!!) so I'll need to make changes anyway.

As for the rest of the character, I'll re-do it without the blurring to see what you think. The blueish skin tone isn't a problem to change and neither is the hair so no problems about changing that if you want to see how that looks.

The reason why the dimensions are like that is for the 1440x900 widescreen resolution.

Oh. I think It would get accepted. I just don't like the blur in the eyes. Looks kinda weird. Minus that, Everything looks nice.

*sigh* That energetic Tomo.... ^_^

Argh! And I've noticed another thing! I wasn't detailed enough when cleaning up poor Tomo-chan ^^;;;

Check out the area around the left elbow. Its really untidy. Now I'm going to have to go clean it up now u_u;

Right right, okay here is the unblurred version of Tomo. I haven't been able to redo the eyes just yet but I dunno, whatcha think?

Oookay those eyes are scary heehee ^^

Jagged lines (I don't know how to fix that, sorry)
She's missing her highlights, lack of highlights makes her look dead with life-like eyes,real creepy...

Suggestion:
Continue the bars up to her back, put thinner bars in darker color between the bigger bars.

Good luck^^

Now I see the highlights are not the problem, its the shadows.

Choose a darker tone for your character's shadows. Hope that help ^^