How to get THIS effect?

Alrighty folks ... I'm trying to get an effect like this:

http://www.jakegyllenhaal.com/images/darkotop.jpg

haha, ignore what site that is from. When you randomly fall on something you can use as an example, you use it ... (I know .. suuuure) ... ANYWAY

I've seen that and similar effects on a couple of pics. Has anyone seen a tutorial or know or a filter or technique for getting that, or a "rotoscoped" style effect from a picture? Think of the movie "waking life" if you don't know what rotoscoping is.

I posted this here because Xara Xtreme is my primary graphics tool but, I've purchased most of the other major graphics suites over the years.

Any help to quicken the process of getting that sort of effect would be greatly appreciated.

I may well be missing something here. Not unusual, and it's also late on a Sunday evening, but the link takes me to an image that looks at me and says 'this is how I was drawn. There are no filters.'

Dave

That example was probably drawn that way. Although it is directly lifted from a shot in the movie Donnie Darko. But, I've seen similar effects done to actual pictures, and they are obviously digitally altered.

To be more direct, I was looking for techniques to get a similar effect from a photo source. I found a tutorial on how to get a hand-drawn look by using the dodge tool in photoshop and fireworks.

I guess I might actually be on the right trail ... lowering hue/saturation > dodge > misc. fiddling ... I'm already on my way to just falling into the right end results. I just wish there was a filter that would quicken things up and give me a cartoonish look right away that I could work with.

This isn't a simple plugin solution, but it didn't take very long.

The photo is guess who. :) The enhancement on the left is made from a bump map, tracing around the edges and applying simple tone colors.

The enhancement on the right is from the finished bump map, using the color scheme of the web illustration you re-directed to and touched up with the freehand and brushtool using a tapered end stroke. Not very complicated to do.

jamesmc >

Hey! I never thought of using a bump map, edge detection etc.
Thanks a billion! The brushwork will take a bit of precise work to get things where I want them but, that outta speed things up considerably.

You might be able to use the bitmap tracer:

Hi Zinko,
Easiest and quickets way to do this is to convert your photo to greyscale then in a programme or using an EXtreme plugin increase the threshold level up to a level that you require. Inceasing the level reduces the detaiil in the drawing then take it into Xara lock your photo in a layer and then with a new layer using the edit tool trace around the detail that you want. Don't mess with bitmapped tracer as they produce so many unwanted objects that you will spend more time tidying up your tace when could could have spent that time maunually tracing the photo. You can also use "Find Edges" and then invert instead of threshold but it takes longer.

Created in part by using Adobe plugin "Dry Brush". ( from within Xara Xtreme)
My apologies to Keira Knightly, but even with blue skin she is beautiful!
Interestingly, the applied distortion seems to highlight, rather than hide, the perfect symmetry and refinement of her facial features.
-Andrew

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a33...K-Knightly.jpg