Generating a vector image from a bitmap

[Egg Bramhill]

Firstly Hemmers I going to move this to the Xara3D forum as it's more related to X3D than XXP.

You've got 2 options, depending on the finally quality you require. One is to use a tracing program and the other is to do it as Mike suggests.

The first option, tracing, can be done in XXP using the bitmap trace option or you can use an online BMP2VECTOR app. The best one I've come across is VectorMagic. Unfortunately there software is no longer free to use, in fact it's fairly expensive for what it does (I think this is called SaaS or Software as a Service). But you get 2 free credits when you join up so you can give it a whirl. The image below was made via this method and then importing the vector shape into X3D after some minor cleaning up alterations. Give XXP's bitmap tracer a whirl as well, sometimes the results are adequate.

The second option is to hand trace it as described by Mike. This will give you a far better/cleaner option and will work out cheaper than purchasing traces via VectorMagic and it's surprising how quickly you can get up to speed using this method.

By the way, isn't that the Southampton crest?