Making object shape conform to raster visual edges

[Tallis]

Egg, thanks.

And that's the crux of my question- I want that foreground shape as vector, but without having to manually draw. I guess I'm wondering if there's a way to "automate" the tracing step by using the color differences or knockout as a way to define the vector shape as the foreground object alone.

[Egg Bramhill]

Hi Tallis, I think you're getting confused between tracing & tracing

No seriously, Big Franks tutorial suggests you trace around the face image (using the Shape editor tool) to isolate it from the background. I'm just saying that you can also use the Mask/Erase option that Larry suggests to do this as an alternative means.

The real trace, using the Bitmap tracer (rather than using the shape editor tool to draw around the face) is what really converts the image into a vector.

So meaning of trace type 1 = Draw around the face with the shape editor tool to create a vector shape filled with a bitmap

And trace type 2 = Selecting an image and using the Bitmap Tracer tool to convert it to vector.

So the two "traces" have confusing & different meanings