converting to shapes in painter 6

[ghi stecyk]

i don't know why but i find that working with vectors and bezier curves in painter is quite easy. also the 'convert to shape' effect is something i use all the time with good results. it is quite different than trace or streamline. but there is a problem that sometimes does occur with the conversion - horizontal linear artifacts. the attachment shows what i am talking about, the red arrows are pointing to some. strangely they have no nodes to manipulate or cut. they remain when shapes are converted to a layer also. i've had some success avoiding their development in the convert to shape process by first rotating my bitmap 45 degrees or so before selecting for shape conversion. has anyone else had the same experience?

thanks

stecyk66

[ghi stecyk]

i don't know why but i find that working with vectors and bezier curves in painter is quite easy. also the 'convert to shape' effect is something i use all the time with good results. it is quite different than trace or streamline. but there is a problem that sometimes does occur with the conversion - horizontal linear artifacts. the attachment shows what i am talking about, the red arrows are pointing to some. strangely they have no nodes to manipulate or cut. they remain when shapes are converted to a layer also. i've had some success avoiding their development in the convert to shape process by first rotating my bitmap 45 degrees or so before selecting for shape conversion. has anyone else had the same experience?

thanks

stecyk66

[DLFrost]

"i don't know why but i find that working with vectors and bezier curves in painter is quite
easy. also the 'convert to shape' effect is something i use all the time with good results.
it is quite different than trace or streamline. but there is a problem that sometimes does
occur with the conversion - horizontal linear artifacts. the attachment shows what i am
talking about, the red arrows are pointing to some. strangely they have no nodes to
manipulate or cut. they remain when shapes are converted to a layer also. i've had some
success avoiding their development in the convert to shape process by first rotating my
bitmap 45 degrees or so before selecting for shape conversion. has anyone else had the
same experience?"

I tried capturing your posted image, cleaning it up, generating a Magic Wand selection, and then converting to shapes. It looked fine to me until I went in and switched on outline mode in the shape properties (Shapes, Properties). Sure enough, there they were... wayward lines. The amount and number of lines seen will change as you alter the miter limit and bend. Bug Confirmed.

The solution is simply to not use outlines and only use a fill for the shapes properties. Problem is, it might not be thick enough so that it matches the drawing when you just use fill. To get around this you should use the Magic Wand with a large tolerence setting (between 40-60), no feathering, and with the anti-alias & contiguous boxes unchecked. Also, before selecting, clean up the image with the Equalize command--this will shift the dark gray pixels towards black where they will be selected more easily. Doing it this way will get _all_ the dark pixels _inside_ the selection so that when you convert it into shapes the shape outlines will encompass the original lines in the drawing.

Doug Frost

[gmotto]

Hi stecyk66,
Sorry I can't help you. I could not get my machine to duplicate your problem.
Doug's work around looks like it should do the trick.

Good Luck.

[ghi stecyk]

frost and greg

thanks for the feedback. generally i use the auto select>image luminence dialogue to select the image. i'm surprised you guys weren't able to duplicate, that's interesting.
wayward lines are always happening to me. but they're simple to fix afterward. i've developed workarounds to deal with problems with vectorizing bitmaps in painter ( corelTRACE is one of them [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] ). but i just don't know what those horizontal artifacts are that p6 occassionally produces.

thanks again for the suggestions frost, take it easy greg.

stecyk66