Cleaning up, and/or vectorizing lineart

[Blue Pillow]

I sometimes see posts from people saying that they sketched something in pencil, and then cleaned it up in Flash... How does one do this? Can it be done in Photoshop? (I can use Flash as well, so whichever one works best...)

I have a rather pixelated and muddled crest/logo for a school, and I need to create a cleaner, simpler version. Actually, it needs to be simplified a lot (i.e., needs a lot of the overworked detail removed)--but I'm not asking about that. I need a clean version of the crest as it is, anyway.

I'm just wondering how I can turn it into vector art so that I can clean up and 'standardize' the linework. (Make it neat and uniform looking.) If possible...

Any help? Tutorials? Thanks for anything...
Here's the image I have--evidently the cleanest version that anyone involved could provide me with...

[davejohnsonart]

I think you're out of luck. That art is way too complicated to just clean up in photoshop (unless the scan you're showing here is a whole lot smaller and chunkier than the original).
I'd just re-draw it in illustrator.

[metalusion]

definitely a re draw. you didn't say what it will be used for in the end. if it has to be blown up to insane sized then vector (illustrator) is the way to go. otherwise a photoshop clean up could do the trick. i don' know the first thing about illustrator so if it were me, i'd find out the output size needed and see if it can be done in photoshop.
or you can do it by hand. might actually be the best choice. damn that analog just won't die.

[Scruffy]

Okay, couple of things about this.

First off, yeah - if your original art is that low-res and low-quality then it will probably take you less time to re-draw it in AI.

HOWEVER - if you work faster in pen and ink, re-draw it in ink, larger and cleaner. Scan it at a decent resolution (at least print res for the size it will be used). Tighten it up in Photoshop (remove any bits floating around in the scan and use the levels or curves or contrast/brightness to blacken the blacks and whiten the white) - standard stuff.

At this point there are two options for vectorizing it. An old program called Streamline - load the image as a tiff into Streamline and use it's tools to convert the file. This may take some trial and error as there are a lot of conversion options. You'll wind up with an AI-compatible file.

OR, get your hands on Illustrator CS2. I have it on good authority that the new AI contains Streamline functionality built right into it (to which I say, it's a bout damn time). Now I haven't tried this yet, so I can't vouch for the options, but this would do it, and AICS2 should be available from Adobe as a trial download, fully functional for 30 days.

So, you do actually have some options here. Streamlining has it's advantages and disadvantages and is better for some kinds of art than others. Good, clean black line art converts best (I've converted countless hand-painted logo drawings this way). And of course, there's al;ways the possibility you'll have to clean up slight imperfections in the final vector art, as well.

But when it works well, it's a great timesaver.

Let us know how it turns out, yeah?

-Scruffy