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Her hair isn't monocolor -- in the pic nor by intention.
It has a slight dusting of shade to give it depth interest, also to
make it look a bit less like a vector. Someone on another board thought I'd used blur -- because I did extra work to soften edges. Had to explain photoshop doesn't have a blue option when working with vectors. They even thought I didn't color it in well enough like there was an image buried under the surface that wasn't well painted over -- except then I showed the the layer under neath then (http://imageshack.us/a/img846/3420/progressive6xtallsmalle.jpg) and it was pure white...

Note, the red isn't supposed to be pure red. It's supposed to have some randomness to it to give a more organic feeling.
I don't like it. There is sharp corners, rounded corners, sharp edges, blurry edges all with seemingly no logic. Not to mention a dozen or so inaccurate curves and nodes all over the place.
If I were to guess, I'd say a 2nd image were inexpertly made ontop of an existing one. (which is what you describe)

If you wish to learn how to make vector images, I recommend post #57356
There are sharp corners where there are supposed to be sharp ones, rounded where they should be rounded sharp edges where it is supposed to a shart transition and blending gradients to go between areas of sharp transition where a sharp transition would not have looked as good.

I mentioned someone else thought they could see signs of an image that showed through from beneath -- but then I showed the layers in the pic above an the only image under neath it was a white one. I.e. their mind was playing tricks if they though the original layer was still there -- The picture this came from was off/invisible. I don't see the innacurate curves and nodes...-- I went through very carefullly after that feedback to make things line up...so I would like to know what areas you are tlking about? Could you D/l it and mark it up and email or send it to me? or put it on image shack or similar?.... That way i can know what you are referring to... would be helpful.....

Thanks!!!!!

Checked out the video -- that's certainly 1 way to vector, but now always the most efficient or best for a given subject. Some times, if I have a layer that is surrounded by a line -- it's smarter just to apply a stroke to the layer afterwards. That gives you your line around the layer and it's automatically lined up and the size of the line is more consistent than if you tried to draw it by hand.... Not often can you use that method, but when you can it works great!

Good video...yours?
=) Inkscape. The one I'm learning to vector with. I'm vectoring post #129806 because it offers a lot of opportunities to learn from. Its taking a lot longer than i thought it would. It probably doesn't need it but i like accel_world a lot and i think making this post 1366x768 compatible (my resolution) would be awesome.
I also recently finished highschool_dxd and loved it.
Personally, I think you're trying a bit too hard to differentiate your vector work from the typical style. The linework in the hair is a bit too thick, IMHO. Your attempt to make it look more "organic" makes it look more like random color noise than anything else to me. This STILL comes off as a filtered screen capture to me. I'm more use to either flat shading or smoother gradient shading in a vector. The color noise you introduces look exactly like what it it: noise.

The softened line work is a stark contrast to the clear and sharp borders in the red of her hair. I though PS had a simple alaising feature for line work in vectors. (Then again, Illustrator is supposed to be Adobe's main vector program.) The image is over-softened in SELECT location. The spottiness of softening makes it look like inconsistent and the oversoftening makes it look like a cheap image filter or upscale.

I also still see color banding or noise in her shoulders (the one on the left in particular.) And while we're in that section, you screwed up the signature. The BG looks inconsistent as hell as well. Parts of it look like smudges from compositing. The left side BG has 2 different patterns for no reason it seems like.

In short: I think you're trying too many things at once. Pick one aspect of the image and work on it. It's like you're trying 2-3 different effects at once to make this "different". The end effect is inconsistency across the whole image. The red hair? Use a gradient, not noise. Line work? Slightly thinner and less softening. Eyes? Less softening (they're bordering on just blobs of color). Soft or sharp edges? PICK ONE and use it across the whole image.
Not my videos, but a good tutorial since you have the finished post. You don't have to copy the style exactly, I would encourage developing your own style, but it's a good starting point, and a very good program (Inkscape).

If you are tracing from a screencap then you never going to trace exactly. Don't over complicate things. If the eyes can be done with 4 ovals, do it. Don't do 3 ovals and a polygon. Layering helps immensely.
I'm going for dinner so I'll dmail you a dropbox for the psd of this.
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StahnAileron said:
Personally, I think you're trying a bit too hard to differentiate your vector work from the typical style. The linework in the hair is a bit too thick, IMHO. Your attempt to make it look more "organic" makes it look more like random color noise than anything else to me.
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I'm more use to either flat shading or smoother gradient shading in a vector. The color noise you introduces look exactly like what it it: noise.
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And while we're in that section, you screwed up the signature. The BG looks inconsistent as hell as well. Parts of it look like smudges from compositing. The left side BG has 2 different patterns for no reason it seems like.

In short: I think you're trying too many things at once. Pick one aspect of the image and work on it. It's like you're trying 2-3 different effects at once to make this "different". The end effect is inconsistency across the whole image. The red hair? Use a gradient, not noise. Line work? Slightly thinner and less softening. Eyes? Less softening (they're bordering on just blobs of color). Soft or sharp edges? PICK ONE and use it across the whole image.
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Mod: PAIIS
The psd layers should be named. The primary concern is the blue circles as those are errors. After that it's just consistency, simplifying and layers. Simplifying will eliminate some of the errors.

If you use a good program then no way should you need 160 layers for a trace. post #78303 is 6 layers (132 objects) not counting the source image. That was my 4th vector wallpaper, but I had photoshopping experience and a few tutorial videos.

As for where I am now... I traced post #115587 for the logo. And those eyes really have all the detail they deserve, and the hands.. oh boy were they ever tricky when you went above lowres. I got some help there.
@Astara
I think we need to start using the thread in the forum for helping aspiring artists like yourself. The comments are getting horribly cluttered here.

Please procceed to forum #30889.
It'll be better for extensive feedback and the like without getting in the way of viewer and commenters here in thye post itself. Just link back to any images as needed.
forum 30889 isn't a place to discuss arbitrary pictures... it's more of a classroom setting with a set outline. It seems like it would be rude to interrupt with something not already on their agenda...but that's just the impression I get.

Thinking there is going to only be 1 thread that will cover everything -- how about a side forum?? that might make more sense.

Some of the feedback regarding errors that were things that were deliberate and took extra work to reproduce the original. The lines in the hair were NOT boundaries of the hairs -- exclusively -- they were light and dark streaks through the hair That doesn't mean they always lined up on a boundary though many do.

Also the hairs on the face were meant to be partly translucent so things under them would show through though more faintly. Several of those areas too masks blocking out a hair layer by 50% so the hair underneath it would show through.

I wasn't going for a trace since the original was 720p...

Still some area for improvement, but some of the issues I think maybe stylistic differences
... I need to talk to them in that thread then...

Anyway, if you plan on continuing your practice and discussion, I'd rather we do it elsewhere instead of here in the comments. It's getting VERY unwieldy here and we aren't a publishing site like deviantArt, Minitokyo, or Pixiv. Self-published works will get heavily criticized here since this is an actively curated site.

Looking over the image regarding some of the stuff you just mentioned makes want to comment more, but I'll refrain from that. If you want, I can do a transciption of these comments to the forum under a specific thread for it. Dmail me if you want to do so for the time being. Otherwise, at some point, I'll talk to the users in the other thread I mentioned earlier and see what is going on in there. (I haven't forayed into that thread much. Even the few times I have, I only skimmed it.)
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