rold_gold

And I believe that they are PHOTOS, not 3d objects created from 3d studio max. My question. How on EARTH can I manipulate this through photoshop?

Stroker

Copy
Filter > Stylize > Trace Contour
Desaturate
Set to Multiply
Tweak with Curves or Levels
Repeat if needed, but use different setting in Trace Contour

The Coach

Actually you're wrong about the images rold_gold. This is actually 100% done in Illustrator by one extremely talented artist (I believe from China), believe it or not.

I'll see if I can find his web site

The Coach

I think it's this site: http://homepage3.nifty.com/highside/

A good example is how he made the baseball glove:




Isn't that amazing!! [shocked] :}

The Coach

And this is the result (Sorry Welles, but now I'm breaking the site rules about images sizes too,
but you can only appreciate his talents by looking at the full image.)

Serious, I've never seen someone so good with vectors, just look at all the details! [shocked]

ladyfinger007

check out the links I found on his site: http://www.geocities.jp/real_trace/home.html

and this one for mature audience: http://ranma.nano.to/typeR/

The Coach

Thanks a lot Pierre, that first link was the one I was desperately looking for!
Please have a look at this link guys, some amazing stuff! :}

MsOz

MrOz refuses to believe that the Baseball glove is Illustrator, as well as the Chevy, even though I showed him the animated version of the mesh creation...He thinks the mesh is a deconstruct...needless to say, he thinks that if it is a graphic, it's a damn good one...(my Illy skills are nowhere near that level...).

Rick

I've seen this work before and it is amazing

far beyond my skills so i just look and be humbled

The Coach

Another illustrator example done by Kevin Hulsey.

In this case not an example of realism, but one of dedication.
This one took him 720 hours. Zoom in a few times to see all the details!

http://www.khulsey.com/demo_1howto.html

All these examples in this thread show again that a tool is nothing but a tool, whether you use Xara X, Illustrator or Freehand to make vector drawings and that the beauty of an image is directly related to the artist and less to his tool.