Help me re-create a movie poster

[Sutekidane]

I have an project for my Illustrator class where I have to take a movie poster, use it as a template and re-create the poster using the various tools available in Illustrator. I have chosen a poster for a Korean movie (below), and I would like some ideas or tips on what I can do to make an accurate re-creation. Any help is appreciated!

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

How close of a recreation is the prof looking for? Because very little of this poster would accurately be done in illustrator in real life. The easiest way to "recreate" this poster would be to mess around with LiveTrace and find the settings that work best. That's "using the tools in illustrator..." but it's not very much work.

Perhaps you might want to choose a poster more suited for illustrator? If you're looking to learn a lot about the program and develop your skills, I would recommend an animated film, where you could trace (not LiveTrace) the forms with the pen tool.

 

[Sutekidane]

Well, the catch is that we have to use a poster that has at least 1 real person in it. It's supposed to have an animated look somewhat. I first thought of live trace for making an outline and filling thing in with a lot of layers.

 

[mox358]

A Scanner Darkly...

You should look into the movie poster for "A Scanner Darkly". Its a new Warner Independent film where everything is real, but traced over in a very vector art looking fashion. Haven't seen the poster myself, just the movie trailers, but if it follows the look of the film then it should be perfect.

Just my 2¢.

 

[irmongoose]

mox358: While that would be a very convenient idea, I don't think it will fit what his professor wants. The poster has to have at least 1 real person, and A Scanner Darkly is a rotoscoped animation based on video footage. Therefore, I don't think it will count as a "real person".

Sutekidane: I agree live-trace will be the way to go, you can probably use some other shape tools and design symbols for the frame in the background and the candle+flame.

Sorry for the quite limited "advice".

Edit: This reminds me of an Illustrator project I did for fun a few months ago. I didn't use Live Trace. Instead, I placed the initial image (which in this case I took myself), locked the layer, and made a new layer on top. Then I traced the three men freehand using my Wacom, and filled the shapes in accordingly. It gives a very interesting look:

I moved on before I could put the final touches but I hope you get the idea...



irmongoose

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

Sutekidane, I'd love to see the final result from this assignment, if you wouldn't mind posting it when it's finished. It shouldn't be too hard to do with LiveTrace set to as many colors as your computer will handle without dying. I don't know how much other work there would be to do besides cleaning up the Korean characters and text.

 

[beatsme]

How close of a recreation is the prof looking for? Because very little of this poster would accurately be done in illustrator in real life. The easiest way to "recreate" this poster would be to mess around with LiveTrace and find the settings that work best. That's "using the tools in illustrator..." but it's not very much work.

Perhaps you might want to choose a poster more suited for illustrator? If you're looking to learn a lot about the program and develop your skills, I would recommend an animated film, where you could trace (not LiveTrace) the forms with the pen tool.

I agree...I love this poster but I don't think it's very well suited for your project; the gradients alone will kill you. I've chosen 3 that I think would be better. I hope this doesn't sound condescending:

Your professor wants you to demonstrate proficiency with the tracing tools in Illustrator, which for this exercise will mainly be the pen tool. Part of the assignment, however, is choosing an image that will be suitable for conversion to vector format. You could re-create the poster you've selected, but in a real-world setting you would scarcely have enough time to do a proper job of it. You'd have 8 hours to do something like this at the very most, and soft edges and color gradients take time to re-produce that you likely just won't have. Your best bet is to select a higher-contrast photo with harder edges...it's easier to work with and generally winds up looking better.

Remember, it's better to do a really good job on something simpler than it is to do an OK job on something complex...don't overreach.

Sorry if I'm lecturing...just trying to be helpful.