SteveoStudios

I made a camera cheat card a while back ago that had different shot types of shots on it that I could use to train our volunteers on proper camera techniques. It’s proved to be very useful, and I have been getting questions on where I got the cards or how I made them, so I thought that I would show how I made them here.

Step 1 – Finding the Shot

The first thing that I did was sift through existing footage from our archives. I looked for a shot that was close enough to exactly what I wanted my students to replicate while directing or on camera. I also wanted my subject to not be picking his nose or staring into the camera.

Step 2 – Tracing, Inking, Erasing

I developed this technique a while ago, and really like the organic/structured mix that it gives me. After finding the perfect shot, hold up a piece of paper to your screen. You can also use scotch tape that you lay on your pant leg a few times to remove some sticky to tape the paper to your monitor.

Next, very lightly, in pencil, trace a rough sketch of all of the important details that you want to capture. I will also periodically go to Dashboard (F4) just so my screen changes brightness so I can see if I am forgetting anything.

After I have all of the detail marked down, I’ll remove the paper from my monitor and begin inking the artwork. I like to use a felt-tip pen for this, like a Sharpie Pen or Micron, because what you’re looking for is bold, black lines. Try to mark cleanly, and close all of your corners. You’ll see why complete corners are important later.

Finally, erase all of the pencil markings. This should be easy since the pencil markings were done lightly. Be careful not to crinkle the paper, smear ink, or leave a ton of pencil eraser shavings. Clean surface will help a ton in the next step.

Step 3 – Scan and Live Trace

Next, scan the image into your computer. It doesn’t need to be super high-res, but not web-res either. I usually shoot for 300 dpi. Then open up the file in Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator has a super cool feature called “Live Trace”. When you click on a raster image in Illustrator with the Selection tool, you’ll get this bar across the top. Click on the down arrow next to Live Trace.

This will give you this window.

Generally all of the default settings are perfect, but click the Preview checkbox to see the results before clicking Trace, just to be sure. Also, when you want the white to be clear, click the Ignore White checkbox. If you need to make any adjustments to anything, select your new vector image and click Expand. It will make it completely editable.

Note: the complete corners help in the Live Trace to make complete paths, which are needed if you wanted to color in the drawing. Think of it like when you used to use the Bucket tool in Microsoft Paint. If your areas aren’t completely surrounded you get crazy fills.