Vectorizing a Logo From an Image

Part III: Cleanup The Tracing and Finish The Butterfly

39. In this step I opened the file in Adobe® FreeHand®.

40. Next, I clicked File > Save As and saved the file as "butterfly half.fh11 - in FreeHand® format. Please view the short QuickTime® movie. First I clicked View > Snap To Point, then I simply selected nearby points, joined them together until they snapped (on the Macintosh® you will hear the snapping sound if you have sounds turned on). Once I joined the points together I usually selected the joined point and with the Option key held down (on the Macintosh® - that would be the Alt key in Windows®) I dragged out a control handle in the opposite direction, then clicked the Smooth point button in the Object Inspector to convert the corner point to a smooth point, then adjusted th handles to smooth out the curve. Although the QuickTime® movie only shows a few examples, you should get the idea.

(click the picture to play video)

Commands used in the movie: Macintosh to Windows translations

41. When all the cleanup work is done in Adobe® FreeHand® the finished butterfly half should look something like the example below.

42. Next, I will need to copy the butterfly half and flip it horizontally then join the two halves together. But first, I want to be sure that the two halves line up correctly. For this step I will import the original GIF image of the logo to use as a template, aligning it the to the half of the butterfly. Once positioned, I will send the image to the background layer. Then I will duplicate the butterfly half, then flip it horizontally with the FreeHand "Reflect" command, then align it with the template. Please view the short QuickTime® movie. Again, make sure you have turned on Snap To Point, as in a previous step.

(click the picture to play video)

Commands used in the movie: Macintosh to Windows translations

43. Still working in FreeHand®, the next step is to join the two halves of the butterfly together. But first we want to zoom in a bit to make some final adjustments to the positioning of the two halves to make sure they line up with the template image in the background layer. Please view the QuickTime® movie below to see how to do it step by step.

(click the picture to play video)

Commands used in the movie: Macintosh to Windows translations

44. When finished, the two halves of the butterfly are joined together and the vector art lines up with the original GIF image. At this step I saved the file as butterfly.fh11 (File > Save As butterfly.fh11).