Designer: How can I cut out several bitmaps and draw a vector line around the border?

[Berzerk]

Hello,

I want to cut out the below bitmaps as individual objects and after that, I need a vector line exactly around the border of each object to cut the with a cutting plotter.

How can I do this the most efficient way? I know to do this in single steps with the brush selection tool and then draw a vector line manually around each object with the pen tool but there must be a better way?

For example, the magic wand tool would work on this picture very good, it recognizes all objects but I can't convert the selections of the wand tool in vectors and also, I don't have separate bitmaps after the wand tool, instead still one big bitmap. Sorry for beeing such a noob.

 

[Komatös]

Hello @Berzerk 

Delete the white backround and finetune the 'dophin' cards. Then you can add the outline fx.

Maybe you find the vector versions useful.

 

 

66984_2.afdesign

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, Komatös said:

Delete the white backround and finetune the 'dophin' cards. Then you can add the outline fx.

How in AD can you convert an outline fx to a vector path?

[Komatös]

7 hours ago, R C-R said:

How in AD can you convert an outline fx to a vector path?

Ask me something heavier. 😉🙃 I must have forgotten the part about the plotter when I wrote the text.

[v_kyr]

In Designer add another outline via the appearance panel. Dive into the vector groups for the circles, triangles, rounded rects and apply there to the bottom surrounding  element an outline. For the others like the dolphin and beach stuff make a duplicate, create a montage out of the duplicate and add an outline stroke to that.

[R C-R]

6 hours ago, v_kyr said:

In Designer add another outline via the appearance panel.

What specifically are you suggesting another outline be added to? The OP posted a screenshot of (I assume) a single layer bitmap image opened in AD. If I do that I get a "(Pixel)" layer. I can use the flood select tool to remove most the extra white background but I have to be very careful not to include the white parts along the edges of items like the dolphins & 2 of the rocky beach ones.

At that point, I do not see how to add an outline (a stroke, I assume) via the Appearance (or Stroke) panel, if that is what you mean, that (as I understand it) the OP wants to exactly trace the border (edges) of each of the individual bitmap shapes. It is still just a single "(Pixel)" layer, with no actual outline stroke even if I set it to have one.

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

What specifically are you suggesting another outline be added to? The OP posted a screenshot of (I assume) a single layer bitmap image opened in AD. If I do that I get a "(Pixel)" layer. I can use the flood select tool to remove most the extra white background but I have to be very careful not to include the white parts along the edges of items like the dolphins & 2 of the rocky beach ones.

Sleep well, Komatös already provided in his first post traced vectors of these initial images! - All I said is in reference to those vectorized versions!

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

All I said is in reference to those vectorized versions!

Thanks for the clarification.

[Berzerk]

Hi, i appreciate all the answers and thank you Komatös for the vectorized version (Please let me know how you did this!).

With an already vectorized Image I know now how to do this from v-kyr.

But actually PC-R is right, after the flood tool, I still have a bitmap with no background then. No separate objects, no outline.

Komatös helped me with this image, but I need to know how to do this for the future so I can do it myself.

You know, it's about this "teach them how to fish" thing 🙂

 

Thank you.

P.S.: Don't mind about the open objects like the Dolphins etc., I think I know how to handle that.

Edited January 1, 2022 by Berzerk

[R C-R]

6 hours ago, Berzerk said:

Komatös helped me with this image, but I need to know how to do this for the future so I can do it myself.

I suspect creating the vector version was done with a different app because no Affinity app has (as yet) a function to convert bitmaps to vectors (also called auto-trace or the like). You may also notice that, as is typical with the apps that have that function, several of the vectorized items are composed of a very large number of curves, some with a very large number of nodes. Most of these other apps have options & adjustments that can be used to reduce the number of curves & nodes, but that is at the expense of fildelity to the appearance of the original bitmap image.