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1. Getting Started

The way I approach a vector depends on the final outcome I have in mind i.e. if I want a photorealistic vector or a stylistic one. If I choose to do a stylistic one, I’ll jump right in, because the whole process is quite straight forward, but if I intend to create a photorealistic vector, I take some time to observe the reference carefully and try to plan every step I’m about to take. It’s pretty much like playing chess to me. If you rush your opponent, you’ll pretty much lose, but if you think in advance, the game is yours. So, let me give you some suggestions concerning the thinking process.

Well, before you really get into anything, you should consider the importance of your reference. Actually it all comes down to one thing: Bigger is better! I seriously can’t stress this point often enough when it comes to references. But why? – Well, if you want to have a highly detailed vector in the end, you need to see a lot of detail. What you need is a clean, sharp reference with a high resolution. When it comes to cars, finding this kind of references is quite simple, because there’re hundreds of car wallpaper websites on the internet.
Most of them offer the wallpapers in different resolutions, usually from 800x600 to 1600x1200 pixels. 800x600 pixels is too less in my opinion, but 1024x768 pixels is a good point to start off for a photorealistic vector.

In addition, try to find a photo with studio lighting. Shadows and Highlights are clearly visible and the overall image is always clean. More important, though, you won’t have any weird reflections of an environment in these shots. Now, environment reflections can be done, of course, but I suggest that if you are a beginner, you should try to avoid those.
Just imagine you never did something like this before and find a picture of a car taken during sunset in a forest in autumn. Let the car be white or black on top of this and you’re basically asking for trouble, because this situation is in my opinion the hardest one to render.

When you found the perfect reference and imported it into Flash, take a little break and just look at it closely. I like to think in layers at this point i.e. I try to look at the image as if the lighting effect was painted and not just an outcome of the light setup. This way, I already know which bits of lighting are at the bottom, which are in between and which are on top of everything else. Let me illustrate this a bit:

The red lines all point at the base paint. Or, put in other words, those areas will be rendered on the first layer, because they lay at the bottom and as such they are the base for the other shades and highlights which will follow on top of this layer.

These parts kind of serve as a base on the base, so to speak. They are the base of the lighting detail.

Examples for the shades on the third layer. These add to the ones on the second layer and give them are more complex shape.

And finally the very detail of the lighting. Everything I can’t grasp with the third layer will go on this one. This means that this fourth layer is not always necessary, because usually the lighting is not that complex and the second and third layer would be enough to ‘model’ the different shapes of light.

Just for clarification. Here are the outlines of every layer. In the end, you’ll hopefully have something similar.

The base layer:

The layer with the general shapes of lighting:

The shape modifying layer:

And last but not least the final light detail layer:

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