[Vincent Rosati]

You could try using LiveTrace in Illustrator CS2. Although, LiveTrace is no replacement for a skilled technical illustrator, it might work for you.
-Open the image in Illustrator
-Select the image, and the Live Trace option will appear on the Illustrator menu.
-Click the triangle drop-down button to access >Tracing Options…< I'd recommend setting LiveTrace to Black & White, and enable Strokes. There are numerous settings to tune the tracing.

[Vincent Rosati]

Go into Photoshop-Edit/Preferences/General:Image Interpolation.. and set it to >Nearest Neighbor<. This option will also be available within a Scaling dialogue. Nearest Neighbor interpolation will give you a nice blocky look when resizing.

[Vincent Rosati]

I’d work with two images. One, using your existing masking technique. The other would be for masking with a feathered selection, for the hair areas. Than combine the appropriate parts of the resulting images.

You can also try using Inner Glow on isolated areas, to help suppress color bleeding.

Are you achieving acceptable results on the non-hair areas? Are your mask edges jaggy. Is the shape natural looking?

Try the other Selection Modifications also, like; Smooth, Contract.

Can you serve the image, so I can see what were talking about?

[Vincent Rosati]

Also try…
File/Place the corrupted file into a new AI file. or..
Open the corrupted file with Acrobat and Save As: PDF or EPS or whichever.

[Vincent Rosati]

It is likely that your 2D shape is importing as a spline and not a solid. A spline has no virtual mass, only coordinates.
You could construct a polygon on top of the spline.
You could extrude the spline with NURBS to create mass.
Or there might be some other function in your 3D app to generate a solid from a spline.

Note: Enabling Rulers in Illustrator allows you to define the splines center – Click and drag the ruler corner (on the top-left side of the artboard) to the desired center of the spline (path).

[Vincent Rosati]

If this is an Illustrator question, check.. Effects/Document Raster Effect Settings/Resolution..

[Vincent Rosati]

Another million dollar question.. lol
I’m an illustrator who prefers to look for Illustrator solutions. Ideally you would want to develop the logo entirely in Illustrator. Take a look at this vector.. https://www.brandsoftheworld.com/search/?query_id=5808722&page=1&mtype=&brand_id=80928
… and cry. This example probably doesn’t exactly show the beveling you are looking for, but the techniques are evident.

Beveling with Copy+Back (the quick way) (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+B)
This can be done with live text objects. You duplicate an object behind itself, recolor it, than nudge it into position to create the ‘bevel’. Adding a stroke with Rounded Cap & Join, to the lower layer, is also nice.

Beveling with Pathfinder (the professional way) Probably what you’re looking for.
Convert text to outlines, and copy the object off to the side of your main image to do the pathfinder operation. With this copy, perform a Copy+Back than offset the object into the bevel position, resizing it if appropriate. Select both objects and click the Divide button in the Pathfinder palette. You now have a vector object that is the exact shape for your bevel. You may need to add paths to serve as bevel lines prior to the Divide operation if your design requires it.

Beveling with Appearance & Graphic Styles (Highly editable, complex, but is the least reliabile when printing through a service bureau)
This also can be done with live text. NOTE: Always build original appearances on simple shape objects and NOT text objects – trust me.
Make a small square with no stroke or fill and keep it selected. Go to the Appearance palette and add a new fill color, whichever. Object still selected, go to Effect/Stylize/Drop Shadow and enable preview, set the Blur to ‘0’, select a color for your bevel shadow, and click OK.
Object still selected, go to Effect/Stylize/Drop Shadow and enable preview, set the Blur to ‘0’, ADD NEGATIVES ‘-‘ to the X and Y values, select a color for your bevel highlight, and click OK.
You could round corners with the paths Cap & Join options, or on the shape itself by adding Effect/Stylize/Round Corners.
Once you have designed a shape object with a nice appearance you can drag it into the Graphic Styles palette and apply it to other shapes or live text objects! Nice.
Note that the Round Corners effect may produce odd (yet easily fixed) results on text objects.

On top of these techniques, you will often use Object/Path/Offset Path to help generate your bevels, especially with Pathfinder techniques.

Hope this helps. : )

[Vincent Rosati]

Some ideas..

I usually start photo-look processing (for stills or video) by first applying an S-Curve to the image (Image/Adjust/Curves.. An ‘S-Curve’ is generated by adding a control point on the 1st and 3rd dotted columns in the graph. Than, pulling the first (left side) point down, and moving the second (right side) point up. (hope that makes sense??)
This can also be done on an adjustment layer.
This technique will add a depth and richness to the image.

Than I might try duplicating the s-curved image and using Filter/Artistic/Film Grain to get some of the white diffusion I see in you examples.
This duplicate ‘diffusion effects’ layer will need to masked or blended on top of your main layer, as you probably won’t want this diffusion all over the image.

As far as the sepia look, I’d try using Layer/New Adjustment Layer/Color Balance. You’ll want to boost the yellows, generally speaking.
For sepia effects some people like to use Duotone mode to control this effect- Image/Mode/Grayscale, than Image/Mode/Duotone.

Also, there is a tutorial at the adobe exchange for creating hi-cons (high contrast continuous tone masters) from less-than beautiful imagery. It might apply to your query.

Hope this helps. : )

[Vincent Rosati]

I’m assuming you’re in Illustrator..
Basically, you’re solution will be to create Brushes with these custom shapes.
-Drag the shape into the Brushes palette. You’ll probably want a Scatter Brush with rotation set to follow the path.
-Select your circle path, than apply the new custom brush to it. BAM! You can continually modify a brush by clicking the Options button in the Brushes palette (with a brush or brushed object selected).

In your circumstance (npi) you may need to make a brush out of each shape and apply each brush to layered duplicates of the circle. Or, you could create one brush that contains all of your custom shapes and apply it to the circle.

Also, you may need more control of the rotation point of the objects. In which case you will need to group your custom shape with an empty shape prior to making it into a brush. Create an empty circle or square that is larger than the custom shape, than position the desired rotation point of the custom shape on the center-point of the empty shape, group the objects, make a brush.

I’d probably describe this more as a ‘follow path’ solution than an ‘align’ solution. As ‘Align’ is a different function in Illustrator.

Hope this helps. : )

[Vincent Rosati]

You’ll probably get 20 different solutions to this problem.
It sounds like this might be a job for Photoshop and the Magic Wand tool.

Generally, for making a sharp, professional mask..
-Duplicate and delete the Background Layer.
-Use the Freeform Pen tool to create a precise outline of the subject (make sure to close the path at the end of the operation by waiting for the Pen cursor to show the circle icon when releasing the Pen as the end of your path reaches the start point).
-Go to the Paths palette and Save Path.
-Return to the Layers palette, select the subject layer (with the path still selected) and click Layer/Vector Mask/Current Path. Delete the Shape Layer and the saved Path 1 layer.
-Save As: TIFF, Layered, LZW compression.
This creates an easily tweakable vector mask.
Compound paths can be drawn into the vector mask with the Freeform Pen Tool, in the Paths palette.

However, if your subjects hair requires softer edges you’ll probably need to experiment with Magic Wand selections. You can duplicate your subject layer as many times as you need to achieve different Wand selection results, than merge the good stuff, toss the bad stuff. You’ll be adjusting, among other tweaks, Magic Wand Tolerance, and Select/Modify (to feather the selection).
NOTE: You can also use Make Selection in the Paths palette to generate a live selection from a vector path.

You can also make wand selections in the Channels palette, on an individual color channel. There, when looking at the separated channels, you’ll notice differences in contrast that may help to achieve better/more accurate selection results.

Hope this comes close to answering your question. : )
Again, there are a bunch of solutions to this problem. Hair Masking is a popular subject and you should be able to find many articles on it.