53 Responses to “15 Unbelievable Photo-realistic Vector Illustrations”

1. Desfaziendo Entuertos » Blog Archive » Ilustraciones vectoriales hiper-realistas
   August 11th, 2008 at 1:18 am

   

   [...] formas, y si mi criterio te parece exagerado, creo que deberías echar un vistazo a este post en  http://digital-artist-toolbox.com/?p=28. En él el autor ha realizado una recopilación de los 15 mejores vectores de este estilo a su [...]

2. PCARTER!
   August 11th, 2008 at 5:48 am

   

   These are crazy. Barely believable!

3. Andrew Houle
   August 12th, 2008 at 1:17 pm

   

   Unbelievable, I mean seriously I’m having a tough time believing it! These are awesome!

4. D.A.T
   August 12th, 2008 at 1:28 pm

   

   @ Andrew Houle – definitely hard to believe. check the artist’s page for the wire frame.

   @ Pcarter! – Thanks for the comment!

5. Max | Design Shard
   August 14th, 2008 at 8:57 pm

   

   agreed that that is amazing, must take lots and lots of time great post, :O

6. NaldzGraphics
   August 16th, 2008 at 4:15 am

   

   its totally amazing. especially the 12th picture.great

7. Digital Artist Toolbox: An Inspiration For Designers And Illustrators on Blog24
   August 18th, 2008 at 5:40 am

   

   [...] prime example of an inspirational post is ‘15 Unbelievable Photo-realistic Vector Illustrations‘ in which the author has found some truly incredible vector [...]

8. Weekly Review Aug 11-18 | GoMediaZine
   August 18th, 2008 at 1:03 pm

   

   [...] Vector Photorealism – why not just take a picture? I still don’t get it. [...]

9. Henry Quiara
   August 18th, 2008 at 2:19 pm

   

   So, you start with a photograph, then you trace it so well that it looks just like the photograph. It does look stunning as all get out but why would you do this if you already had the photograph? I could understand if the starting photo was degraded or of low quality and you wanted a nice clean version, or if you hand drew something, scanned it in and then made it look realistic. But seriously why trace a perfectly good photo?

10. Avangelist
    August 19th, 2008 at 7:28 am

    

    That is mind blowing. As always fur seems to be the one that has caught most out as a texture.

    @Henry Quiara – You are not paying attention, a lot of these have come from hand sketches to start with not photographs.

11. Artskills » Blog Archive » 15 rendus “hyper réalistes”
    August 19th, 2008 at 9:45 am

    

    [...] frontière entre le réel et le numérique s’estompe chaque jour un peu plus. Pour voir les 15 créations c’est par ici. (merci Art176 pour le [...]

12. JustinEdge
    August 19th, 2008 at 10:06 am

    

    I’ve done some photo-realistic illustrations before, mostly to get a solid grasp on the gradient mesh tool and learn ways to apply it in a more useful way. I’ve had arguments with people about the advantages to having fully vector art over a photograph. The argument is a pretty obvious one but at the same time doing photo-realistic vectors at this point in the design world is a serious waste of time, unless you consider spending 100 hours on creating a vector french horn good times. With the advancements in printing and digital photography technologies today the days of needing vector art for large format printing is long gone. Vector will always produce better print quality but if you’re designing a billboard graphic no one will ever see the difference between a vector and a raster file from 100 feet away. Regardless it’s pretty amazing stuff. I’m still far more impressed with the detail in technical illustration of people like Kevin Hulsey and Yukio Miyamoto than photo-realistic vector art which is actually really easy, just looks complicated. Here’s a tut – http://www.creativebush.com/tutorials/mesh_tutorial.php

13. » 15 Ubelievable Photo-realistic Vector illustrations | « Аз, пиратът
    August 19th, 2008 at 1:16 pm

    

    [...] http://digital-artist-toolbox.com/?p=28 wow.   [...]

14. CP
    August 19th, 2008 at 7:25 pm

    

    The one of the indian is amazing. WOW

15. Fubiz
    August 20th, 2008 at 3:23 am

    

    Thanks for the selection !

16. nando
    August 20th, 2008 at 2:31 pm

    

    These photorealistic vectors are INSANE, but if it were me, I would just model the objects in 3DS Max Studio and Render them out through Maxwell Studio Renderer

    just some food for thought

17. ambuh
    September 2nd, 2008 at 6:38 pm

    

    photoshopped

18. Bunny got Blog
    September 6th, 2008 at 11:25 am

    

    These are great.

19. holla
    September 8th, 2008 at 1:54 pm

    

    the cat was the only one i could tell wasn’t a photo.
    that was ridiculous.

20. shadhe
    September 10th, 2008 at 2:36 am

    

    I’m not sure which of these you consider to be photorealistic, but if you really can’t tell the difference between these and a photo you have very poor vision. I’m not saying they aren’t amazing, they are great work, but don’t advertise them as something they are not: photorealistic. It’s not even that important really, you just threw that in the title to get the views.

21. Hillery
    September 13th, 2008 at 12:45 am

    

    @shadhe- What? That seems like an awful lot of self righteous anger for an opinion that is clearly not held by the majority. I kind of *hope* you’re a troll, and you’re not really suggesting these are not photo realistic. There’s only one on that list I would think to question, and my eyesight is more than satisfactory. Lighten up!

22. shadhe
    September 13th, 2008 at 3:24 am

    

    @Hillery- I don’t have the habbit of trolling, i’m more of an educated opinion actually. I think the photos are great too, but i don’t get why all the focus is on them being photo-realistic when they aren’t, as opposed to them being good works of art.

    You know it doesn’t have to be photo-realistic to be quality, right?

23. Pete
    September 15th, 2008 at 3:07 pm

    

    Shadhe, if these works are not “photrealistic” then I must be shitting photshopped turds!

24. Steve
    September 16th, 2008 at 1:23 am

    

    Truly amazing.

25. Matt Godwin
    September 27th, 2008 at 5:42 pm

    

    These are spectacular. Thanks for sharing.

26. sandy
    October 2nd, 2008 at 11:19 pm

    

    Man, that’s great…Thanks for providing such a good info………

27. bgates87
    October 5th, 2008 at 8:46 pm

    

    These are all great but if I had to pick the worst images they would be the cat and the three images following it. I’ve done vector illustrations before but I would never have the patience to go into this level of detail. OK I have to leave this site now the white text on black background is giving me a headache.

28. Vetor? «
    November 12th, 2008 at 12:15 pm

    

    [...] Site Digital Artist Toolbox reuniu 15 trabalhos fantásticos de artistas diversos que produzem imagens super realistas [...]

29. 15 incríveis ilustrações vetoriais de foto-realismo : diversitá - arte, mídias e relevância
    November 12th, 2008 at 7:01 pm

    

    [...] Digital Artist Toolbox (via mailist do [...]

30. Dreams
    November 12th, 2008 at 7:08 pm

    

    This is pretty surreal if these photos are all vectors. I have never seen anything like it being achieved with vectors.

31. Oficina da Net
    November 13th, 2008 at 3:25 am

    

    Wonderfull…

32. brett
    December 11th, 2008 at 7:05 am

    

    great post, and I’m loving your blog. But I say this not to start any sort of argument… but I’m really having a hard time believing most of these are vector. I’m not calling you a liar or anything – I just… really? I mean, if they are vector, then they are dang good. But, I’m having a hard time believing that these aren’t just photographs.

    And yes – for the argument taking place before, take this from a professional photographer, they look like photographs. Dead-on. Hence why I’m having trouble believing they’re vectors.

    Of course, I agree with evryone’s comments about practicality… but, if it’s’ art, than practiclity is pointless, its about creation.

    Great discussion!

33. shadhe
    December 13th, 2008 at 5:01 am

    

    It doesn’t matter how many people are naive, that doesn’t make the realistic less smart. If you’d take the pictures and compare them to a real photograph you might see sense, tho with a bit of intelligence you wouldn’t need to see them side by side to tell that these, beautiful as they are, are not photo-realistic.
    There is no tomato, baseball glove, glass of cuba libre, or anything in real life for that matter which is so perfectly smooth, static, and flat. If real life looked like these vector illustrations, it would give us a headake.
    You don’t NEED to say they are photorealistic, which they’re not, for them to be great works of art, which they are!!!

34. D.A.T
    December 13th, 2008 at 10:44 am

    

    @ Brett- Just follow the links to the artist pages and you can see many of the meshes for these amazing vectors.

    Thanks for the comments!

35. THESE IMAGES ARE FAKE AND I CAN’T DEAL. « SNAKKATTAKK
    January 12th, 2009 at 12:31 pm

    

    [...] images are created with Adobe Illustrator and they are incredibly detailed. I can’t comprehend the time and brain power it took for an artist to create these images. Not [...]

36. » Real ou Vetor? em ::| Viva La Design |:: - Blog
    January 15th, 2009 at 3:44 pm

    

    [...] a imagem abaixo: Agora responda, essa imagem é uma foto ou um vetor? R. Vetor Se não acredita clique aqui e veja o resto da galeria foto [...]

37. HRH
    January 24th, 2009 at 10:56 am

    

    Unbelievable. Absolutely brilliant!

38. brian
    January 30th, 2009 at 7:05 am

    

    fair enough, great skills on illustrator.
    but is vector art meant to look like vectors or photos?!

    take a photo and get the same result, quicker and easier.

    i don’t doubt the skill and time here, but was it necessary?!

39. Nick
    March 13th, 2009 at 2:40 pm

    

    The correct term for this kind of art is HYPERREALISM. Hyperrealistic artwork is the perfection of photorealism. Photorealism can never be perfect, because the real world never is perfect. Most people can actually “feel” is an image is hyperrealistic… it feels “too perfect”… but other people, like the artists who made these images, are (almost) obsessed with perfection.

40. Dape
    April 7th, 2009 at 1:00 am

    

    These images look amazing they must take a long time to produce probably hour after hour perfected what is already available. As A fine Artist and poet I like to employ the element of chance into the creative process when I create an image or poem there is always movement it becomes part of synchrotic story.

41. Sim, isto é vetor - alexandrelattari/blog | de tudo um pouco. sobre um pouco de tudo
    April 19th, 2009 at 5:40 pm

    

    [...] Impressionante a qualidade destes vetores. Se não fosse mostrada a técnica utilizada poderiam ser vistos como imagens. Highside gallery. Veja outras galerias. [...]

42. 41 Amazing Tilt-shift miniature faking photographs |
    August 15th, 2009 at 2:39 pm

    

    [...] you think these pictures are hard to believe check out 15 Unbelievable Photo-Realistic Vector Illustrations Share and [...]

43. fifi
    August 23rd, 2009 at 6:16 pm

    

    the point of these aren’t for photos, the point is trying to achieve the best knowledge and skill at illustrator tools

    and as you can see these are pretty much masters

44. Great art, eye popping
    September 14th, 2009 at 3:54 am

    

    Wow wonderful, awesome. hard to believe.

    Shadhe give some not so sensible arguments. True art does not need to be realistic to be called art but that argument does not support anything you said. After all there are a lot of art that is realistic.

    If they are too perfect that is because of how the artist portray them and don’t take them to “creating headache if they are real” imagine how more headache we would get if abstract arts is the real thing. If they would be if they are real, you don’t need to cause they are not.

    “Take a photo quicker and easier” and ugly. First since they are not photo it gives the artist more freedom. Real photos would not be able to achieve some effects this art have especially the very clean surfaces.

    “But was it necessary” n,o but same thing could be said to other arts. Is it necessary to do it abstractly? Is it necessary to have supper heroes in comics? Is it necessary to have this overly decorated Louis XI chair? NO! But then we want to express ourselves. If all art is just abstract… it would be plain dull. Please don’t look at this in practical terms for they don’t need to be practical, look at them in artistic terms, as a work of art.

    So in this argument they are masters. They had poured their time and attention to perfect their skills, just like real masters do. They don’t try to fit to others ideas and ideals. They have they’re own and stick to it. Its important for artist to have their own identity.

45. shadhe
    September 14th, 2009 at 12:44 pm

    

    You’re twisting my words.
    i did NOT say they were not art,
    i said they were NOT photo-realistic!

    Also, you are an idiot, the only time i said the word NEED was when i said you don’t need to cal them photo-realistic for them to be quality work. DO YOU EVEN READ BEFORE REPLYING?!

46. Nicola Connolly
    October 13th, 2009 at 1:34 am

    

    Absolutely amazing work! It’s an inspiration to see such high quality photo-realistic illustration. I would be really interested to know how long each of these images took the artist/designer to complete. Are most of them based on photographs? If so, it would be brilliant to see the illustration next to the original photograph to compare and contrast the atmospheric qualities/reveal the techniques used. Fantastic collection, thanks for sharing.

47. Seth
    December 16th, 2009 at 7:17 am

    

    this is the blog post that inspired me to do my own. I owe my original interest to Nielsen and his motorcycle illustrations.

    here is my own vector photorealism (@60hrs) http://blog.sethteeters.net/post/285219223/vector-photorealism-by-seth-teeters

48. D.A.T
    December 23rd, 2009 at 10:10 am

    

    WOW! impressive work Seth.

49. Tom - Website Design Bristol
    February 12th, 2010 at 9:19 am

    

    WOW, I don’t often say this but these are truly breathe taking! I do a bit of illustration myself and can see the effort these must of taken. Illustrators don’t get the respect they deserve!

50. Jim
    April 5th, 2010 at 6:47 am

    

    Tracing a photograph is not all that incredibly exciting. Great, they can copy photos with Illustrator. Why not just snap the photo and be done with it.

    These guys go to a lot of trouble just to get the photo they started out with. I fail to see what is amazing.

    Anyone can trace something, the real artists are the ones that can draw things without tracing and come up with something totally new vs. copying what is already there.

51. Vectips Monthly Roundup - August | Vectips
    May 21st, 2010 at 11:30 am

    

    [...] 15 Unbelievable Photo-realistic Vector Illustrations [...]

52. Arts Stock
    July 23rd, 2010 at 5:10 am

    

    Here you can find Photo-realistic Vector Drawings – http://vector.artsstock.com/page/search/tags/photo-realistic

53. Maquetador wordpress
    July 25th, 2010 at 7:14 am

    

    Really nice photos