Ok, I've been asked to convert a PSD file to a vector image. I know what a vector is, but I've never worked with Illustrator or vectors before, so I need some help here, I don't know how to work this stuff. I've seen some of you recreate things as vectors, but I don't know if you can simply convert an image to a vector or not.
If I have to recreate it, would anyone be interested in helping me out? It's a fairly simple image, only black, white and orange, I know FootFungas or one of you ither vector-knowledgable masters could reproduce this in minutes probably. Need help by the end of today, so any help is greatly appreciated.

update: here is the file (PSD) : http://www.box.net/public/68kndqmvzy

mason, let me take a stab at your image

ok, I'll upload it and post a link here shortly; it's a PSD.

update: ok, here's the file.
http://www.box.net/public/68kndqmvzy

The splat will be rather challenging, but I'll see what I can do.
I assume you'll need an Illustrator file - what is it going to be used for?

It's going to be used on clothing I believe. Maybe banners, as well.

try tracing the bitmap in flash, sometimes gives good effects

I don't have any experience in Flash or Illustrator, otherwise I would do it. I can't figure out the controls in Illustrator and then reproduce it in time, and I know there are several vector experts here, so I figured if I was ever going to ask for some help from PSC, now would be the time.

All I got was a flattened image. Do you have the layered PSD?

hang on, I'm almost there

sorry, that's al lthe guy gave me...I was wondering why it was flattened as well. Sorry.

See if these files will work

http://www.box.net/public/8diq4hrq69#main

Looks good, Vokaris.

Oh, and Mason don't hesitate if you need help.
It'll give me something to do.

wELL I M GLAD I CHECKED OUT VOLKS'S IMAGE FIRST ....VERY VERY NICE CLEAN JOB ...THE SPLATTERING MUST OF BEEN TEDIOUS.....COOL WORK .....KUDOS!!!!


5150

The splat took all of 2 minutes to make.
- I blew up the source to 8in wide x 600 dpi
- converted to greyscale
- adjusted the levels sliders to make a b/w image with control over the remaining detail
- converted to bitmap, saved as tif
- traced to vector using CorelTrace (part of the CorelDraw package). I still haven't tried the built-in tool in Illustrator CS2.

The rest of it - speedometer details and letters - was more tedious (15-20 minutes) as it was drawn from scratch using the source on a locked layer below as a reference. Luckily the fonts were pretty standard stuff.