What is digitizing and how do I go about doing this?

Digitizing is the term used for the computer file generated to tell the machine what and where and how to stitch. The easiest way to start is to outsource your digitizing needs and let someone else do the work for you. There are several folks here that would be willing to do that for you at reasonable costs. I do a lot of my own digitizing but I am still learning a great deal about it. Depending on what you wanted, I could help but there are others here that are probably gonna be better than me on really complicated logos and designs.

I lovew to embroidery but know NOTHING about digitizing. I might be interested in doing this later on and I am always having to find someone to do things for me that I really want. I have an owl that I would like to have like a redwork design with just outlines instead of all the fill in stitiches. How would I go about doing this or getting seomeone to to this for me. I currently have the 3D studio software. Do I need to buy something else to learn how to digitize myself? Thanks BCT

Learning digitizing itself is a steep curve of the industry. Yes, you will need an embroidery software with which you will be able to make any necessary modifications to the design.

Outsource your digitizing for now so that you can concentrate on getting your business going. Digitiziing can be time consuming for even the most experienced digitizer. You will need all of your efforts just to learn the machine at this point. You can learn the digitizing later. Just beware there are alot of low priced digitizers that lack in quality. That is not to say that there are no low cost digitizers that offer good quality, I am sure there are, but they are hard to find. Some offer a free trial so that you can grade their work. If you want your customers to buy from you again, I recommend paying a little more for quality digitizing. I learned the hard way. I am currently seeking such a service.