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When it comes to impact and relative simplicity, it is very hard to beat a
skilfully composed starburst effect. Used by the advertising industry for
decades, they are surprisingly eye-catching, and can make totally mundane
objects appear much more enticing. There are, of course, several different
methods for creating these effects. For the sake of this tutorial,
however, I will cover the two most popular techniques, used to create hard-edged
and soft-edged starbursts, respectively.
Hard-Edged Starbursts
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Step 1: Create a new document of a suitable size
with a default white-filled background. Try to stick to square
dimensions (i.e. 300px by 300px) as they will yield the best results. You
can always crop the image later if you desire.
Add a new transparent
layer on top of the background and make it active. Then, using the
Rectangular Marquee Tool, select several vertical rectangular areas across the layer
and Edit > Fill them with a colour of your choice (in this case I chose
#6988B5). You should end up with something that resembles my
image on the left. It isn't important to copy the same pattern, so
just use your own creativity - in the end, it all adds to the uniqueness of
the effect. |
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Step 2: Now all you have to do is run
Filter > Distort > Polar Coordinates with the 'Rectangular to Polar'
option selected, and press OK. And there you go - a very simple
hard-edged starburst effect.
This technique yields a very distinctive
and attractive burst effect with an almost cartoon-like quality. Due
to the distortion of the source lines, however, fuzziness and pixellation
also creeps in, which must be subsequently dealt with by
anti-aliasing techniques, or image size reduction. |
Soft-Edged Starbursts
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Step 1: Create a brand new document of a suitable
size with a single background layer. Try to stick to square dimensions (i.e.
300px by 300px) as they will yield the best results. You can always crop the
image later if you desire. Then, after selecting two similar colours as the
background and foreground colours (I chose #6988B5 and #F9F9F9
respectively), draw a vertical gradient across the background layer using
the gradient tool. |
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Step 2: Run Filter > Distort > Wave from the
main menu and enter the settings on the left into the dialog box that pops
up. Press OK. |
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Step 3: Go to Filter > Distort > Polar
Coordinates, ensure the 'Rectangular to Polar' setting is selected, and
press OK to view the final effect.
Unlike the hard-edged starburst, this
comparative effect is much more gentle, and won't give people a migraine.
You may need to play around with the Hue & Saturation, however, to make the
colours fit your project a little better. |
- Tutorial written by Man1c M0g
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User: ootbruli (#42061)
Date: Sun May 20, 2007. 17:22:23 | Post #15 of 16 |
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Quote from facelady;38463: You have done it again. Another tutorial that even I could follow. I love the look. Thanks so much. |
I agree with the above ^.^ will be using it to make eye textures :D |
Reply to this post |
User: sadcase- (#40395)
Date: Mon Apr 09, 2007. 07:13:12 | Post #13 of 16 |
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Quote from tamlin;40311: There are graphics beside the text (see attached screenshot) - maybe your browser settings need tweaking if you can't see them.
Sorry, but I don't know what you mean by "i can't include the settings". |
thanks a lot . ! could you help me screenshot the images for the 2nd one ? the image with the settings ... |
Reply to this post |
User: Tamlin (#40311)
Date: Sat Apr 07, 2007. 09:52:21 | Post #12 of 16 |
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Quote from sadcase-;40306: are there supposed to be graphics beside the text? because i can't see it... and i can't include the settings :( |
There are graphics beside the text (see attached screenshot) - maybe your browser settings need tweaking if you can't see them.
Sorry, but I don't know what you mean by "i can't include the settings". |
Reply to this post |
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