Photoshop: Star Surge

Posted at flash-game-design.com in Photoshop
Learn how to create a colorful surge of stars.


This Photoshop tutorial will show you how to create surge of stars.

Step 1.
Create a new document and fill the background with black. Make a new layer called 'stripe' and use the Rectangular marquee tool to create a thin orange stripe. Leave the orange stripe selected (moving dots). Now we are going to create an inner glow. From the top menu, choose Select > Modify > Contract and enter 2 as the value. Pick a light yellow color and then from the top menu go to Select > Feather and enter 1 as the value. Use the Paint bucket tool to fill the selection.
a)	b)		c)

Step 2.

Now we're going to create an outer glow. Create a new layer, called 'Outer glow', below the first layer we created. Reselect the stripe layer and then expand the selection by 2 pixels ( Select > Modify > Expand ). Feather the selection by 2 pixels and then fill it with the same light yellow used for the inner glow. Next merge the top 2 layers by clicking on 'stripe' in the layers panel and then going to Layer > Merge in the top menu.

a) b) c)

Step 3.

With the newly merged layer, use the transform tool to distort it (Edit > Transform > Distort ) as shown in the image below. Duplicate the layer. Next we need to rotate the duplicated layer (Edit > Transform > Rotate )

a) b) c)

Step 4.

Make another duplicate of the layer and then repeat the process. Now, merge the 2 duplicate layers together. Duplicate the merged layer. We should now have 5 stripes. Flip the duplicate around by going to Edit >Transform > Flip Horizontal

a) b) c)

Step 5.

Move the flipped layer near the other 3 stripes as shown below, Now select the custom shape tool from the tool bar (line tool should be the deafult tool). Click the arrow pointing down to reveal the available shapes. If the stars aren't present you'll need to load "shapes". Select the 3rd star from the left

a) b)

Step 6.

Create an orange star. Select the star and then create a new layer above it. Fill that layer with a dark brown color. Contract the selection by 2 pixels and then use it to delete the brown area of the star. The orange star will now have a brown border.

a) b) c)

Step 7.

Now select the orange layer and expand the selection by 2 pixels. Create a new layer below it and fill it with a grey/brown colour. You should now have 3 layers to make the star. Merge all 3 together and then duplicate the result. Create 4 or 5 different sized duplicates ( Edit >Transform > Scale )

a) b) c)

Step 8.

Duplicate each size of star once more and then change their hue by going to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. To change the color to red, you'll need to reduce the hue by about -18. Now make many duplicates of the stars and spread them around the stripes. And soyou have created a surge of stars!.

a) b)

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