10e20 Blog

Starburst are a great way to lead the eye to the focus of a design or an image. I have 2 simple ways that you can go about doing them.

One works off of the Distort filter and the other is a few repetitions of the Transform and Rotate commands.

Option 1 (easy to do, but lacks control)

Step 1. Set up your document and create a new layer. On this layer make rectangle selections that span the height of the page by using the Marquee tool, and after the first selection hold down shift to add to that selection.

Step 2. Fill the selection with color. Do this by using the Paint Bucket tool or better yet go to Edit/Fill and choose the background or foreground color.

Step 3. With the same layer selected go to Filter/Distort/Polar Coordinates and select Rectangular to Polar.

Option 2 (More precise and easier to refine)

Step 1. Create a new layer on your document and using the Polygonal Lasso tool create a sort of expanded ray beam triangle starting from the center of the source and extend it out as far as you like.

Step 2. Fill the selection with color or a gradient. I fill with a solid color first and then decide my fade point when the starburst is complete.

Step 3. Duplicate the selection and go to Edit/Transform/Rotate. Move the center point to the outer corner that the ray is coming from. Rotate slightly or as wide as you want the gap to be.

Step 4. Now with the new ray layer selected Duplicate and go to Edit/Transform/Again.

Step 5. Repeat the last step as many times as it takes to complete the starburst. If you are good with your keyboard shortcuts than this is a very simple thing to do. By creating a new layer each time you can then go back and adjust certain layers or make some of the gaps larger than others to obtain an organic feel.

Step 6. Merge the layers and select the outer edges with the Lasso tool. Go to Select/Feather and enter a number that works for you. Hit delete and continue to delete until the fade is good. Or you can apply a Layer Mask.

Here is the layer order for my final image. Made a duplicate of the boy silhouetted and put the starburst layer sandwiched between that an the original.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the 10e20 RSS Feed!