Learn how to create a sparkling clean stars effect with this photoshop tutorial
Here goes... my first Photoshop tutorial; in this tutorial we will learn to create a very nice sparkling effect and added to a photo, like the one you see below (you can also see some smart use of the sparkling effect in my previous works presented here)..
STEP 1
We need to create a star that will be the base of our effect. Let's start by opening a new work document with 21x21 pixels. You can change this size according to your needs. Now select the Pen Tool and draw a star shape like you see in the picture below (in the photo you have the star shape at 100% and 1600% zoom):
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We must use the star we just rasterized as a brush. We do this by selecting the star layer and then go to the Edit menu and select Define Custom Shape then click OK.
STEP 2
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Now with a few brush present we can do that sparkling stars effect you saw in the upper examples. Open the Brushes Palette and let's start: from the Brush Presets select our star brush we just created (it's the last brush on the menu), then from the Brush Tip Shape set the Spacing to 250%-350%, from the Shape Dynamics set the Size Jitter to 40%-60%, Minimum Diameter to 25%-35% and Angle Jitter to 35%-65%, leaving the rest of the options default, and in the end from the Scattering option set the Scatter to 450%-550% and Count to 2 or 3. For a better understanding, you have 3 printscreens of what these presets should look like.
STEP 3
Here is our image thst will have the effect applied on it:
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