How To - Written by Kerry on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 23:18 - 8 Comments
How to Create a Starburst Graphic
I see these things everywhere. On the web, in print, even on clothing. Kind of retro, kind of modern, kind of asian, kind of cool. I found a tutorial I liked and I have rewritten it using Adobe Photoshop CS3 for windows. The Starburst translates well as a background for items in a print catalog as well as an e-commerce website. Take a look at the tutorial that follows. This is a very simple filter based tutorial. On a scale of 1 to 10 I give it a 4 on the difficulty scale.
First thing we need to do is create a new 500 x 500 pixel workspace in Photoshop.

Second select two colors (foreground/background) for the rays of the sunburst.
Once the colors have been selected, we need to apply a halftone filter to the image.
Filter>>Sketch>>Halftone Pattern

After selecting the mentioned filter the following dialog box will display. You will need to set the Contrast to 50. I chose 10 for the size. The size can be adjusted depending on the overall size of the graphic. Since I selected 500 x 500 pixels a size of 10 works perfectly.

Following is the result of our Halftone Pattern filter application to our workspace.

Next we need to rotate the workspace 90 degrees either clockwise or counter clockwise. The tutorial shows a 90 degree clockwise rotation but it doesn’t matter. We need vertical stripes instead of the horizontal. See the results below.


One last filter to apply.
Filter>>Distort>>Polar Coordinates
Make sure the “Rectangular to Polar” option is selected on the Polar Coordinates dialog box.


And finally the finished product.

ENJOY!
Disclosure
Idea for tutorial from the following sites:
phong.com
Photoshop Archives
Minty Ferret
8 Comments
Nicely written tutorial. Honestly I probably couldn’t of drawn a Starburst easily and I’m considered a PhotoShop Pro.
I have CS3, and when i open a new psd file, the FILTER>SKETCH is shadowed. What am I doing wrong?
@Richard – I have just done a fresh install of Photoshop CS3 and for the life of me I can’t make that filter gray out. If there is no image to apply to it is grayed out but once I create an image it is available. Maybe a web search could help. Sorry I can’t be of more assistance.
@Sam – The starburst custom shape that I have in PS CS3 looks nothing like this. However, I don’t think it would take to much to create one (or several). The beauty of the tutorial is control over the width of the rays.
this is great! one question. how do I change the color if I want to make it different once it is completed? do I have to start all over again?































Jul 8, 2008
08:48 pm