The Starburst Effect

For all you Photoshop fans, this post is for you. Photoshop is very dear to my heart. I love it, maybe even a bit more than Preston (kisses, Preston, you’re my number 2). (:

Step 1: Open a new document in Photoshop (I have CS4, I have not tried this in CS3 or before). I made mine 12×18 at 200 dpi, you can do this with any size of document, you’ll just have to change some settings below.

Step 2: Choose a foreground and background color. I chose a lighter blue for the foreground and a darker blue for the background.

Step 3: On your tools pallet, click on the gradient tool (it’s behind the paint bucket tool, if you’ve never used it before).

Step 4: After you’ve clicked on your gradient tool, this tool bar will show across the top of your screen. I’ve added 4 red arrows to show you what to look out for. You need to make sure all four look the same on your tool bar.

Step 5: If the gradient isn’t showing foreground to background, click on the box below (I’ve added a red arrow to show you which box).

Step 6: This box will pop open, you will need to click on the upper left box (again, I’ve added a red arrow to point it out). This will select your foreground to background gradient. Click OK.

Step 7: With your gradient tool, drag from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen, while holding the shift key. The shift key will ensure you get a perfectly straight line.

Step 8: If you did the previous step correctly, this is what your document will look like.

Step 9: Go up to your “Filter” menu, then click on “Distort” and then “Wave”

Step 10: This dialog box will open up. I chose the following settings for my 12×18 document. You may need to play with these settings if your document is a different size. Make sure “Type” is “Sine.” Click OK.

Step 11: Go back up to your “Filter” drop-down menu, click on “Distort” and then “Polar Coordinates”

Step 12: This dialog box will show up. Make sure “Rectangular to Polar” is selected. Click OK.

Step 13: There you have it, the starburst effect.

And, now, here’s how I used this awesome effect for a poster design:

This sweet poster was done for my friends Donnie and Danielle. Go check out their awesome site about volleyball.

PS, I didn’t come up with this starburst effect all by myself. I’ve seen it done before, but I couldn’t remember how to do it. So I used my magical powers (google) and I got some help from other tutorials. I hate listening to my voice on the camera, so instead of a video tutorial like these two, I decided to break mine down into a step-by-step written process. Here are the two tutorials I used: tutorial 1 and tutorial 2.