Star drafts

**helvene** · 08-02-2014, 10:22 AM

These are some of the stars I use in my space maps.
Feel free to use them wherever you believe they fit in.

orange_dwarf.png red_dwarf.png yellow_dwarf.png

The yellow dwarf is a bit bigger then two others due to the corona size.

**Meriba** · 08-02-2014, 03:36 PM

Really nice work. Any tips to do that? Maybe you could do a tutorial for these awesome star maps. Congratulations.

**Bogie** · 08-03-2014, 02:08 AM

Those suns are Hot!

**Gamerprinter** · 08-03-2014, 04:54 AM

So what software do you use to create these... Photoshop? They look very painterly, so I assume you're using an image editor of some kind.

**helvene** · 08-03-2014, 12:07 PM

I mainly use Photoshop; tried Gimp at some point, but didn't like it.

The process itself is rather simple.

1. Make a new image with a black background.
2. Make a new layer.
3. Pick two basic colors you would like for your star and fill the layer you've just created with Filter > Render > Clouds
4. Now you may want to scale the layer a bit, so that the fractal pattern you have and will be using for your star irregularity is more detailed.
5. Using circular selection tool cut a circle out of the said layer.
6. Select visible pixels of the layer and apply Filter > Distort > Spherize in normal mode with 100% transformation. You may want to run this step several times, though I find once is usually enough.
7. Now, apply layer effects. I've been using Outer glow in screen mode with 100% opacity, 100px size, softer technique and #ffa821 for glow color and Inner glow in screen mode with 50% opacity, 65px size, softer technique and #ff9046. Whether you're using solid or gradient glow is completely up to you. Color overlay in screen mode can be used to tweak the sun color.
8. Most likely the sun disk is a bit too dim at this point. Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast. I won't give any further instructions for this step, just trust your eyes.
9. Now, the corona. Make a new layer, switch background and foreground colors to BW. Apply Filter > Render > Clouds to the new layer.
10. Switch the layer to Color Dodge mode.
11. You may want to scale it down a bit to add more turbulence.
12. If you think the corona is a too big for your star, go back to the disc layer and lower it's Outer Glow size.

This is the result I got in about 5 minutes, it took much longer to describe the steps than to actually make it. It's an original image with layers unmerged.

Should this post be moved to tutorials section now?