Preserved Topic: Starburst

Is there any way to generate 'starburst'-type effects that occur off lights, etc, without having to import a star dingbat (I find these look too unrealistic)?<P>------------------
Someone who thinks logically is a nice change to the real world.

Yes there is. What you are talking about is called a 'Lens Flare'. If you have Photoshop you can do one of two things to make a lens flare.
One: You can build one by hand, or
Two: With your image open you can goto Filter>Lighting effects>Lens Flare, and play around with those. <P>------------------
-I'm not a complete idiot,
there are some parts missing.

Okay, I may be just plain dumb, but all I can get is a semi-circular lens flare, and not a 'star' shaped one. Help??<P>------------------
Someone who thinks logically is a nice change to the real world.

If you're in PS 5 check out your brush pallete and choose "load brushes" select the goodies folder and then the brushes folder....<P>Load all of those brushes one at a time....<P>Now go back into your brush pallete and you'll see the different star type brush effects. <P>Select the airbrush tool, make sure your foreground color is white (or whatever color you want the star to be) double click the airbrush and reduce the opacity to something around 20-30%, also check fade to transparency 20-30 levels...<P>Now maintain the same spot on the star and spray your brush in stages instead of holding it down, that way you can go into the history pallete and undo unneeded sprays...<P>Of course these are merely guidelines and you should play and tweak and stir until satisfied...<P>------------------
"I may not be fast, but I sure am slow."

I got a star. Here is how I did it.
I made a new image (200x200pixels 72dpi background transparent)
Shift+backspace select fill with black.
Goto Filters>Render>Lens Flare.
I selected 105mm Prime click on OK.
You should have a star / lens flare (For a brighter star use a greater percentage of brightness.)<P>Now if that does not work for you I have yet one more option that you can try.
Goto http://www.diardsoftware.com/ and download this nifty little program called Universe Image Creator.
There is a little button in the program called 'Lens Flare' that makes stared lens flares. (I guess it's supposed to look spacey or somthing.)
I posted a screen shot at http://www.innerworld.com/F1_error/uni.jpg of a standard lens flare and one with 8 streaks, double intensity in both boxes. You'll see what I mean when you get there.
If that doesn't work for you, come on back and let us know. We'll figure something out.
<P>------------------
-I'm not a complete idiot,
there are some parts missing.

Another way to get that with the lens flare
F-1, is to slect new layer, set as screen, and fill black, then do the lens flare thing ;-)<P>------------------
"I may not be fast, but I sure am slow."

Yeah, I was just going for a simplicity. We've gotta find out if that is the kind of star TheKat wants first. If it is then yeah we can play with it and make it do all kinds of things. And if it not the kind of star-flare they want. I guess we can try hand building a few. <P>BTW Papa Kudos on the brush thing. I forgot Photoshop came with those (Too wrapped up in my own world I guess). And you can download even more brushes from all over the place. So you might find your star somewhere. <P>------------------
-I'm not a complete idiot,
there are some parts missing.

Thanks guys, that was what I needed. I think the problem was more in how I expressed what I wanted; the sort of star-shaped or cross-shaped 'flare' or 'burst' you get when light reflects off a shiny surface. I guess I needed to RDBMS, but I didn't know about the brush shapes, and the star types there are perfect. Again, thanks muchly. <IMG SRC="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif"><P>Someone who thinks logically is a nice change to the real world.