In this tutorial we create three dimensional glossy stars using Adobe Illustrator. This is perfect for psychedelic, fun poster printing, themed postcard printing campaigns or banners needing that magical effect. Let us start by using the most obvious tool to create the base of our graphic.
- Of course, make sure that you open a new document in Adobe Illustrator. Set to creating a web document or a print document, depending on the purpose and destination of your 3D glossy stars.
- Now, we shall use the “star tool” to create our star. Simple Look for it in the tools window. You may want to click and hold the left mouse button to see the option for the start tool under shape tools.
- Next, click and drag the star tool over the canvass. If you want to make sure that the shape snaps to the horizontal plane and never gets rendered at an angle, hold down the SHIFT key as drag the mouse creating the star shape.
- Also, keep in mind that if you want longer and thinner rays or arms around your star, then you can hold the CTRL key as you expand the size of your start graphic. For our purposes, we did not alter the default size of the rays as the default is good for our design purposes.
- Once you are done, Make sure you create another duplicate copy of your original start. We will use this for layer. Simply press CTRL+C and CTRL+V while your star shaped is selected and save this for layer by just moving the duplicate at the side.
- Now, we will add some extra accents to our star of course. First, select the line segment tool in our tools window.
- Next, connect each point of the star to the other point directly opposite to it like so.
- Once you are done, it should look a little like this:
- Now select all the lines and the start shape by dragging the selection tool across your assembled star figure.
- Next, go to the pathfinder window (Shortcut SHIFT+CTRL+F9) and click on the option “divide”.
- This enables you to select the individual sections of our star precisely.
- Start adding colour gradients to each individual part. Make sure that you add colour gradient combinations in alternate themes to get a more creative effect in your star.
- If you used strokes in shaping your star from the beginning, make sure you remove it now so that the star looks more of a whole figure. Just go to the stroke drop down menu in the control window to remove the stroke by selecting NONE as the value.
- Great! Now we have a nice looking glossy type star. Let us add an accent to it. First place the duplicate of the star we made over the current design.
- Next, add a colour gradient to the star just like how you did it with the original start. Then Resize it a bit so that it is smaller than the original one.
- Then, select Effect -> Stylize -> Feather.
- Afterward, add a 5px feather on the window that opens.
- Finally, adjust the opacity of this layer by about 60%
- With that, you should get a nice gradient coloured star with a lighter gloss set in front.
- Now, this star is okay as it is. But if you want it to look a bit 3D, first group everything by selecting Object -> Group
- Then, select go to Effect -> 3D -> Extrude and Bevel
- Lastly, just adjust the where your star should face.
- Once you press okay, you get your 3D glossy star ready!
Visit this site, Printplace.com, to read more about Graphic Design Tutorials.
Outstanding tutorial with simple steps defined and create it with style.
ReplyDeleteWow very impressive...simple straight to the point, informative. I can use this to take my skills to the next level!!! Thanks a lot!!
ReplyDelete