Web 2.0 Vector Starburst

So you have seen this type of starburst (like the one above) all over the web and thought – another Photoshop job. However, Adobe Illustrator® can create this great little starburst with attractive glare and give you just as many options. Best of all, its vector!

STEP 1:

Let’s get started. Begin with selecting your Circle or Oval tool.

Now on your page; hold down Shift + click and drag to make your circle proportional (Which we want it nice and round J ) or you can click the page once you have selected the circle tool to make a defined radius of your circle.


STEP 2:

Let’s make the edges or ridges around our circle, which will give it the burst. Go to the top menu and select Filter>Distort>Zig Zag…

Adjust your ridges according to the length (Size) and how many ridges or Zig Zags you want around your circle. You may also want to switch between the Smooth and Corner selections, but for this tutorial I suggest the Corner. You can select the preview button to view this as you are adjusting (Which is always helpful to see). When done click “OK”.

Now you should have something like this:


STEP 3:

Time to add some color to this star. Begin by selecting the Gradient palette. Choose two or more colors you want to use. Either drag and drop the colors from the Color palette or click on the little squares of color (like the ones in the image below) on the Gradient palette (A) and adjust them with the sliders in the Color palette (B).

A.	B.

Use the Gradient Blend tool to adjust where you want the gradient to position on your star. Just select the tool and place your cursor on one edge your star with the gradient (Make sure the star is selected), then click and drag in the direction you want. You can repeat this multiple times until correct gradilicousity (I made that up) is achieved.

STEP 4:

Lets add a faint stroke onto our edges. To do this we need to select the Stroke on our Color palette and choose the one of the colors we chose for the gradient.

Open the Stroke palette to adjust the size of the stroke. Here we can make the edge larger or smaller as desired. Make sure to select the outside edge (Last box on the Align Stroke).

OK, we should have a star somewhat like this:

STEP 5:

Now to add the gradient. Select your star. Hit CMD+C or Ctrl+C to Copy the image. Then hit CMD+F or Ctrl+F to paste the image in front. Now take your Knife tool



and click + drag through the copy of the star you just made (Don’t worry if you can’t see between layers – the copy is on the front, so just slice through that bad boy as you see it on your screen). You’ll have something like this:

Now click on your select tool

While holding down the shift key, click on the top sliced part of your star. Now hit Delete (This will keep your top sliced part and get rid of the rest you won’t need).

Now click on the top part of your star. And you should see the top part sliced section. Fill it with White from your Color palette.

Click on the Rectangle tool

Click + drag just over the edges of the white filled sliced area with the rectangle tool. Now you should have a big square over your sliced area. Open Window>Swatches and select the black to white gradient . Adjust it vertically with the Gradient Blend tool . Now with your select tool, select everything. Hold down the Shift button and click the star itself. Which will deselect it, while leaving your gradient box and the top sliced part of your star selected. You should have it looking like this:

Now open Window>Transparency. On the palette you should see a little arrow in the top right hand corner click on it.

Select Make Opacity Mask.

You should get:

Now just add text and your done!

*NOTE: You can arrange the text (Object>Arrange) below the opacity mask if you want it to overlap some of your text.