Photoshop On Mac : Creating Simple Sparkles

Hi there! This time, I’ll share with you another simple tutorial on how to create a sparkles in Photoshop.. Sound interesting? then read on!

STEP 1 : Firstly you need to open your selected photo on Photoshop which you’ll later need to add a sparkle effect on an object. For this tutorial I choose this picture taken from one nice sunday morning fair somewhere near my place call Gaya Street. While, the object that I want to add a sparkles effect is this iPod Shuffle.

STEP 2 : Next step you need to open Illustrator in order to create one basic shape of sparkle. Creating a basic shape of sparkle in Illustrator actually can be apply by only using a ‘Rectangular Tool’.. How is that? Preety simple! Create one polygon using ‘Polygon Tool’ on the toolbar. Here, I choose Polygon Tool instead of Rectangular is because, polygon is the nearest basic shape similar to sparkle.

STEP 3 : Next, select the Polygon using ‘Selection Tool’ (press V), then go to Effect>Distort & Transform>Pucker & Bloat. Then, set the effect to -200 until you see the polygon change into something like a star like this. Then go to Object>Expand Appearance.

STEP 4 : Now select the fill color to White and select empty for the outline (press x while background colour on top) or (press the small empty square below the Tools Pallete on far right on first row) . Then, simply copy the object (Mac: apple+C / PC: Ctrl+C) or go to Edit>Copy.

STEP 5 : At this point, go back to Photoshop and simply paste the sparkle into the photo (Mac: apple+V / PC: Ctrl+V) or go to Edit>Paste. Resize the sparkle to fit just nice with the object you want the effect to be, then press Enter. Press (Mac: apple+V / PC: Ctrl+V)

STEP 6 : Now, you’ll notice there’s 2 layers on the ‘Layers Pallete’. Name the new layer which contain the sparkle as ‘Sparkle’ (or what ever you prefer).

STEP 7 : Now the secret starts here.. on the ‘Sparkle’ layer, add a layer style by clicking on the ‘add a layer style’ icon at the bottom left of the ‘Layers Pallete’. Select ‘Outer Glow’ and you’ll see a Layer Style window pop-up. At this point I prefer to leave the Layer Style setting like this, but you can modify the setting by changing the Blend Mode, selecting a different color, and even increase the Opacity, while the rest you leave it as it is.

Tip : to make an outstanding sparkles effect, always choose lighter color for the layer style.

STEP 8 : Now you have one nice sparkle, Hmmm!.. but it still look not so outstanding. Well.. duplicate the sparkle three or four and place it somewhere around. To duplicate, select ‘Move Tool’ (press V) and drag the sparkle while pressing ‘option’ key for Apple / ‘alt’ key for PC and place it somewhere around the object and release.

Tip : Resize + Rotate the sparkles to get more variety and it will look more outstanding. Resize + Rotate : (Mac: Apple+T / PC: Ctrl:T) or Edit>Transform>Scale then press Enter.

There you go! Practice + play a lot with different kind of shining objects, create more sparkles.. practice makes perfect..