Sparkling stars

[pai]

I knew this question may not relates to Artrage but I really want to know what program or tips (except Photoshop, I don't have it) can do the twinkling stars and how. I want to put these sparkling stars with the Xmas cards I created in Artrage and send it to my sister. Can anyone gives me some information and much appreciated.

It's like the ones created by Netti and Hanzz in this thread.

http://www2.ambientdesign.com/forums...pic.php?t=9864

[FurrTrap]

I don't know how they did those stars and of course I'm new to AR... But maybe some stencils of stars, much like there are stencils for flowers and snowflakes in AR2.5.

If you drew one or two stars, then converted the layer to a stencil, you could use that to replicate the pattern.

Just an idea

solid black - punches right thru, so all the paint goes onto canvas
grey shades - partial transparency, so lets thru some paint
white - totally blocks paint and ends up red in the stencil

Hope I've got that the right way round!

Once you have some star stencils, use glitter and metallic paints to make them twinkle?

[Belvrog]

Hi pai, I am not sure if I got your question right.

Do you mean the appearance of the stars or that they always pop up on different positions?

The stars itself, I would start with a stencil for the "cross". Then I would
apply circular spots with an airbrush at the center multiple times. I would reduce the size of the airbrush and increase the colors luminance everytime I reduce the size of the airbrush to get its corona.

But if you mean the position-changing: You have to use animated gifs. Gifs are a file format that supports a simple way for animations. You can store multiple pictures in one picture and define a time after which it shows the next frame. Just like a slideshow.
You can paint all the single pictures in artrage and combine them to an animated gif later. There are several freeware programs to produce animated gifs. I'd google for " freeware animated gif".

[erwinsoo]

You can use stencils pai... To make stencils, download a free image editing software like Irfanview downloadable at www.download.com

Then find a nice star clipart with a plain white background eg. http://www.clipartspace.com/clipart/...clipart-04.gif

Load up using irfanview. Save as a PNG file (not jpg or gif). Click on the white background to select it as the transparent background. Your graphic should now be saved as a PNG file

In artrage, add a layer. Select that new layer. Then click on File, Import image to layer. Select your star.png and it will appear in that layer.

Right click on the selected layer in the layer menu. Then click on Make stencil from this layer.

And now you have star stencils...
Nettis and Hanzz are using animated GIFs. You need to create two or more images eg. same basic image but stars shifted slightly. The images are then joined together using the GIF creator which gives you an animated graphic. A gif animation software example Animator-9 3.6 also downloadable from www.download.com

hope it helps.

[FurrTrap]

Hi again Pai,

I spent some time this morning just working up some star forms and then converting them to AR stencils. Partly to see what I could do and partly for Christmas cards, which is something you mentioned.

Anyhow here are the star forms painted with metallics and glitter and I've also attached the stencil I created so you can save it to disk and use it.

Have fun, I know I did.

[pai]

Sorry ops: my question wasn't clear enough. I want to create some animated stars on my painting. I did created several different shapes of stars (stencil from artrage) but then I wasn't sure how to make it animated. Searhing for a day info in Google before I posted the question. The only thing I got is Photoshop.


@Belvrog, I like your explanation of GIF better on some other sites. Simple and right away I understand I can put several images on one to make it animated. Yes, that's what I want to do. Thanks.

@erwinsoo, again you've given me very detailed steps explanation and nice little tutorial on making stencils and then change to GIF. It'll not just benefit to me but to others as well. Thanks.

@FurrTrap, you have created so many different style of Stars Stencils for me and everyone. They're very beautiful. Thanks.

Now, I have to download the freeware GIF and experiment it. Hope I can make it successfully and post one here. (before my PC crashes) :lol:

[hanzz]

I used Paint Shop Pro to do this, it comes with a tool that stamps these things on your drawing. I make the gliters on different layers, I make a picture every time with only one layer visible, and then I make them into an animated gif,with animation shop, which comes bundled with the software.

If you have a program that allows you to make animated gifs, you can easliy do it with artrage, maybe with the airbrush? you'll have to experiment.
Make every different move on another layer, with only one of those layers at the time visible, that makes the frames for your animation.
export every frame as a different picture.

[pai]

Hi Hanzz, thanks so much for your reply to my question. That's very helpful for me to understand how I'm going to plan to do it.

[fantomeq]

I just found your star stencils and wanted to say thank you. Having lots of fun with these today.