Starfield – Tutorial

Info:
a) the layer names I used are in the [].
b) you'll need the ed-effects: http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=2085.

Ok, let's get started.
1. Open your PdN, open a new project and set the size to 1024x760. 800x600 WON'T do, you can try, though.

2. [small stars] Create a new layer and make it black, after that add some noise (Intensity 40, Colour saturation 0). Now you need to tune the brightness and contrast, I used 80 for brightness and 90 for contrast



3. [big stars] Duplicate the layer and set the new layer's blend mode to screen. Now do a 2x zoom (layers > rotate/zoom)
Duplicate the big stars layer and set it to "not used" (remove the "v")

4. [dust] Create a new layer and set its blend mode to colour dodge. It's time to give some colour to the starfield, make clouds. I used scale 160, roughness 50. Now the colour.. you'll need to download the "ed effects" to do this, get them here: http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=2085. Use the colour tint effect to colourize, I used a calm blue.



5. Still not so cool... get back to the big stars layer and use the glow effect. My settings: (from top to bottom) 100, 23, 10. If your stars are blocky, do a gaussian blur with a 2 pixel radius. Now activate the other big stars layer, sometimes it makes your work look better, sometimes not. You decide.

6. This is where I drop off, you can too, or continue exploring new ways to make your work cooler.

This tutorial was taken from the following url:

http://paintdotnet.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3242

The author’s name is unknown. The author’s alias is Jezulkim.