Creating Web 2.0 Effects With Photoshop, Part 2

Creating Starbursts

The last Web 2.0 effect that I'll cover is the creation of starbursts.

Photoshop comes with a few custom shapes that would work well as starbursts -- you can find them by selecting the Custom Shape tool (U), selecting the custom shape drop-down, and selecting the shape that takes your fancy. (You can increase your palette of glyphs by clicking the small arrow in the top right-hand corner and loading more built-in shapes.)

You can also create your own customized starburst by choosing the Polygon tool (U). In the options bar, increase the number of sides (30 works well for me). Then click the little arrow next to the row of shapes to access the Polygon Options. Check Star and choose a small amount for the Indent Sides By field. As you can see below, I chose to use 10%.

Now, draw a shape on the page, and a starburst like the one below will appear!

As with any other shape, you can use a combination of other Web 2.0 effects on the starburst. Here are some examples.

Summary

That's it for now! If you've worked through both of these articles, you now know eight different Web 2.0 graphic effects that can be applied to any site -- and a host of additional Photoshop wizardry skills that you can mix and match to create those effects.

I've created a master document that you can download, which includes all of these effects so that you can pick apart the layers and layer styles to better understand how it's all done.

If you're interested in learning more about how to create web graphics with Photoshop, check out The Photoshop Anthology, which contains over 101 tips just like these!