You are a star!
Create Your Own Stars!

This tut is on how to make this star and other objects using preset shapes and a mask. Once you learn the trick to this little star, you will wonder why it took you so long to start making these goodies using only the tools in PSP, plus one mask, and today to make it easy - Flaming Pear's Primus plugin.

This tut was written for PSP 9. It will work in other versions as well, but I do not have them on hand to explain the differences.

Supplies can be downloaded here


Mask 20-20.bmp - Put into your mask directory. Usually found under My Documents/My PSP/Masks

Preset shape - Move the star shapes into your preset shapes folder.

Primus - Installs to your plugin folder

Once you have put the preset shape into My PSP/Preset Shapes and have installed Primus, open PSP and lets get started.

Open a new image - 500 X 500 - transparent.

Preset shapes - Choose the star image or another outline shape. Don't choose a solid shape for this tut. I chose Star 4 at the top of the window.


Use these settings:


Pick a bright color (red) for the foreground and null the background.

Start at the upper left corner and hold your left mouse button down and drag your mouse down/right to draw a huge star. Big is best. Reduce it later.

Objects > Align > Center in Canvas

Convert to Raster Layer. (See, that wasn't so hard, was it?) Duplicate this layer so you have two star outlines. Highlight the top layer.

With your magic wand click on the blank inside of the star making sure not to select the outside border.


Floodfill using the same color as the outside with these settings.


You want the inside to be more transparent than the border so play with your opacity so you have something that looks like the example below.



Change your magic wand settings to RGB Value, tolerance 10. Hide the top layer and select the outside border.



Unhide and select the top layer and tap your delete key. You should have three layers. 1)A transparent bottom layer (delete it.) 2) The outside border and 3) the semi-transparent inside star.

Chose the top layer.
Selections > Select All
Selections> Float
Selections > Defloat
Effects > Plugins > Flaming Pear > Primus



I chose the second button from the left, second row for this star. It gives a silver sheen to the star which is lighter and can easily be colorized to your taste later. You can play with the slider button on the bottom left to make the bevel wider or narrower.

Click OK.
Select none.
Choose the bottom layer and use the Magic Wand to select only the outline.

Repeat the Primus on the bottom layer.

Select none.

Select the top layer (the inside of the star)

Layers > Load/Save Mask > Load Mask from Disk

Chose the 20/20 mask and use these settings:



Look at your star and adjust the transparency settings of the Group, the Mask and the Layer below the mask.

When you are satisfied with the look of your star, Layers > Merge > Merge Visible.

You now have one silver star! Pretty cool, huh?

Save your silver star as star1.pspimage. If you want a collection of multi-colored stars, simply duplicate (Shift + D) the saved star and use the Colorize tool to change the colors. This star transforms beautifully.

If you apply text to the star, try applying it below the star layer and changing the properties to see the different effects.

Happy star making. You might not be done, but I am!