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[ 83 ]Step Six: This is where we use the generated noise to
make a star scatter of a selection. Grab the Magic Wand
tool (nested below the Object Selection too [W] in the
Toolbar), and up in Options Bar, set the Tolerance to
1 and turn off Anti-alias. Also uncheck Contiguous so
Photo shop doesn’t only select touching pixels that are
exactly alike in value/color.
Now zoom all
the way into the
noise until it looks
like a strange QR
code and c lick
on a medium- to
lighter-color pixel,
as the example
shown here. This
should create a
selection of pixels
throughout the noise. If you end up getting too dense a
number of selection spots (future stars), press Command-Z
(PC: Ctrl-Z) to undo, and select another pixel that selects
fewer pixels before moving on to the next step.
Step Seven: Let’s turn this sporadic noise selection into
a masked layer with white star-like dots. Go to Layer>
New Fill Layer>Solid Color. Name this layer “Star1,” and
c l ick OK. Choose white in the Color Picker for the proper
star effect, c lick OK, and then c lick the Eye icon nextto the noise layer in the Layers panel to hide it. This creates
white dots by using the noise selection as your mask.
Cool, right? But we’re not finished with these stars quite yet
because they’re still a little hard to see when zoomed out.Step Eight: Once you disable the visibility of the noise layer,
the white dots may look sporadic and somewhat similar to
stars, but they’re jagged and don’t yet have the variation in
size and intensity, so let’s fix that by going into Select and
Mask. Do this by c licking the layer mask thumbnail in the
Layers panel to make it active, and c licking the Select and
Mask button within the mask Properties panel.
Once in Select and Mask, set the View drop-down
menu to On Black (A), and the Opacity to around 75%.
Make the stars rounder by setting Smooth to 13, soften
their edges with a Feather of 0.6 px, and make their radius
larger by setting Shift Edge to +100%. Click OK to keep
the new mask. You should be able to see the stars much
better now. Again, if you have too many stars at this point,
go back to Step Six and select a different noise layer pixel
that grabs fewer pixels, and try these steps again. Now
we’re getting somewhere!