Overview :

Open a new document preferably of width - 800px and height 500 px. in both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop CS2.The excess portion can be cropped later. We shall create the shapes in Illustrator and add effects in Photoshop. Let us first create the background in Photoshop.
Procedure for creating the background :

STEP 1 : Create a new layer by selecting the 'New layer' icon in layers box. Name this layer = Background 1. Now, for this layer > Background 1, simply fill it with color Black.Fill the Background layer using shortcut = ALT + Backspace. Once the layer is filled with black color, set the foreground color in the color box as Black and the background color as = # cccc33 ( Yellow shade ). This adjustment would be useful for the next step.

STEP 2 : For this layer, let us apply Filter effect. Go to FILTER menu > FILTER GALLERY > RETICULATION and set the Density as = 9, Foreground level as = 45 and Background level as = 5. The greater the density value, the better it is.You will notice that the yellow color we set as background color in color box, is the color of the dots applied due to the effect. The Blend mode of this Background 1 layer is normal.

STEP 3 : Create another duplicate copy of the Background 1 layer by first selecting the Background 1 layer and using the short cut = CTRL + J. Name this duplicte copy as = Background 2. The only change we are going to add to this Background 2 layer, is setting the blend mode of this layer in layer box to = ' Hard Mix '.

STEP 4 : For applying border to the Background, use rectangular marquee tool and make a rectangular selection in such a way that you leave some margin on all four sides and select the entire area. Next use SELECT menu > REVERSE option and you will see an area is selected. Now create a new layer and name it = BORDER 1, and keeping the selection as it is, set the foreground color as = Black. Use ALT + Backspace to fill the Border layer. The result is that, the selection is filled with Blue color in the new layer created = BORDER.

STEP 5 : Set the foreground color in color box as = Black and the back ground color is set to = # 7f0b21 ( Dark pink shade ). Now again go to FILTER menu > FILTER GALLERY > RETICULATION and set the Density as = 5, Foreground level as = 45 and Background level as = 5. Unlike the Background, the lesser the density value, the better it is. The blend mode of this layer in layer box is = Normal. Create another duplicate copy of the Border 1 layer by first selecting the layer and using the short cut = CTRL + J. Name this duplicte copy as = Border 2. Set the blend mode of this layer in layer box to = ' Linear Dodge '.

A._) Sun style 1 :

STEP 1 : Let us draw something that looks like an illustrated form of sun rays. Use the Pen Tool, click on the area and then click near that point but this time do not take your finger away from the mouse but hold on and drag so that a curve is formed. Next, click near that point again with a little nit of drag to get curve on the other sode of the curve. The shape obtained looks like a flower petal. Set ANY fill color and stroke color as we are goint to convert the shape to white color in the end. Temporarily for now, to view the shape set any color.

STEP 2 : Now make SEVEN more copies of the petal by  ALT+ click the shape and drag to make a duplicate or copy and paste the shape whose options are available in Edit menu. Select each shape using the Selection tool  and rotate them using Free Transform Tool accordingly to place them to form one arc of a whole circular sun. You can also use the Object menu > Transform > Reflect option to flip the shapes accordingly.

STEP 3 : Once the seven petals are arranged, into an arc, copy them as a set ( SHIFT + select the shapes to select mutiple shapes at a time ). Paste them using CTRL + V and transform the new set of seven flowers next to the original set and using transform tool, rotate them. Make suffivient copies of the set of seven flowers and arrange them so that they will form a circular shape.

STEP 4 : Once the perfect circle shaped sun is formed, select the entire sun shape that includes all the petal shaped rays and set the fill color to WHITE and there is no stroke color. Keeping them selected, drag them into the Photoshop document. In Photoshop, it would be stored as a Smart object. like a single entity. Name this layer as Sun1. Now you will notice a white colored sun on black background.

STEP 5 : If you notice, in the middle the crooked positioning of the petal shapes can be seen. To hide them, we can create a simple circle shape. But, instead of creating in Illustrator and dragging into the photoshop document, we can directly create a circle in Photoshop using Ellipse shape tool. SHIFT + click and drag to get a perfect circle. The fill color for this circle is simple BLACK. Position this circle layer over the sun, the smart object layer in the center. Name this layer as Center 1.

STEP 6 : Simply set the following adjustments for Sun 1 and Center 1 layers. Select the Sun 1 layer and set the following Gradient overlay and Bevel and Emboss settings in Blending options. This option can be found by right click the Sun1 layer or go to Layer many > Layer style > Blending options. Leave the Blend mode of the Sun 1 layer in the layer box as ' Normal '.

• Gradient Overlay settings > Set the Blend mode to = ' Normal ' with opacity as 100% and style used as = Radial with angle = 90% and scaled to 150 %.The Gradient style used is a newly created gradient of three colors. they are not equally distributed. See the image included to understand how the gradient colors should be set. The gradient comprises of three colors namely > Orange (# ff9900) whose location, that is the placement of the color on the gradient set is = 24 %. Entering this location value will give you exact combination. The next color is Yellow (# ffff00) and its location value is = 28 %. The third color is Red (# f90d07) and the location value is = 66 %.

• Bevel and Emboss settings > The bevel used is = ' EMBOSS ' and technique used is = Smooth and size is= 21 px with Depth= 161 % and direction set to = UP and soften level is 16 px. The contour used is = ' Gaussian contour ' and Highlight color is white and mode is = Screen and shadow color is Black and mode is = multiply and both set at 75%. The bevel is placed at an angle of 120 degree.

STEP 7 : Now select the Center 1 layer and set the following Bevel and Emboss settings under Blending options. Bevel and Emboss settings > The bevel used is = ' EMBOSS ' and technique used is = Smooth with Depth= 180 % and direction set to = UP. The size is = 25 px and soften level is 15 px. The contour used is = ' Cone Inverted contour ' and Highlight color is white and mode is = Screen and shadow color is Pink ( # e2bdbd ) and mode is = multiply and both are set at 75%. The bevel is placed at an angle of 120 degree.

B._) Sun style 2 :

STEP 1 : Drawing the first shape :

• Draw a circle in Illustrator using Ellipse shape tool. Use SHIFT and click and drag to get a perfect circle. The fill color for the circle is = # FF4000 (Orange shade ) and the stroke color for this is = # FFBE00 ( Yellow shade ). The stroke size is = 1 pt.

• Next, selecting the circle shape, go to EFFECT menu > DISTORT AND TRANSFORM > TWIST and set the twist angle percentage to = 90 degree.

• Next, selecting the circle shape, go to EFFECT menu > DISTORT AND TRANSFORM > ZIG ZAG and set the size to 5 mm, with Absolute effect, and Ridges per segment is set to 5 and points are placed with Corner option.

STEP 2 : Creating the second shape to be placed over the first shape created in Step 1.

• Draw a circle in using Ellipse shape tool( use SHIFT and click and drag to get a perfect circle.) and fill the circle with BLACK color. There is NO stroke color.

• Next, selecting the circle shape, go to EFFECT menu > DISTORT AND TRANSFORM > TWIST and set the twist angle percentage to = - (minus)90 degree. This will result in the twist effect on the opposite direction to the first shape created above.

• Selecting the circle shape, go to EFFECT menu > DISTORT AND TRANSFORM > ZIG ZAG and set the same Zig zag effect as above, that is size to 5 mm, with Absolute effect, and Ridges per segment is set to 5 and points are placed with Corner option.

STEP 3 : Draw a circle using the ellipse tool and place it over the second shape created in step 2. The fill color for this is = # ff0000 ( Red shade ) and there is no stroke color. Now use the TWIRL tool that is available with Warp tool in the tools box and click in the center of the circle and move the mouse around.

STEP 4 : Now select shape 1 created in Step 1 and drag it into the Photoshop document. Do this for the remaining two shapes also. Drag each part individually ant not the whole sun shape as a whole as that would be difficult to add changes to each part seperately in Photoshop as mentioned avove, the whole item will be saved as a smart object as a single entity.

STEP 5 : Select the first shape created, that is the orange shape created in Step 1, and set the SAME Gradient overlay and Bevel and Emboss adjustments in Blending options as mentioned in STEP 6 of the SUN 1 Style. Note : One minor change : Under the Bevel and Emboss settings, both the Highlight and the Shadow settings is = 50 % (originally it is 75 %).

STEP 6 : Select the second shape placed over the first shape (created in Step2) and set the following Bevel settings in Blending options. Bevel and Emboss settings > The bevel used is = ' PILLOW EMBOSS ' and technique used is = Smooth and size is = 5 px with Depth= 100 % and direction set to = UP and soften level is 3 px. The contour used is = ' Linear Gloss contour ' and Highlight color is white and mode is = Screen and shadow color is Black and mode is = multiply and both set at 75%. The bevel is placed at an angle of 120 degree.

STEP 7 : Select the third shape placed over the second shape (created in Step 3) and set the following Bevel settings in Blending options. Bevel and Emboss settings > The bevel used is = ' INNER BEVEL ' and technique used is = Smooth and size is = 15 px with Depth= 141 % and direction set to = UP and soften level is 0 px. The contour used is = ' Linear Gloss contour ' and Highlight color is white and mode is = Screen and shadow color is Black and mode is = multiply and both set at 50 %. The bevel is placed at an angle of 120 degree.

C._) Sun Style 3 :

STEP 1 : Draw a circle in using Ellipse shape tool (use SHIFT and click and drag to get a perfect circle) and fill the circle with any color. Set the stroke color to yello. This is a temporary step. Next, selecting the shape, go to EFFECT menu > DISTORT AND TRANSFORM > ZIG ZAG and set the size to 25 mm, with Absolute effect, and Ridges per segment is set to 20 and points are placed with SMOOTH option. These values depend on the size of the shape drawn.

STEP 2 : Create a new layer and name it = Scatter. Draw a circle using ellipse shape and set the fill color as White and the stroke color as yellow. The stroke size is 2 pt. With these options, there is another option called > Brush. Under brush, go to Open Brush Library > Decorative Scatter and select the brush called > Dot Rings. The Brish syle is apllied only to the stroke. Under Brush, if you double click the Dot Rings brush style, you can make necessary changes to reduce the scatter size, placement etc. No such change is neccessary for this.

STEP 3 : Create a new layer and draw a circle using Ellipse tool. The fill color is White snd stroke color is yellow and the stroke size is 1 pt. Next in EFFECT menu > DISTORT AND TRANSFORM > ZIG ZAG, set the size to 20 mm, with Absolute effect, and Ridges per segment is set to 5 and points are placed with Corner option.

STEP 4 : Drag in each shape created in step1, step2 and step3 seperately ( NOT altogether ) into the Photoshop document. Select the shape created in Step 1, and set the SAME Gradient overlay adjustments in Blending options as mentioned in STEP 6 of the SUN 1 Style. Once You can either individually adjust them or simply right click the Sun 1 layer ( in A._ Sun style 1) and use the option, Copy Layer style and then select this current shape layer and right click and use > Paste Layer Style.

STEP 5 : Besides the Gradient setting, another setting for the shape 1 is the Bevel adjustment under the same Blending options. Bevel and Emboss settings > The bevel used is = ' OUTER BEVEL ' and technique used is = Smooth and size is = 9 px with Depth= 250 % and direction set to = UP and soften level is 16 px. The contour used is = ' Gaussian contour ' and Highlight color is white and mode is = Screen and shadow color is Black and mode is = multiply and both set at 50 %. The bevel is placed at an angle of 120 degree.

STEP 6 : Select the second shape(Scatter) created in Step 2, and set the Gradient overlay settings in Blending options.
Gradient Overlay settings > Set the Blend mode to = ' Normal ' with opacity as 100% and style used as = Linear with angle = 90% and scaled to 100 %.The Gradient style used is a newly created gradient of three colors, which are equally distributed. The gradient comprises of TWO colors namely > Orange (# ff6e02) whose location is 0 % and 100 %, that is the orange is placed at the front and at the end. The next color is Yellow (# ffff00) and its location value is = 50 % which means it is placed exactly in the middle.

STEP 7 : Select the final shape created in step 3 and make the following adjustments in Blending options:

• Gradient Overlay settings > Set the Blend mode to = ' Normal ' with opacity as 100% and style used as = Radial with angle = 90% and scaled to 150 %.The Gradient style used is a newly created gradient of three colors. See the image included to understand how the gradient colors should be set. The gradient comprises of three colors namely > Yellow (# ffff00) whose location on the gradient set is = 4 %. The next color is # Orange (# ff9900) whose location is 9 % and the last one is Red (# f90d07) and the location value is = 41 %.
  

• Bevel and Emboss settings > The bevel used is = ' EMBOSS ' and technique used is = Smooth and size is= 21 px with Depth= 150 % and direction set to = UP and soften level is 12 px. The contour used is = ' Gaussian contour ' and Highlight color is white and mode is = Screen and shadow color is Black and mode is = multiply and both set at 50%. The bevel is placed at an angle of 120 degree.

These are the three styles of Sun illustrations with 3D view. Position the shapes as shown in images. You can use Layer menu > Arrange > ' Bring to front 'or ' Send Backward ' options in Photoshop to arrange the shapes.

• Written by Anusha.M.
• In category Animation & 3d Design.
• 14 years ago.

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