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Thanks for the support throughout all these years :)

Paint Shop Pro 7

Star Field

Required downloads » MuRa’s Cloud 2.2 · Ulead Particle

Create a new image.
» Settings: any size you wish, 72 dpi, background color = black, image type = 16.7 million colors.

Go to Effects – Noise – Add.
» Settings: noise = 20%, random = checked.

Press Shift + L or go to Colors – Colorize.
» Settings: saturation = 0.
Press Shift + B or go to Colors – Adjust – Brightness/Contrast.
» Settings: brightness = 0, contrast = 25%.
Finally go to Colors – Solarize.
» Settings: threshold = 95.

Add a new raster layer and set the blend mode to Dodge and opacity to 70.

With the Paint Brush tool make several white spots to lighten up a few groups of stars.
» Settings: round, size = 130, hardness = 0, opacity = 100, step = 25, density = 100.

Add a new raster layer and set the blend mode to Screen.

Flood Fill this layer with black.

Load the Ulead Particle plug-in. Choose the last effect, Star.
Keep the default settings except for the Sun size and color (20 and white) and for the Star size and color (30 and white).
Save this preset so that you don’t have to change the settings again (click on the Add button to enter the preset name and click OK to save it).
Click OK to apply.

Load the Ulead Particle plug-in and load your preset.
Press the Random button to change the stars placement.
Apply.

Load the Ulead Particle plug-in once again and change the sun size to 10 and star size to 15.
Press the Random button again and apply.

You can apply this plug-in as many times as you wish, just keep changing the sizes so that your star field doesn’t get boring. Change the other settings as well.

Add a new raster layer and set the blend mode to Color and opacity to 45.

Flood Fill this layer with either blue, purple, orange or any other color you wish.

Add a new raster layer and set the blend mode to Lighten and the opacity to 50.

Load the Cloud plug-in and click on the Reset Colors button.
Use the default preset.

Add a new raster layer and set the blend mode to Dodge and the opacity to 50.

Apply the Cloud plug-in but using the Thick Clouds preset this time (don’t forget to reset the colors).

From this point, you already start to have a nice nebula around your stars. Keep applying the Cloud plug-in as much as you wish; try changing the colors, the presets, the blend modes, add more stars, etc.

Scenes & Natural Effects · Oct 17, 2003 ·