Sparkle Master: Create Breathtaking Effects in Photoshop

Wanna learn how to make sparkles in photoshop? In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to do that in a step-by-step method.

First, we have to learn how to create a custom sparkle brush in Photoshop, and then we are going to learn how to make sparkles in photoshop into a photo using that brush.

We have two parts to this tutorial. In the first part of this tutorial, we’ll create our sparkle brush from scratch using a few of Photoshop’s built-in brushes to add a variety of sparkles to our design.

Then, once we’ve created the sparkle brush, we’ll turn it into sparkles using Photoshop.

And then finally, we’ll add a colorful glow to help it look more magical.

Related: How to Make a Business Card in Photoshop (Premium Quality)

I’ll show you the step-by-step method of how to do that.

Let’s Go For It!

How To Create A Sparkle Brush In PhotoShop

Step 1: Create A New Photoshop Document

We are going to make sparkles using a custom-made “sparkle” brush, so the first thing we need to do is create our brush.

For that, we’ll need to create a new Photoshop document.

We need to maintain the document square in order to create custom brushes, therefore we can use 300 by 300 pixels, however you can also vary the dimensions.

And the other option we need to worry about here is to make sure that Background Contents are set to White.

In Photoshop, go to File > New. Name the document of your choice. Set the file to the following dimensions:

• Width to 300 px
• Height to 300 px
• Orientation Not Necessary As It IS Square Document.
• Background White

Then click Create.

Step 2: Select Brush Tool

After creating your document, select the Brush Tool from the Toolbar along the left of the screen. You can also select the Brush Tool by pressing the letter B on your keyboard.

Step 3: Set Your Foreground Color To Black

Now we have to select a Black color for our brush.

To resets Foreground and Background colors to their defaults, making your Foreground color black and your Background color white, press the letter D on your keyboard.

Step 4: Select the “StarBurst” Brush

Now we have to mix all the brushes that we get in Photoshop by default to make the “Sparkle” brush so we have to play around with them to create that brush.

To choose our first brush, with the Brush Tool active, click the Brush panel toggle icon in the Options Bar along the top of the screen:

This opens Photoshop’s Brush panel.

Now tick Legacy Brushes from the dialogue box which opens from the right top of that panel.

After enabling Legacy Brushes, Go to Assorted Brushes scroll down, and select Starburst brush.

Click on it to select it.

Step 5: Click In A Few Random Spots With The Brush

With the “Starburst” brush selected, click in a few random spots to add your first few “sparkles”.

Add 4 to 5 clicks to add some sparkles.

Step 6: Select The “Starburst – Small” Brush

Now within Default Brushes, scroll down the list in the Brush Presets panel until you find the Star 70 pixels.

Click on it to select it.

Step 7: Add Random Spots With The New Brush

As we did before, click in three or four random spots to add more sparkles.

Since this is an airbrush, the longer you hold down your mouse button after you click, the more the brush shape will “fill in” towards its edges. So for even more variety, vary the amount of time you hold your mouse button after you click.

If you don’t like where you clicked, press Ctrl+Z (Win) / Command+Z (Mac) on your keyboard to undo your last click.

Step 8: Select the “Airbrush Soft Round 17” Brush

Below your Legacy Brushes, you’ll find a brushes folder named “Round Brushes With Size”. In this folder, scroll down the list until you find Airbrush Soft Round 17.

 Click on it to select it.

Step 9: Click In A Few More Random Spots

Click in a few more random spots to add our third.

Now we got the final design of our sparkle.

Step 10: Define A New Brush Preset

Now we need to do now is save our design as a brush.

To do that, go up to the top of the screen and choose Edit > Define Brush Preset.

Photoshop will pop open a dialog where we can give our new brush a name.

Name it “Sparkle”.

Click OK when you’re done, and your new sparkle brush is created!

Now you can use this brush anywhere you want.

Creating A Sparkle With Custom Brush In PhotoShop

Step 11: Open Your Photo

Now that we’ve created our brush, we’re ready to add our sparkle trail to a photo. Open the photo you want to use.

Step 12: Add A New Blank Layer

We want to keep the sparkle trail separate from the photo, so we’ll place the sparkle trail on its own layer.

To add a new layer, click the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel.

Step 13: Set Your Foreground Color To White

We have to take a white color for our sparkle so set our Foreground Color to White.

Keyboard Shortcut: Press “D”, then “X” to set your Foreground color to white.

Step 14: Select the Sparkle Brush

Now we have to select our custom Sparkle brush that we created before.

Go to Brushes Panel and select that brush.

Step 16: Paint Your Sparkle Trail

Now paint your Sparkle Brush in a manner around that object where you want to make sparkle. In my case, I’ve painted it around the bulb.

Step 17: Add Glow To Sparkle

Then the final step is to apply some glow on the sparkle to look it more realistic.

For that right-click on Sparkle painted layer and go to Blending Options.

From here go to Outer Glow and apply settings that work best for you.

And choose a color from the swatch in Outer Glow. I’ve chosen orange color from the background image to merge that sparkle to the image.

Click OK to close out of the Layer Style dialog box. And with that, we’re done, This is how to make sparkles in photoshop!

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