stars shadow

[Mike Gondek]

Good Question.

Draw the star (for a 5 pointed star you will have to rotate it 180 degress so the point goes exactly down the middle), then draw rectangles for the shadow going straight below. Fill them with gradients alternating in degrees of direction. Once you have drawn one of these without any distortion select all and alt drag a copy as a backup.

Now select the rectangle shooting star trail of one of these, then double click the warp tool, and take the check marke off of simplify (this will help so when you distort, so that the lines dont get gaps between them). Hold down shift and alt and drag to make the brush size larger than the rectangle. Now brush a small distance over the middle of the rectangles to distort them. You may need to make some finer adjustments with smaller warp tools, or nudging with direct select tool, so your rectangle endpoints touch the start again.

Then drag another copy to make another distortion. Afterwards you can just rotate/scale/flip/recolor an existing copy of a distortion. to make another.