ImageGag

Here is a very simple way to create a field of stars with your Paint program. This tutorial is using the free program Paint.net v3.22.

Open your Paint Program and create a new file (Ctrl+N). Choose the size of your image. I am using Width: 800 pixels and Height: 600 pixels. Click OK.

 

 

Fill your background black by clicking the paint bucket tool and clicking on the canvas (the default fill color is black).

Click Effects > Noise > Add Noise…

For settings choose Intensity 64, Color Saturation 0, Coverage 5 and click OK.

Now we’ll add a second layer of slightly brighter stars. Click the Duplicate Layer button in the Layers window at the bottom right of the screen.

  

Double-click on one of the Background boxes (or press F4 on your keyboard, which is the Layers > Layer Properties… command). Rename the layer to “Brighter Stars” and click OK.

 

Now, with the Brighter Stars layer selected (highlighted in blue), we’ll again use the Effects  > Noise > Add noise… command.

This time put your settings to Intensity 90, Color Saturation 0, Coverage .30, and click OK.

 Good. You now have two different layers of stars.

Since brighter stars in the sky appear to be fewer and less dense than dim stars, we’ll selectively erase some of the brighter stars we just put in. With the Brighter Stars layer still highlighted in blue, click the Eraser tool in the toolbox.

      

Set your brush width to around 30 and, on the canvas, begin to erase some of the larger stars you just put in. I erase more of the outer stars for better composition but I still try to be random. Again, the goal here is to make a realistic looking sky with several bursts of brighter stars. Your Brighter Stars layer may look something like this when finished

and this is what our star field looks like so far.

Lastly, we’ll manually add in even brighter stars. Select the Paintbrush tool in the toolbox, set brush width to 1, and make your primary color white by simply clicking on the bottom left white square in the Colors toolbox.

      

Click in the canvas to begin adding stars. Again, try to make clusters of stars but still in random looking patterns. Note that a double-click will make a brighter star than a single click. When finished, make your brush width 2. Now add a couple or few more stars with this width, preferably near your clusters.

 And that’s it! Your star field should look something like this.

When you’re happy with it, save your image by pressing Ctrl+S on your keyboard (the File > Save command). Choose where you want to save it on your computer and select the file type you want to make it. I save mine as a JPEG, as it’s the most common. Type in the name you want to make it next to File name: and click Save.

Admire your work and click OK.

 

If you save your file as a JPEG, you’ll see this: “Saving in this file format requires that the image is first ‘flattened’, which reduces it to a single layer.” Click Flatten.

You’re done!

This is a very simple star field. If you’d like, play around with the layers and noise settings on your own and see what you come up with. Also, if you want to get a very realistic and detailed effect, check out this incredible star tutorial using Photoshop.

Enjoy and feel free to share your images of stars or share some more tips with us in the comment section below.