Adobe Fireworks Tutorial - Creating Sparkle

This tutorial is for beginners using Adobe Fireworks. It’s an easy technique that can add finishing touches to your design.

1.) First we must start a new canvas, choose a dark color for your canvas color preferably black , and any size for the canvas size.

2.) Next we click the vector tools > star shape. Draw a star in the canvas.

3.) Select the star shape you have just created. You will notice that 5 yellow points will appear, namely : Radius 1, Radius 2 , Roundness 1, Roundness 2 , Points. In this tutorial we will only focus on Radius and Points , try playing with those points so you can get familiar with them.

4.) The default 5 star points is okay but if you wish to decrease the points , just click on the point and move it upward. Moving the point upward increases the star points, move it downward decreases it. The minimum number of points is 3, which is actually a rectangle. If you dont like 5 star points, i suggest you decrease it to 4.

5.) Now we click on the radius 2 point, and move it inward or closer to the center, the trick here is not make it too thin .

If you have a problem dragging the points to the center, you can always use the autoshape properties panel. Go to Window > Auto Shape Properties. Play around with the Radius 2 value, mine is around 3.9.

6.) Select the star shape, and change the fill type to Gradient > Radial. Choose white for both colors.

You will notice that there are 4 handles in the gradient, 2 on top and 2 on the bottom. The ones on top control the opacity of each color. While the ones on the bottom control the color. Click on the opacity handle with the blue circle , set the opacity to 0.

If you wish to change the color of the sparkle , you need to change the color of the left fill handle with the orange circle. The fill handle in the green circle can also be changed if you wish.

7.) The sparkle is actually finished, but if you wish to spice it up a bit, use the scale tool and rotate it to your desired angle.