Extending the Features of the Glowing Star Posted by User Sandy G

Question

This following code extends a bit, an answer posted by the user Sandy G in How to Give Stars a Glow Effect which asked for a way to produce a glowing star with LaTeX.

\documentclass{book}
\textheight 8.5in \textwidth 5.75in
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{fadings, calc}
\tikzfading[name=dim fade, inner color=transparent!40, outer color=transparent!100]
\tikzfading[name=bright fade, right color=transparent!100, left color=transparent!100, middle color=transparent!0]
\newcommand{\glowstar}[2][.5]{\fillwhite,path fading=dim fadecircle[radius=#1*.6];
    \foreach \t in {0,60,120}{
    \fillrotate around={\t:(#2)}, white,path fading=bright fade--cycle;
    \fillrotate around={\t:(#2)}, white,path fading=bright fade--cycle;
    }
    \foreach \t in {0,90,270}{
        \fillrotate around={\t:(#2)}, white,path fading=bright fade--cycle;
     }

    \fill[white] (#2)circle[radius=#1*.13];
    }
\begin{document}
\begin{center}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\fill[blue!25!black] rectangle (16,12);
\glowstar[0.8]{8,10}
\glowstar[0.8]{4,6}
\glowstar[0.8]{12,6}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}
\end{document}

which produces the output

I'm not sure that I modified the code of user Sandy G in the most efficient way, but I have been able to produce, with it the output you see.

I would like to add another extension, but so far, I have been unable to figure out how to do it:

I would like to adjust the length of the vertical tail of the glowing star a bit---so that the lower vertical portion is a bit longer than the upper portion. This could be accomplished if I could raise the glowing center a bit, but again, I have not figured out how to do that.

QUESTION: (1) Most importantly, how may I make an adjustment to the image so that the vertical tail is longer than the upper vertical portion? and, (2) Secondly, is there a way that I may specify the lengths of the horizontal and vertical portions of the star individually?

Thank you.

First you always can "unroll" the loop into individual statements... (although it's more tedious to edit that way it should be easy to understand) — user202729, Jun 01 '22 at 00:45

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 01 '22 at 01:36

You could do this to adjust the length of long tails in 4 different directions. You also could do the similar thing on the short tails (because you didn't ask for it, so I didn't do that). One more arg #3 is needed in the command \glowstar which specify the tail length in left, bottom, right, top.

\documentclass{book}
\textheight 8.5in \textwidth 5.75in
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{fadings, calc}
\tikzfading[name=dim fade, inner color=transparent!40, outer color=transparent!100]
\tikzfading[name=bright fade, right color=transparent!100, left color=transparent!100, middle color=transparent!0]
\newcommand{\glowstar}[3][.5]{\fillwhite,path fading=dim fadecircle[radius=#1*.6];
    \foreach \t in {0,60,120}{
    \fillrotate around={\t:(#2)}, white,path fading=bright fade--cycle;
    \fillrotate around={\t:(#2)}, white,path fading=bright fade--cycle;
    }
    \foreach \l [count=\n from 0] in {#3}{
        \fill[rotate around={\n90:(#2)}, white,path fading=bright fade]($(#2)-(\l#1,0)$)--($(#2)-(.4,.06#1)$)--($(#2)+(.4,.06#1)$)--cycle;
     }

    \fill[white] (#2)circle[radius=#1*.13];
    }
\begin{document}
\begin{center}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\fill[blue!25!black] rectangle (16,12);
\glowstar[0.8]{8,10}{1.1,1.8,1.1,1.1}% length of left,bottom,right,top
\glowstar[0.8]{4,6}{1.8,1.1,1.8,1.1}
\glowstar[0.8]{12,6}{1.1,1.8,1.1,1.8}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}
\end{document}

You are welcome, there is one thing I forget that you should define a new fade style. Because the long bright tail is drawn individually, so the fade style should be complete transparent on the right and non-transparent on the left. Such as \tikzfading[name=long bright fade, right color=transparent!100, left color=transparent!0]. However if the tail was not extreme long, it hard to see the effect. — Tom, Jun 01 '22 at 05:03
Thank you. To make sure I understand, should I then replace fading=bright fade to fading=long bright fade in the code segment: \fill[rotate around={\t:(#2)}, white,path fading=bright fade]($(#2)-(.5*#1,0)$)--($(#2)-(0,.04*#1)$)--($(#2)+(.5*#1,0)$)--($(#2)+(0,.04*#1)$)--cycle; ? — DDS, Jun 01 '22 at 05:19

Extending the Features of the Glowing Star Posted by User Sandy G

1 Answers1