5. Add glare using Adobe Illustrator
This tutorial is part of a detailed guide on making an abstract scientific illustration. You can get all the files associated with the guide here.
Result:
This was made using Adobe Illustrator CS5.1.
1. Load the bitmap file produced by POV-Ray into a new Adobe Illustrator (ai) session.
2. Go to the Layers panel and rename the current layer to Background.
3. Make a new layer from top right corner of the Layers panel and name it Glare.
4. Select the Ellipse Tool from the toolbar.
5. Pick a dye color color scale from the swatches menu. Here CMYK Cyan was used.
6. From the Color menu, set the color whiter. Here cyan was set to 50%. Draw a circle on top of the dye using the selected ellipse tool. Set the Opacity to 50%.
7. Go to Effect -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur.
8. Set a proper radius. Here 55 pixels was used.
9. Now get that intense white color in the middle of the glare.
First make a transparent circle somewhere within the Glare-layer using the ellipse tool. Set its size to 1.05x1.05 and its opacity to 0%.
10. Make a new, smaller, white circle with size 0.175x0.175 and opacity 100%.
11. Select both new circles and align them so their centers are in the same point. Then go to Object -> Blend -> Make.
12. Finally, position the new blended circles in the center of the dye.
13. Repeat step 5-12 for the other dyes. Set a new color for each of them but keep the bright center white.
