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.

Next: 6. Add glowing waves using Adobe Illustrator

Previous: 4. Render the molecule figure using POV-Ray