Create a custom Star Map

1. Project intro: Welcome to class. Thank you so much for enrolling in a few simple steps. I'm gonna teach you how to create your very own star map, complete with your custom date, time and location. So let's get started. 2. Materials : the materials you need in this class are very simple. Simply a Mac or desktop computer, access to the Internet, photo shop or illustrator and a printer. 3. Step 1: Coordinates: Okay, So our first step in making our star map is we're gonna go over and open up safari. They have my bookmarks opened over here, and I'm gonna find my latitude and longitude coordinates on the website I used for This is called LAT long that net. I'll include the links to everything in the class notes. So I'm gonna type in the name of the location that I want. And I know that it's mountain home. I do hope, and then I'm gonna click find, and it's going to bring me Teoh a map of the exact area. Now, if you notice as I hover my mouse over certain areas, the spot down here says map, mouse over location. The coordinates will change as I hover my mouse. So there's a specific location as far as, like, house or hospital or something like that. You want to find hover your your mouse over and then click on it and it will pull up the exact coordinates of that spot. So once you figure out exactly where your cordons are, you're gonna highlight this. And then if you're on a Mac command See, I like to copy and paste these just so I eliminate the factor of human error with writing down numbers. And sometimes I get dyslexic. So copying pacing is my easiest option. So in the next video, we'll go over the next step. 4. Step 2: Create your star map: Okay, so now that we have our latitude and longitude now it's time to plot this on the star map. So I'm gonna go up here to my bookmarks again and go to my sky mapper, And this link will also be in the classroom notes. So where this big black circle is is where your star map is going to show. So down here, I like to use universal time just because it's an easier format to read and it gets less confusing. I'm gonna change my dates. So I want September 25th and then the time that I want is actually 11 55. So once that's done, I'm going to go down here. And now is where we do the copy paste from the last video. So you've already had a copy, and it saved onto your, um, your clipboard under your computer so you don't have to do anything other than hit Command V. And then those numbers that you caught people pop up. I'm gonna go ahead in a race, the longitude, and leave just the latitude, and then I'm to do the same thing down here, Command V and I'm gonna erase the latitude and leave the longitude. So this way it just takes that, you know, factor of human error writing numbers backwards away. And I know exactly what I'm I'm getting on my map. So the next option is everything that you want to include in your map. I like mind to be more clean and less cluttered. So I don't like the names of everything I don't like. You know, the different planets and moons. I just want my constellations and my stars. So I'm just going to hit outlines and then in the next area, it's got options for what you want your stars to show. Like I said, I just like mine to look clean. So I'm just going to stick with my outlines and then right here in the very last part, it's his color. Since this is going to be printed on a white sheet of paper, I'm gonna do black on a white background and then I'm gonna come up here and hit update, and then you'll see the exact image that you are going to get from your star map. So now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take a a screenshot of just this circle. And to do that on a Mac, you're gonna hit shift command four. And this little bull's eye thing is going to come up and you're gonna want to make sure that you cover the entire area that you want. Teoh screenshot. So you're gonna click with your mouse and hold it and dragged down. Now, I don't want these letters, so I'm not going. Teoh, click into them if I don't have to My e I kind of already did. So it's not that big a deal. So once I release it, that screen shot is saved and will be on my desktop waiting for me. Next step will be Photoshopped. 5. Step 3: Photoshop: So now we're gonna go down here and open up photo shop, and I mean a hit open. And here's my last screenshot and I'm gonna hit open again, and it's gonna pull up my exact star map that we just found. So this part is really simple. All I'm doing is basically eliminating the background to this. So when I go in to do my editing and illustrator, I will have just the black lines. So I'm gonna go over here to my, um, background eraser tool, and you can go through and manually hit all of these, but it's gonna take a while. So what I like to dio is the magic eraser, and I click in a kid's word of all of it at once. So I'm gonna click and make sure that all of my insides of the star constellations are emptied, so that's gonna be no background, just the lines. If you need to zoom in command, plus and then if you hold down the space bar, you can drag the screen around with your mouse without affecting anything, so you want to make sure you get every single piece you think I have it Obviously, the more detail you have, the more you'll have to edit out. But since I don't have much, um, I don't have to do anything else. I do have this one e that I want to get rid of. So I'm gonna go up here in my crop tool and I'm just going Teoh, crop it up. Since I have everything else I don't need to worry about and e anything else, it's all gone. Okay, so now I'm going to save this. I'm gonna export it as a PNG, and you can see the background is transparent. This is also a good idea to see if you've missed anything in your editing this way, you could hit, cancel and go back and then, you know, take out any more background that you might have missed. So I'm gonna go ahead and hit export all and so this will be my star map to save it onto my desktop. And then it's done. So I'm gonna close this out and I'm gonna go down to my illustrator and I'll show you the next part in the next video 6. Step 4: Illustrator: Okay, so now that we have our star map in Photoshopped edited, we're gonna open it up in Illustrator. So go down here to open your PNG that you just say it should be right there on your desktop . Give it a second, and you can see that my art board is a lot smaller than my actual image. So I'm going to go down here to my art board. Tool or shift? Oh, I'm actually gonna double click it. So it's in pixels. So I wanted to be an 8.5 by 11. So that's 2 55 0 by 3300 and I want it Portrait. So command minus to zoom out. And there we go. It's much better. So I am going to resize my actual star mapas. Well, and instead of just dragging it out like this and possibly distorting the circle in the image itself, I'm gonna make sure that I hit shift as I drag because it will keep everything proportional . So I'm gonna center this as much as I can. This is totally up to you how you want this toe. Look, um, this will be matted, so I don't want my image going right to my edge so that I think, looks pretty good. And now you're pretty much done. All you're going to do is hit your text tool, and you're going to type whatever the location or the coordinates that you want are. So mine was mountain home Idaho. He and I'm gonna go ahead and change my font on this to something a little cuter and bring it up. Is that my text tool again? And no, you can copy and paste your coordinates. You still have, um, copied in your clipboard so it will automatically pop up and you can put the date if you want or any other information that you want toe to include, and then you simply print. So I hope you guys enjoy this tutorial. Stay tuned and make sure you subscribe because I will be posting more on digital artwork as well as watercolor in clicker fee. Have a great day 7. Printing: So once you're happy with your final image, you're going to hit command P or go up to your file and then print, and from here you're going to make sure that everything is centered and it's fit to your page. So I'm just gonna go down here. I haven't HP envy, and it's got multiple options of customization and things like that. This is a pretty simple print. You just want to make sure that it's inside the boundaries of your your paper and everything, and then you're just going to click print, and when it comes out, give it a second. So the ink dries. You don't smudge it, and you're good to go. 8. You're done! : So this is what your final project is going to look like. I printed my now on some handmade paper by fabulous fancy pants when my favorite brands toe get from and I added some silver leafing on the edges of it just to give it that extra something you can certainly printers out on. Ah, heavier stock, printer paper or any kind of texture. People will work. You can hand letter if you want, Teoh, or you can simply type and prints on the text. Down there, I will be teaching a course on how to still relieve or gold leaf your artwork. If you guys were interested in please Ah, go ahead and subscribe to my channel. Also in your class projects. I love to see your star maps and your unique twists that you add to yours. So I hope you enjoy this class. And I love to see your work