[Mask] Star Textures

Star masks give you a sharp, radiating shape for reveals and highlights that need to feel bright and directional — sparkle effects, badge shapes, and light bursts all start from this same basic silhouette.

License

Free for personal and commercial use. No attribution required. Commercial games, film, and client work are all permitted. No credit, no backlink, no permission request needed. You may not resell or redistribute the texture files themselves as a texture pack.

What's in this collection

• Four-point star — a sharp sparkle shape for highlights and glints.
• Five-point star — a classic badge and rating-icon silhouette.
• Scattered stars — multiple small star shapes across one mask.
• Soft-edged star — a blurred version for glow and bloom effects.

All masks are seamless in both directions and delivered at high resolution.

Where Star Masks are used

UI badges and icons. Rating systems, achievement badges, and highlight icons draw directly on star shapes.

VFX sparkle and glint. Lens flares, magic effects, and metallic highlights use star masks as their base shape.

Motion graphics. Star-shaped wipes and reveals add energy to title cards and transitions.

Packaging and print. Star shapes call out promotions, new features, and featured items.

How to use these in Substance Designer

1. Import the mask as a grayscale bitmap node.
2. Use it as an opacity input in a Blend node.
3. Adjust Levels to sharpen the star's points.
4. Combine with a Bloom or glow filter for emissive highlights.

How to use these in Photoshop

1. Add the mask above the layer you want shaped.
2. Apply it as a Layer Mask on that layer.
3. Use Curves to control point sharpness and glow falloff.
4. Scale and rotate to fit your composition.

How to use these as blend masks in game engines

1. Import the mask as a grayscale texture asset.
2. Drive an emissive or opacity mask input with it.
3. Animate scale or rotation for a twinkling sparkle effect.
4. Pair with additive blending for a bright, glowing result.

Tips for Star Masks specifically

Additive blending sells the "bright" feeling of a star far more than a straight opacity blend does.

Keep point count consistent across a scene — mixing four-point and five-point stars in the same shot reads as inconsistent.

Animate scale with a quick pulse rather than a slow fade for a more convincing sparkle.

Browse the collection

Mask textures are organized into volumes, each containing multiple packs. New volumes are added continuously.

View the full Mask collection →

Related: Alpha, Background.