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I created the starfield using Photoshop and the How to Make a Realistic Star Field tutorial available at Solar Voyager. It took a long time, and a couple tries, but I finally got a good one here, I think.

Originally, I wanted to use practical effects instead of digital for the outer space scenes. I tried black felt with sequins, gossamer fabric with sparkly bits, foam spheres coated with textured paint, and so on. However, I couldn't get it to look good, especially the starfield. Then, I started experimenting with Photoshop. I found some good tutorials and I was able to get results much better than I anticipated. So, I decided to use digital effects for the stellar phenomena in Dark Omen Dawning. This makes the comic a little less pure than Perils of the Bold (which uses all practical except magic and faces and so on). But, I think it'll make the comic much more enjoyable.

Webcomic Entertainment! #16 shows you what I was going for originally.

Here are some test shots of the practical effects. You can see it wasn't really going to get anywhere near as good looking as the digital stuff.