Easily Make a Twisted Sunburst in Illustrator

Illustrator Effects

Sunburst effects are highly versatile visual elements commonly used in graphic design to create eye-catching backgrounds, add dynamism to illustrations, or give a retro touch to any composition. In Illustrator, there are several ways to create a twisted sunburst effect, ranging from using basic shapes and transformations to more advanced tools like distortion effects and warp filters. However, some methods can be complicated or may not offer the level of flexibility many designers are looking for, so today, I will show you a simple and effective technique to create a Twisted Sunburst in Illustrator that provides greater control over the final design. Unlike other methods, this technique will allow you to easily adjust the number of rays, the twist angle, the color, and much more, giving you the freedom to customize the effect to your liking.

Step 1

Open Illustrator and make a new file at any size you want. In this case I will make mine at 1800 x 1200 px.

Step 2

Select the Polygon Tool, click once over the artboard and apply the following settings.

Step 3

Drag the top-middle anchor point to stretch the triangle until you almost reach the top side of your artboard as shown.

Step 4

With the triangle selected, go to Object > Repeat > Radial.

Step 5

Drag the top anchor point in the circle down to make the triangles almost reach the center as shown.

Step 6

Now, drag the Instances slider to the top to increase the amount of triangles that you want for your sunburst. In this case, I will set mine to 14.

Step 7

Go to Object > Envelope Distort > Make with Warp.

Step 8

From the Style dropdown menu select "Twist", apply the following settings and click OK.

Step 9

Go to Object > Expand. Apply the following settings and click OK.

Step 10

Scale your sunburst passing the artboard limits as shown.

Step 11

Select the Rectangle Tool (M) and make a rectangle covering your whole artboard.

Step 12

Lastly, select all objects and go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make.

Some Final Notes

Now that you know how you can make a twisted sunburst in Illustrator, you are free to color it as you wish, use it on your backgrounds, and of course try different instances and deformations to get the exact look you are looking for like in the following example.