Abstract glass shards in Illustrator?

How do you make those neat abstract images

[jennij]

Okay, this may sound really stupid :)
I'm trying to figure out how all these neat 'starburst glass' abstract images are made. They seem 3D but I've seen several similar things in Adobe galleries.

If you can look here (just a page with samples of what i'm looking to do) especially #2 and #4 I like.

Are these done with a 2D drawing program such as illustrator? If so, what (in general) technique do you use?

Examples [specialtywebz.com]

[korkus2000]

With clever use of gradients and mirror effects in illustrator or freehand you can get the skeleton for these. The last step, color effects, is definetly photoshop or fireworks. The smoky effects around these are usually enlarging the images and adjusting the opacity.

I don't really know of any tutorials. #2 to me looks like someone used a picture and did filters on it. #4 very well may have started out in a vector program.

[estebones]

#3 and #5 should be easily duplicated using Photoshop, #2 (like the last post said) it must have been a pic, or someone with a lot of patience to do several filters and layers.
good luck!