Learn To Create A Simple Yet Pleasing Music Player In Photoshop

What We'll Be Creating

Getting Started!

Create a new (Ctrl + N) document 1000 x 700 pixels with a background color/pattern of your choice.

Select the "Rounded Rectangle Tool" (U) then change the radius option in the options tool bar to a radius of 10 pixels.

Once the radius has been changed drag out a reasonable sized rectangle in the middle of the canvas.

Transforming The Shape

Select the shape layer from within the layers window then transform the right side of the shape by going to "Edit - Transform - Distort". Select the top right anchor point then whilst holding down the shift key on the keyboard drag the anchor point down.

Quick Tip:

Holding down the shift key whilst moving the anchor point will ensure the anchor point moves within a straight line.

Once you've transformed the shape add the following layer styles.

The angle of the gradient overlay may differ from the one used in the tutorial depending on how far you transformed the shape. You should have something like this.

Creating The Screen

Select the "Rounded Rectangle Tool" only this time change the radius to 5px. Now drag out a rectangle onto your music player.

Transform the screen by adding the following layer styles.

The screen should now look something like this.

Creating The Visualization

Load a selection around the screen layer "Layer - Load Selection" then create a new layer above the screen layer and go to "Filter - Render - Clouds".

The go to "Filter - Render - Difference Clouds".

Were now going to add a motion blur to our clouds, go to "Filter - Blur - Motion Blur" then use the settings below.

Now finally add a guassian blur by going to "Filter - Blur - Guassian Blur".

To the clouds layer add a color overlay using the color #5d8bb9 then set the opacity to around 27%.

Select the "Pen Tool" (P) then using a 2 pixel sized brush create a couple of wavy lines.

Select any of the lines and randomly add a motion blur using any settings, then move onto another random line and add a motion blur to that line until you have something like the image above. Once your happy with the lines add the following layer styles to each line layer.

Select any random line layer then adjust the opacity to around 50%. Repeat this step for a couple of lines depending on how many you have created.

Adding The User Controls

Using any of the sliders and buttons from the PSD file create the user controls for your music player. I chose the controls from "Grey UI 2 Active".

Adding The Minor Details

Select the "Rectangle Tool" (U) then drag out a small rectangle inside the music player screen.

Set the rectangles opacity to around 3% then select the "Type Tool" (T). With the "Type Tool" (T) selected add the track title and artist. At the bottom where the user controls are add the timer for the track.

At the top of the music player still with the "Type Tool" (T) add an engraved personalized title.

Creating The Reflection and Shadow

Select the "Rectangular Marquee Tool" (M) then drag a small selection underneath the music player.

Fill (G) the selection with the color black #000000, then blur the selection by around 5 pixels. Reduce the opacity of the layer to around 14%.

Finally to create the reflection, highlight all the music player layers apart from the shadow layer then right click and go to "Duplicate Layers". Once the layers have been duplicated merged the duplicated layers together into one layer then flip the final layer vertically. "Edit - Transform - Flip Vertical".

Blur the flipped music player by going to "Filter - Blur - Guassian Blur", blur the layer by 5 pixels.

Finally set the reflections layer opacity to 50% and add a layer mask to the layer. With the mask added drag a linear gradient from the bottom dragging upwards.

Conclusion