Get the basic skills of working with Photoshop. This section contains descriptions of the Photoshop bars and tools as well as the basic techniques of using them.  Home Photoshop Photoshop Basics How to do a glossy and animated jQuery button - Photoshop part

How to do a glossy and animated jQuery button - Photoshop part


Step one - Open Photoshop

 

To start the creation of your glossy button, you have to create a new document, go to File> New (Ctrl/Cmd + N) and: edit the name (Glossy button in my example), change the canvas with (180px) and height (45px).

image 1

Step two - Create some guides

 

To help you to do the button, you should add some guides on your canvas! But before to add them you must turn the rulers on, so, go to the menu View> Rulers (Ctrl/Cmd + R to turn on and off). You'll create 4 different guides: on the top, on the right, on the left and on the bottom.

image 2

How to create a guide on Photoshop?

Really easy, for example, to create a vertical guide on the left of your canvas, click on the left ruler and drop it on the left border! Then, you can move it (every time) click on the guide with the Move tool (V) and move it where you want!

Step three - Create the main shape

 

Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool (U) and look at the options bar on the top of your screen. Verify that the first icon is activate (Sharpe Layer) and to finish, edit the radius to 40px.

Now you can create a rounded rectangle. If your foreground colour is black, your shape will be black, the foreground colour is important because it defines the style of your button. But don't worry, it's really easy to edit this colour, double-click on the shape layer "Shape 1" to change the colour.

In this example I use a darkgrey : #292929.

image 3

Step four - First reflect

 

Create a news layer and name it "First reflect" (to create a new layer go to Layer> New> Layer or Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + N). Then create a selection around the shape button (Ctrl/Cmd + click on the layer shape 1's thumbnail (in the layer panel).

image 4

Now you have to modify the selection, go to Selection> Modify> Contract (by 1px) and click on Ok.

image 5

Change the foreground colour to the white and select the Paint Bucket Tool (G). Go to Edit> Fill (Shift + F5).

image 6

Select the Rectangular marquee tool (M) and create a selection around the half bottom. Then delete the pixels (Delete).

image 7

To finish the reflect, go to Layer> Layer Mask> Reveal All. Select the Gradient Tool (G) and in the options bar, open the gradient picker and choice the second thumbnail (Foreground to transparent). Change the colour of the foreground to the Black and create a new gradient on the Layer mask.

image 8

image 9

Step five - Little stroke

 

Hide the guides (Cltr/Cmd + and create a new layer, name it "White stroke" (to create a new layer go to Layer> New> Layer or Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + N). And do once more time step 4 ...

"create a selection around the shape button (Ctrl/Cmd + click on the shape layer one's thumbnail (in the layer panel)... Now you have to modify the selection, go to Selection> Modify> Contract (by 1px) and click on Ok... Change the foreground colour to the white and select the Paint Bucket Tool (G). Go to Edit> Fill (Shift + F5)"

image 10

Get down the selection of 1px. And delete the pixels (Delete).

image 11

To finish, add a new Layer mask on "White stroke" and with the Gradient tool (G) create a gradient on the half top part.

image 12

Step six - Last gradient

 

Create a news layer and name it "Last gradient" (to create a new layer go to Layer> New> Layer or Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + N). For the third time create a selection around the shape button, contract it by 1px, change the foreground colour to the white, select the gradient tool (G) (Foreground to transparent) and create a smooth gradient on the half bottom part. Press Ctrl/Cmd + D to deselect.

Great ! the button is still finished image 13

image 14

Step seven - Drop shadow

 

To finish the button it's easy; you must add a drop shadow on the layer "shape 1" but after that, you have to increase the height of your canvas (add 3 pixels => height will be 48pixels // Ctrl/Cmd + Alt + C or go to Image> Canvas size). Then click on the layer "shape 1" and go to Layer> Layer style> Drop shadow.

image 15

Edit the options like that:

image 16

Step eight - create the text

 

Select the tool Text (T) and create a new rectangular text area from the left to the right, in the options bar, click on the centre text icon. Then type your text (Sign-up Now!).

image 17

To finish the text, add a new layer style, go to Layer> Layer style> Stroke. Change the size to 1px, the colour to the black.

image 18

Step nine - duplicate the button

 

Finally you must duplicate the button to make the hover button. Create a new group and name it "Button" (go to Layer> New> Goup). When the group is created, move all layer into the group.

Rename a layer or a group ?

To rename a layer or a group in Photoshop, double click on its name to edit it. It's easy!

Now, you have to increase the canvas size again, go to Image> Canvas size and change the height to 96 pixels (48*2=96).

image 19

Right click on the group and select Duplicate group (edit the name like "Button hover").

image 20

Step ten - Change the color

 

Use the Move tool (V) to get down the second button and double-click on the layer shape 1's thumbnail to edit the colour. You see it's easy, change the colour to change the style of your button. In this example I used the green : # 3d960c.

Look at the result:

image 21

And look at the same button with different colours.

image 22

image 23

image 24

How to do a glossy and animated jQuery button - Photoshop part

Download the Free PSD

 

Click here to download the Photoshop .psd files



Author's URL: Julien Debove
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Get the basic skills of working with Photoshop. This section contains descriptions of the Photoshop bars and tools as well as the basic techniques of using them. More Photoshop Basics Tutorials: Featured Materials | Fresh Materials | TutorialKit New Photoshop Tutorials

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comments HIIIIIIIIIII October 01, 2011 says:
I JUST WANNA KNOW WHERE DA GOOOAD AT.
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