Full Interface Template

Guide to interfaces
Basics to shapes: Cube

The introduction to the brush tool.

First of all you will need some knowledge of brushing and photoshop. If you're a beginner this tutorial will be useless for you.

This is an intro to brushing shapes and making them look 3D.

First of all here are some tips that could help you:

Every shape needs a light source

Every shape has shadows and highlights

Never use dodge and burn for making shapes. Dodge and burn is only good for touching up highlights/shadows

Now we will try to do the same with a box.

Start by making a new canvas and filling it with color.

Now for the box i made the shape using the Polygonal Lasso Tool. Of course the color of the boxes depend on where the light source is. Mine will be from your eyes.

Select the Brush Tool with 20% opacity and 40% flow. Start developing the shadows/highlights. The highlight will be in the front, because it is the spot where our light source hits the shape.

Delete any unneeded parts with the Polygonal Lasso Tool or the Pen Tool.

Select the Smudge Tool and start smudging our shape. Make sure you follow the lines of the shape.

Some more cleaning up. Same technique as i explained before.

Now we add the box shadow. I did this step with the Brush Tool.

This shadow depends on where our light source is. And where it hits the shape.

At this step i went to Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur and selected 3. Hit OK and you have your own 3D box.

Now you are ready to move on to making an interface ball.

Basics to shapes: interface ball in photoshop

Ok we start by making a simple ball.

Make a new canvas i made it 300x300 pixels and fill it with a dark gray color.

Make your ball shape with the Elliptical Marquee Tool. My result:

Ok. Now before you start shading/highlighting you need to determine where your light source will be. The lightsource determines where the shadows and highlights will be.

Now select a slightly darker color and start brushing at the end of your shape.

Now select a lighter color and start making the highlights. This is my result.

Now we will smooth our ball. Select the Smudge Tool with 20% strenght and start smudging gently. Don't over do it.

Now we putt our shape into some space. Depending on where the light source hits the ball it will give a shadow behind it. You need to have some imagination to know where this shadow will be.

Now i just added some background shading. Nothing special just to give it some more extra touches.

This is where the Dodge Tool comes in. Select an airbrush around 10px. Just make a tiny dot this is the place where the light source hits our shape.

Now you are ready to move on to making an interface template!

In this tutorial you will learn how to make an interface template. Before starting you need to have advanced knowledge of Photoshop or you will get lost.

We will learn how to make this:

Ok, we start by making a new canvas and filling it with a dark blue-cyan color. Then we select the brush tool and start brushing our shape.

Note: You can also do this with the pen tool, but i prefer brush tool, since i have a wacom.

This is my result:

Now we decrease the opacity on our brush tool to about 20% and start to mark the areas where our highlights/shadows will be.

My result:

As you see it already has a 3d look but its very rough. Don't worry about that yet. Now we pick the eraser or pen tool and

delete the areas we don't want. For the inset i used polygonal lasso tool to clean it up and give it straight edges.

Now we select the smudge tool at around 10-20%. Select a round hard brush and start dragging it over the areas that need to be smoothen.

Now duplicate your interface part and go to Filter-Scetch-Chrome and play around with the settings. Change the layer Blending Mode to color dodge.

Now pick the pen tool and make the shape for the vents at the side. Then select a small airbrush and make the light highlights.

Make the same for the big inset.

Duplicate your part and move it up a bit.

Duplicate both of your parts and to go Layer-Transform-Flip horizontal and move it to the right side.

Use the same technique that i explained before to make the middle bit of your template.

I started to define the edges at this stage. With the Brush tool at around 20% opacity.

Defined the shape a bit more and cleaner up the vent.