(click link below to download)

CREATE THE BACKGROUND

In a new document, create a background using the gradient tool. I’m using a light grey and dark grey color, with the gradient tool set to Radial Gradient. I start at the upper left corner and aim towards the lower right corner to give a subtle light effect. You may need to make a few passes to get the look you want.

SET YOUR TYPE

The best typeface for this effect is a sans serif font. I’m using Futura Condensed Extrabold and a dark red color.

SET YOUR LAYER STYLES

Now that you have your type set in the font and color you want, set up the layer styles for Inner Shadow, Inner Glow & Bevel and Emboss as seen below. Remember, if you choose a different color than the red I’m using, you will need to adjust the Inner Shadow and Inner Glow color so that it is in a shade and tint of the color you are using.

DUPLICATE TYPE LAYER

To create the “back” of the type and give you a guide for creating the 3D effect, duplicate the type layer you’ve made (select the type layer and press Command+J). You will be working on the bottom type layer, so make sure you have it selected. Open up the Layer Style for this layer and select only the Gradient Overlay, using the the settings below.

ADJUST GRADIENT OVERLAY

Make the adjustments to the Gradient Overlay you need to get the desired result, which is light at the top moving down to dark at the bottom.

OFFSET THE LAYER

With the adjustments made to the back type layer, offset it to give it the desired 3D effect.

FILL IN THE GAPS

Next, you’ll use the Rectangle Tool to connect the front and back type layers. Start by making a shape that is flush with the edge of the front type layer and connect it to the edge of the back type layer.

Extend the shape all of the way to the top and shift the sides to match up with the both layers of type.

ADD GRADIENT OVERLAY

Open up the Layer Style for this shape and set the Gradient Overlay to the settings below.

The idea is to go from light, at the top, to dark, at the bottom.

ADD DIMENSION TO ALL

Continue this same technique to all exposed sides of the type, making sure to fill in all gaps. An easy way to do this is to duplicate shapes that are similar and can be applied to other letters of the type.

ADD THE GLOSS

When you have finished the above actions, you can now add the gloss to the type. Create a new layer in the Paths palette and using the Pen Tool, create a shape over the top type layer. The shape I’m using is organic, but you can easily use a more symmetrical shape such as a half circle or straight line.

Make a selection of the shape by holding down the Command key and clicking on the path layer in the Paths palette. When you have made the selection, create a new layer, above the front type layer, and fill the selection with 100% white.

Now, with the new shape layer still selected, hold down the Command key and click on the thumbnail of the front type layer. Make sure you click on the thumbnail and not just the layer. This will create a selection in the shape of the front type layer.

TRIM THE ACCESS

Inverse this selection by either holding down the Shift and Command key at the same time and press “i“, or go to Select–Inverse. After that, press the delete key to remove any extra parts of the white shape you don’t need.

FINISH THE GLOSS

With this layer selected, set the Blending Mode to Multiply. Go to the Layer Style of this layer and apply the Gradient Overlay using the settings below.

THE FINISHED IMAGE

The Gradient Overlay and layer opacity can be adjusted to give you the result you desire.

See link below for PSD file for this tutorial.

DOWNLOAD LINKS

1440 x 900 | 1680 x 1050 | 1680 x 1200 | 1920 x 1080 | 1920 x 1200 | 2560 x 1600

(click link below to download)

(click link below to download)

CLICK ON PREVIEWS TO SEE FULL SIZE:

Here is what the image of the button will look like when we are finished with this tutorial.

DRAW THE BUTTON SHAPE

Using the Ellipse Tool, draw a circle. It doesn’t matter what color it is, that will all be changed in the Layer Style.

ADD LAYER STYLES TO THE BUTTON SHAPE

Double click on the button shape layer to bring up the Layer Style palette and apply the following specs for Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, and Gradient Overlay. As for the Gradient Overlay, you can use any color you would like,  as long as it goes from light to dark.

ADJUST HIGHTLIGHT

While in the above palette, click and hold on the highlight area of the shape. Pull down the highlight area of the shape until it is down towards the bottom of the shape.

CREATE THE BASE FOR BUTTON

To create the base for the button, duplicate the button shape layer and scale it up so that is larger that the original button shape.

CHANGE THE LAYER STYLES FOR THE BASE SHAPE

Double click on the base shape layer to bring up the Layer Style palette and change the specs for Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, and Gradient Overlay. For the Gradient Overlay, change it to a metallic gradient that will work well as a texture for the button base.

CREATE THE GLOSSY HIGHLIGHT

Above the button shape, draw a white oval shape using the Ellipse Tool and position it towards the top of the button shape. Set the blending mode of this layer to Multiply and set the opacity to 40%.

Double click on this layer and apply the below layer style for the Gradient Overlay as seen below, making sure the Blend Mode is set to Screen.

FINISHED IMAGE

This technique can be used with any shape you can create in Photoshop. Have fun experimenting with it!

]]> http://rubberspark.com/glossy-button-in-adobe-photoshop/feed/ 2 http://rubberspark.com/keyboard-shortcuts-in-adobe-illustrator/ http://rubberspark.com/keyboard-shortcuts-in-adobe-illustrator/#comments Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:00:48 +0000 Joseph http://rubberspark.com/?p=386 Keyboard shortcuts are a great way to help you work faster while working on Illustrator documents, and assigning the keyboard shortcuts you’re used to working with makes it that much faster.

If you want to assign keyboard shortcuts to your menu commands or tools in Adobe Illustrator, this is how you do it:

Go to “Edit–Keyboard Shortcuts”

If you want to change or assign a keyboard shortcut to a tool, choose “Tools” and selct the tool. If it’s a menu command you want to change, choose “Menu Commnads”.

Find the Tool or Menu Command you want to change or assign, and select the shortcut area to type in your new keyboard shortcut.

When done, click “Save” and go to the tool or menu command to make sure that it is assigned the new keyboard shortcut.

To load one of these symbol libraries, go to Window–Symbol Libraries. Once you’ve selected a library, a palette will appear, allowing you to pull artwork directly from the palette, to your layout.

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CHOOSE A FONT

In a new Illustrator document, select a font you like and type in the copy you want to make chrome. The typeface I’m using is Gill Sans Ultra Bold.

LOAD GRAPHICS STYLE

Then, load the “Image Effects” graphics style library. When the Image Effects palette comes up, select your line of copy, then select the “Metal Silver” swatch. And Voila! You’ve got chrome type.

You can also get some other great effects too by clicking on some of the other swatches within the palette. Here are a few examples:

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To load a graphic style library, go to Window–Graphic Style Libraries. If you’ve never used the graphic style libraries in Illustrator, I suggest you open a new document, draw some shapes or outline some type, load a library and click away. You’ll be blown away from some of the effects you’ll get.

Below are examples of what you can do by simply converting type to outlines and applying an effect:

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You can either add your twitter name to the e-card using a photo editing program, or you can put the image in a layout program, overlay your twitter name and save it as a pdf.

Click e-cards to see full size jpeg:

Twitter bird art from:

thedesignsuperhero.com

rocketgenius.com

iconeden.com

icontexto.blogspot.com

]]> http://rubberspark.com/twitter-invite-ecards/feed/ 0 http://rubberspark.com/how-to-load-brush-libraries-in-illustrator/ http://rubberspark.com/how-to-load-brush-libraries-in-illustrator/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 05:00:42 +0000 Joseph http://rubberspark.com/?p=747 If you want more variety when using the Paint Brush Tool in Illustrator, you can load a number of brush textures. There’s every type of brush from chalk charcoal pencil to watercolor to borders and banners.

To load a brush library, go to Window–Brush Libraries. There you will have a great selection of brushes to choose from.

Apple Software Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard – Family Pack (5 User) ONLY $49

3.5″ x 2″ business card die lines

If you need custom business card die lines, contact me here: order@rubberspark.com

There are two ways you can do this. The first method takes a screen capture of your entire screen. You do this by pressing shift-command-3. You should hear a camera shutter sound and an image file will show up on your desktop.

The second method allows you to select which area of the screen to capture via cross hairs.

For this, you will need to press shift-command-4.

When you do this, your cursor will turn into cross hairs that you can click and drag to make your selection. You will also see numbers to the side of the cross hairs that tell you how many pixels wide and high your image will be. You will also hear the camera shutter sound using this method.

You can put type on any shape path, but in this example, I’ll put type on a circle.

First, draw a circle.

Then, select the Type on a Path Tool. There are many other type tools in this palette, so be sure you pick the correct tool.

Position the type cursor on the path of the circle and click on it. This will select path of the circle as the base of the type you will input.

Once you have the path selected you can put in your type.

After you’ve put in your type, you can adjust it by using the selection tool. By positioning the selection tool over the vertical lines on the type path, you will be able to “grab” and slide the type around the circle.

You can also use the Type on a Path options palette to make the type sit on the path in different ways (Type-Type on a Path-Type on a Path Options).

STEP 1

In Photoshop, go to File-Automate-Contact Sheet II

STEP 2

This will bring up a palette where you select the images you will use in the contact sheet. Select “Choose” under the “Source Images” area.

STEP 3

Go to the location of the folder containing the images, select it and click Open.

STEP 4

This will bring you back to the first palette, where you can change the settings of the size, resolution and color mode you want the contact sheet to be. Depending on how many images you have and what your settings are in the “Thumbnails” area, Photoshop will calculate how many pages will be needed.

STEP 5

When you are finished putting in your settings and hit “Ok”, Photoshop will create a new document, open each of the images, resize them and put them in the new document along with the filename of each image.

Select the object that has the Pantone color fill.

In the color palette, go to the options drop down menu and select CMYK. This will change the Pantone color to a cmyk mix.

If you have multiple objects in your document that have Pantone color fills, you can convert them all to cmyk at the same time. First, make sure your document is in cmyk mode (File-Document Color Mode-CMYK Color).

Then, select the objects that have Pantone color fills.

Then go to Edit-Edit Colors-Convert to CMYK. This will convert all of the Pantone color fills to cmyk mixes.

Preview:

STEP 1

Create a new document in Illustrator. Make sure the document is set in RGB color mode (File-Document Color Mode-RBG Color)

STEP 2

Next, draw the shape that you want the button to be.

STEP 3

Add a color gradient to the button shape, with the color at the bottom a darker shade of the color at the top.

STEP 4

Select the button shape, copy it, paste it in the front (Edit-Paste in Front), add a stroke to it (about 2 pts) and send it to the back (Object-Arrange-Send to Back).

STEP 5

Next, draw an oval, centering it on the button shape and raise it so that the bottom of the oval is around the center of the button shape.

STEP 6

Select your button shape (the one without the stroke), copy, paste it to the front and then move the button shape to the front, above the oval (Object-Arrange-Bring to Front).

STEP 7

Next, select the oval and the top button shape and use the Divide action in the Pathfinder palette. After you have done this, ungroup  the pieces, and delete all of the shapes except the shape created by the division of the oval and the top button shape.

STEP 8

Select the new shape and fill it with a gradient, going from white at the top to black at the bottom. Then select the shape and using the Transparency palette, set it to Screen, at 80% opacity.

Your button should have a nice gloss finish to it.

This technique can be applied to different shapes and can also be used in Photoshop.

Glossy button tutorial file:

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