Tutorials / Adobe Photoshop 6.0 / Those Plastic Buttons
Step 1
Start with a new image with a white
background. Create a new layer and using the Rectangular Marque Tool. Draw a
rectangle roughly the size of the one pictured on the left
Step 2
Click the channels tab and create a new
channel. Fill the selection in with white. You can now deselect (CTRL +D).
Go to menu Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and use a setting of about 3.5 Click
OK.
Next, go to Image>Adjust>Levels and drag the two bottom triangles towards
the center until the button looks nice and smooth (see image). Click OK when
done.
Hold CTRL down and click on the channel "Alpha 1" to select it. Click the
Layers Tab. Do not loose the selection.
Step 3
Set your foreground color to: R:212 G:214
B:212 and the background to white, using the linear Gradient tool
(foreground to background) drag from top of the selection to the bottom so
it looks like the picture on the left.
Now create a new layer and Set your foreground color to R:192 G:192 B:192
and go to Edit>Stoke. Choose 1 pixel for width and center for the location.
Do not deselect anything yet.
Step 4
Now, with the rectangular marquee selected,
move the selection up to the top of the button so that it overlaps slightly
(see picture). Create a new layer and fill that selection in with white.
Now click on the channels palette and hold CTRL and click on "alpha 1" to
load the selection. Click the layers tab and now go to Select>Inverse. Hit
delete. press CTRL +D to deselect.
Now go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and use a setting of 0.3 Click OK and
set the opacity of that layer down to about 74, or so until you are
satisfied with the way it looks.
Step 5
Now it should be looking good, but to add to
the effect add a drop shadow to the layer with the original button shape on
it (in my case Layer 1).
Go to Layer>Effects>Inner shadow and use the settings shown. That's it, you
should have a nice plastic tab ready to add some text to.
Step 6
Add some text to the buttons, you can also add
a very faint drop shadow to the text for a nice effect. To change the color
go to Image>Adjust>Hue/Saturation.
Step 7
Apply this technique to other shapes to get
some neat effects.
Tutorials / Adobe Photoshop 6.0 / Those Plastic Buttons
