Vista'esque Buttons

Photoshop Image Tutorials | Submited Jun 15, 2008

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Notes

I'm aware this isn't a great tutorial, you can deal with it, though.
For each new thing you do, create a new layer. In some of the screenshots you can see the layers, and the order they're in, so pay attention.

When I get the chance I'll post the PSDs here, but at the moment I'm having a few hosting issues.

One - Create Image

File-> New.
The size doesn't really matter, I made mine big just so I have some working room. I'll crop it once I get finished.
Size- 300 x 300
Resolution- 72
Background- 000000 (black)
Foreground- ffffff (white)

Two - Begin

Assuming you've already filled your document with black, grab your select tool and make a selection and fill it with white like so:


Then We'll add some layer styles, follow the screencaps:
[stroke1.png]
FYI, the gradient is 2c2c2c/151515/232323/545454

Two - Highlight

Make a selection over the top of the image and fille it with white, then lower the file to about 10%

Three - Blur

Duplicate your button layer with all the layer styles, then fill it with black.
Filter-> Blur-> Gaussian blur, set it to 5 or 6
Now lower the layer opacity to about 7 percent.
This is a barely noticeable thing, but OCD makes for good Photoshopping, y'know?

Four - Glow

Foreground- 00ccff
Background- 00e3d0
Duplicate your first button layer again, and move it to the bottom of the stack, not past the background, of course.
CTRL-> Click on your button layer to make a selection, then grab your Gradient tool and make a gradient across the selection using the colors afore mentioned.
Filter-> Blur-> Gaussian blur, set it to 14, or whatever you like.

Five - Extra

If this is finished I'm gonna be really bored, so I'll go ahead and make something else out of this.
If tweaked a little, this could be used for a list of links on a website or something, at one point I considered using this on my site for the side links.

So, go ahead and take off the green/blue blow we did, and then use the select tool to chop off about 30px from the side of the button.


Grab your Custom Shape tool, and then go to the part where you choose shapes, and click the little black arrow, and choose the "Arrows" section from the list.
If you didn't pick it up, add the arrow to the part we cropped off a little earlier, add a gradient like the one we put on the original button layer, and a red outer glow.

Then add text. I used a font called Neuropol, and add a 1px bevel, and a drop shadow at default settings. No screenshots needed.