Super Widget Interface Tutorial
3. Finish Main Base Shape
Now we're going to work on bringing the main base shape to life. We will use some layer effects, gradients, and different layer opacities and modes to
achieve this.
- The first thing we need to do is add some depth, and we do that by having main base shape as our current working layer, and select
Layer -> Layer Style -> Inner Shadow.
- Make sure you have a check by only these four styles: Inner Shadow, Inner Glow, Satin, and Gradient Overlay.
- Then make the settings of those four styles like the four screen shots below:
Inner Shadow:
Inner Glow:
Satin:
Gradient Overlay:
- This is what you should have now:
This looks pretty good as it is. But we are going to add a couple highlights to complete the look for this shape.
- Select main base shape's selection by ctrl + clicking on its text in the layer's pallete.
- Create a new layer above main base shape and name it "bot hlight".
- Choose Select -> Modify -> Contract, enter 4 pixels, and hit ok.
- With white as your foreground color, select Edit -> Stroke and set width as 2 px, and location as inside, and leave everything
else the same.
- Deselct the selection
- Then, go to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur and set Radius to 2 and click ok.
-Next, we need to erase the top part of this highlight, so we select the Eraser tool (E), and pick a soft brush with 35 pixel radius.
- Make sure the opacity and flow is set to 100%, and erase the stroked line all the way around the shape except for the bottom part:
Whenever you are erasing a subtle highlight such as this one, it is easier to zoom in to 200% so you can get everything, and not miss a small part.
- Go ahead and set the opacity of the bot hlight layer to 80%. An easy way to do this is to click on the text in the layer's pallete to highlight it, and then
hit 8 on your keyboard. Try it!
- Also, move the whole layer up two pixels.
- Now, create a new layer above the bot hilight layer, and call it "top hlight"
- Activate the main base shape's selection by ctrl + clicking on it in the layer's pallete, and go to Select -> Modify -> Contract, and contract the selection
by 2 pixels.
- Then, with your current working layer as "top hlight", and your foreground color as white, go to Edit -> Stroke, and put 1 for the width, and location of inside.
Leave every other option the same.
- Deselct the selection
- Go to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur, and use a radius of 1 and click ok.
- Now grab your eraser tool, and with the same brush you used earlier, erase the bottom part of the highlight layer you just made.
- Once you have done that, lower the opacity of the top hlight layer to 80%, and you should have something similar to:
Top Left Circle
- We will move on to the top left circle area. Create a "layer set" (click on the small icon that looks like a folder, at the bottom of the layer's pallete) and make sure the layer set is above the top hlight layer. Please name it: "Top Left Circle".
A Layer Set is simply a folder that holds other "sub layers". They are useful for organizational purposes. For example, say you want to create a screen on an interface. You would add a layer set, and within that set you would have layers such as the screen's color, the highlights, shadows, and the strokes, etc.
- Create a layer within the Top Left Circle set, and name it "outside circle".
- On this new layer, draw a circular selection that is 60 x 60, and fill it with black.
- Deslect the selection (ctrl + d), and position the circle to where it is centered in the top left area. The best way is to zoom in to 300% and eyeball it, while
using the arrows to move it into position.
- Once you have that centered, lower the opacity to 23%.
Then, create a new layer above the one you just made, and name it "outside circle stroke".
- With the "outside circle" selection active and foreground color as black, go to Edit -> Stroke, and make the width 1px, and the location inside and click OK.
- Drop the opacity of the inside stroke to 50%.
- Deselct the selection
- Create a new layer above the stroke layer you just made, and name it "inset".
- Draw a circular selection that is 50 x 50, and position the selection in the center of the outside circle, just like you would if it were a layer. Remember to zoom in and eyeball it.
- Activate the Gradient Tool (G).
- With your foreground color black, and the background color white, select the "Linear Gradient" option on the Gradient Tool's toolbar up at the top.
- Then, put your cursor at the top of the selection, hold down the shift key, and drag your mouse straight down, to where your cursor is now just a couple pixels
below the stroked line, as in the picture below, and then let go to apply the linear gradient.
- Next, create a new layer on top of the previous one, name it "circle color" and draw a circle that is 44 x 44, and fill it with the blue color: #1695B9.
- Deselect and position it to where it is centered within the inset circle.
- Make another layer on top of the last one and name it "circle color stroke".
- Activate the circle color's selection, and with your current working layer as circle color stroke, give the selection a black stroke of 1 px, inside.
- Bring the opacity of the stroke to 70%.
- This is what you should have now:
Now we just have to add a few shadows and highlights, and this section will be done.
- Create a new layer, call it "subtle shadow", and activate the circle color's selection.
- Give the selection a black stroke of 1 px, inside.
- Go to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur, and enter 1.5 and click OK.
- With circle color's selection active, create a new layer and name it "bot shadow".
- Give the selection a black stroke, of 2 px, inside.
- Then, give it a gaussian blur of 3, and lower its opacity to 60%.
- Create another layer and name it "bot hlight".
- With the circle color's selection active, go to Select -> Feather, and enter 1, and click OK.
- Next, make white as your foreground and grab your Gradient tool.
- Then choose Foreground to Transparent from the Gradient Picker:
- Place your cursor, as shown below, hold down shift, and drag 3/4 of the way up, and release your mouse button.
- Lower the opacity of that highlight layer you just made to 80%.
- Create another layer, and name it "top hlight".
- Activate circle color's selection again, and grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool.
- Hold down the alt key, and place your cursor around where the arrow is in the picture below:
- Then, drag up and to the left and make an elliptical selection similar to the one above. Just so long as the top intersects the bottom of the circle
color's selection. It doesn't have to be perfect, so don't worry about trying to get it exactly like the screenshot.
What we just did was subtract the large elliptical selection from the bottom part of the circle selection to come up with the small top highlight selection.
- Now, with your foreground color as white, take the Gradient Tool and with "Foreground to Transparent" as your specified gradient (just like the bottom highlight),
drag from the top of the selection to the bottom of the selection and let go.
- Deselct the selection
- Change the opacity of the top hlight to 90%.
You are now done with the Top Left Circle area, and your interface and layer's pallete should look something like this:
Bot Left Button
- Create a new Layer Set, above the Top Left Circle Set, and name it "Bot Left Button".
- Create a new layer within the layer set you just made and name it "button color".
- With your foreground color as # 37B5D8, grab the Rounded Rectangle Tool (U), and with a radius of 6 px, draw a rounded rectangle that is 105 x 15.
- Position the button color layer as it is on the SuperWidget.psd and the picture below.
- Create a new layer, called "button inset" and place it below the button color layer, but still within the same layer set.
- Activate the button color's selection, and expand (Select -> Modify -> Expand) it by 1 pixel.
- Grab your Gradient Tool, make the foreground color black and background white (shortcut way is to hit "d" on the keyboard). Also, be sure that
the gradient picker is set to "Foreground to Background".
- Place your cursor slightly above the rounded rectangle, and drag down, while holding shift, and release slightly below the button, as in the picture:
This creates a nice little inset spot for our button and makes it look like it belongs on the interface shape.
- Make a new layer, and name it "dark to light gradient", and place it above the button color layer.
- Make your foreground color # 2C5560, and your background color # 37B5D8.
- Then, activate the button color's selection if it isn't activated already, and drag from the top of the selection to the bottom. Zoom in to 300% percent or so
if you have to.
- Deselct the selection
- Make a new layer, name it "strong hlight", and grab your Airbrush Tool (B).
- From the Brush Preset Picker, choose the 3 px brush. It should be the second one from the top if you have the default brush set loaded. Make sure the brush tool is at 100% opacity.
- Make your foreground color white, and zoom in on the button to 300%
- Place your cursor near the top left of the button (a few pixels from the left side) and drag straight across to the right side
of the button while holding down shift. Stop dragging a few pixels from the right side. You should have something similiar to this:
- Drop the opacity of the strong hlight layer to 80%
- Duplicate the strong hlight layer by dragging it down to the new layer icon in the layer's pallete. This will create an exact copy of that layer and will also
name it "strong hlight layer copy".
- Rename it to "subtle hlight", and move it straight down, towards the bottom of the button, and lower its opacity to 30%.
- Next, make a new layer, and name it "subtle lines".
- Take the line tool, make sure you have antialias unchecked, and your foreground color is white.
- Draw a vertical line near the left side of the button, and make it extend outside the button color area.
- Duplicate that line layer, and move the second line to the right by 6 pixels. Continue doing this until you have lines like the screenshot below:
- Activate the button color's selection, then hit shift + ctrl + I. That inverts the selection, meaning it reverses it and selects just the opposite.
- Hit the delete key to delete the excess of the lines that hang out around the button color.
- Change the layer mode from normal to overlay, and drop the opacity to 20%.
- Activate the button color's selection once again.
- Create a new layer named "stroke".
- Now, with your foreground black, give the selection a 1 pixel stroke on the inside.
We are now done with the button area, and you should have something like this:
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