Easy 3D banners and buttons

[size=18]Easy 3D banners and buttons

This tutorial will explain how to create an easy 3d effect without using any fancy plug-in or brush.
For this tutorial I will be making a circular button/banner but the same method can be applied to almost any other kind of shape.

Ok, first off we need our shape so let’s make a new document and make the dimensions 400 x 400. Then select the elliptical marquee tool from the tool bar.



Then, from the top left corner, measure about 10 pixels down and across (press Ctrl+r to display ruler, right click on it and select pixels from the top of the list). When you have got the curser in the right place, hold down Shift and drag the marquee down to the bottom right corner, stopping at the same place as before (10 and 10). Now you should have a nice even circle with some space around it.

Now create a new layer be pressing the new layer button. Then fill the new layer with a desired color. Now create another layer and with the marquee still there, go to Edit -> Stroke from the top menu. Make the color black and set the stroke as “inside” with 6 Pixels of width.
Now select filters from the top menu and go to Blur -> Gaussian blur and make the radius 9px
Now for a nice out line make another layer and open stroke again, this time only one pixel and on the outside of the selection. Make the opacity on this one around 30%.

Now for the 3d effects to begin. Make another layer but leave this one blank for now. This time go to paths (the tab on the same window as the layers). Create a new path and, with the pen tool

Select the top third of the image. To do this you only need to click on four points and there is no need to drag. The selection should look as so:

With this done select the ‘add anchor’ tool from the same menu as the pen tool. Select a point about halfway across the bottom line of the selection and drag it upwards a bit to create a nice curve. When dragging, don’t drag straight away, release the click first to create the point and then drag the point upwards. It should look as so:


Right click on the image and choose ‘make selection’. Leave all values in the next window unchanged. This will make the path into a marquee selection. Now go back to the layers tab and select the empty layer we created before. Ctr+Shift+Alt+click the layer that is filled with our color. This will wrap our selection around that layer so as not to fill in any unnecessary space.
Now, select the marquee tool again and, using your arrow keys on the keyboard, press ‘down’ 5 times to nudge the selection down a bit (you need to select the marquee tool for this).
Now make sure the foreground color is white (if you haven’t changed it then just press ‘x’) and select the gradient tool from the tool bar.

And drag from the top down from the top of the selection to the bottom. Now press Ctr+d to deselect the marquee and go to the Filters menu and choose Blur -> Gaussian Blur. Make the radius 8 Pixels. As you should see the image looks more 3d already.

Now choose the brush tool…

And make the brush a soft edged one with the size about 475px and make sure that airbrush is on.

Now create a new layer again and with the brush tool, make it so about a half of the brush covers the image and click and hold for a second but no longer. Change the opacity of this layer to 28%. Create a new layer and with the same brush make a third of it cover the image this time and hold for around the same time and change the opacity to 18%.

Now we have our lighting effects finished and it should look nice and beveled.

Now whilst the previous layer is still selected, Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Click the filled layer again but this time press Ctrl+Shif+I to invert the selection. Press Delete to remove any excess fill from outside the circle. Do the same with the other layer too.

Now we have our finished product so from here you can do with it what you want, Add a pattern, change the background layer to a color of your choice, add text and use it as a banner, avatar or whatever.
Use this tutorial to any other ‘round’ shape like a rectangular banner to make a long curved banner for the top of your webpage.

Here is another one I made for my old website.



[edit on 5-10-2006 by funny_pom]

[edit on 5-10-2006 by funny_pom]

Good job funny_pom!