I wrote a tutorial similar to this on a site I used to own about a year back. It had a great response, and looking back, the result wasn't even that good.
So I thought I would redo it in sort of a "Mini Tut" kind of way.
It is a pretty simple technique that produces a nice result.
Let's get started.
I'm just going to use a circle, but you can easily apply this technique to any shape. I have just a 300px wide and 300px high image. Then I drew a circle in the middle filled with
#ededed.
Now to keep this simple, we can apply some base shading with some simple Blending Options:
Once you have applied those styles, duplicate that original circle layer. Then set that layer's fill to 0%. We are going to apply some more Blending Options on this layer to further the 3D feel. This way we can apply some more complex shading. Those first Blending Options were small shadows close to the shape. Now we are going to apply some lighter, but bigger shadows on both the inside and outside:
Looking nice and smooth already! The next thing we can do to make it more 3D is add a darker circle in the center. This will give the edges a nice "bevel" feel. Here is an easy way to do it. Duplicate the layer we just worked on, and open up Blending Options. Take off the drop shadow. Now change the Inner Shadow to these settings:
You should get something like this:
Now lets add some shine! The first thing we can do for this is to create a new layer.
Now make a selection of the circle (hold Ctrl + Click on any of the circle layers we have worked on). Now, go to
Select > Modify > Contract and contract
10px. Now go to
Edit > Stroke and stroke the
Outside with
1px on the
outside.
Now take a soft eraser, and erase parts of the stroke.
Lets add a little highlight to the bottom now. Make a selection of the circle like before (hold Ctrl + Click on any of the circle layers we have worked on) and make a new layer. Fill it with white. Now move the selection up a little, until it looks like this:
Press delete. Now add a Gaussian Blur of 1px.
Now make an oval selection towards the top of the shape. Do it about 2px from the top. With a white-to-transparent gradient, drag it downwards. It should add a little extra shine to the top.
Make a small white circle in the middle of the larger circle.
Apply a 5px Gaussian Blur, and lower the opacity to 30%.
I added a few more shines to the top left, and a little background gradient action to finish it off. I'm not going to be to specific, because this was really just meant to teach a technique.
Well that about covers it. Please play around with the techniques and experiment, and show me what you can come up with! I look forward to seeing your results.
Let me know if you have any problems!
Laters.
