Buddy Icon

Photoshop Tutorial

In this tutorial you will learn how to create glossy icon and give it a nice reflection effect.
First of all, select ellipse tool:

and draw a black color circle as shown :-

Right click on its layer name in layer pallate and select blending options and use inner shadow and gradient overlay as shown :-

This is what you get after applying above blending options :-

Zoom in ( short cut = control + '+' key). Create a new layer (by pressing shift+ctrl+n). Select brush. Set the foreground color to white. Set the brush size around 30 pixels and select a soft brush and draw (or fill :) ) the parts of the layer as shown :-

Actuall 100% view :-

Now, use ellipse tool again. Draw this shape with red color (#FF0000)

Press '-' (minus) sign from the numeric keypad and draw the shape as shown. It will substract the area as shown :-

Apply these layer styles in it :-

Now, control+click on its layer's name in layer pallate to select it :-

Go to select>modify>contract and contract the selection by 1 pixel :-

Create a new layer and fill this new layer with white color :-

This is the another technique to apply gloss in the objects. Now, select eraser. Use soft feather brush and erase the parts of the layer as shown :-

Similarily draw another ovular shape with ellipse tool and apply gloss to it. Send these layers (the shape layer and the gloss effect layer) behind the first layer.

Now, we will add reflection effect. First of all, group and merge all the layers leaving the background layer. Now, press control+j to duplicate the layer and go to edit>transform>flip vertical and place this layer just below the first one.

Now, reduce its opacity. You can do two things : 1. Either move the slider of opacity in layer pallate to desired location (here I set the opacity to 27%) or quickly type the desired opacity from the numeric keypad. If you give gap between the 2 and 7 while typing, then you will notice that first the opacity turned to 20% and then to 70%. Its good but not suited for our purpose here :)

Our final step is to erase the part of the layer with soft feather eraser. Our reflection icon is ready to be used :)

And now that you're done, I want to really trip you out on something. It has nothing to do with Photoshop, but it's still cool. :) Click here.