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Shiny Bar

February 19th, 2013

This tutorial teaches how to make a shiny black bar, but it can easily be altered to use different colors.

Prerequisites

Please know how to do the following before using this tutorial.

Objective

Finished Result
Shiny Bar - finished

Tutorial

  1. Open a new blank canvas. I will be using a 400x50px one.
  2. Create a New Layer New Layer. I will name this layer, bar.

    Shiny Bar - #2

  3. Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool Rounded Rectangle. If you don’t see it, you may need to hold down the Rectangle Tool Rounded Rectangle for more options.

    Make sure Fill pixels (also called “Create filled region” on older versions) is selected, and set the radius around 5-10px.

    Shiny Bar - #3

  4. On layer bar, create a Rounded Rectangle in black.

    Shiny Bar - #4

  5. Create a New Layer New Layer above bar. I will name it, highlight.

    Shiny Bar - #5

  6. Load a selection on layer bar. (Tutorial: Exercise: Selections, step 6)
    Use the Paint Bucket Paint Bucket to fill layer highlight with white.

    Shiny Bar - #6

  7. Set the Opacity of layer highlight to 30%.

    Shiny Bar - #7

    Which now looks like this:

    Shiny Bar - #7

  8. Use the Rectangular Marquee Rectangular Marquee, and make a selection that covers the bottom half of the bar.

    Shiny Bar - #8

  9. Go to Select >> Modify >> Feather (or just Select >> Feather in old versions) and use 3px.

    Hit delete on your keyboard afterwards. This will make the light half have a soft edge.

    Shiny Bar - #9

  10. Use the Text tool Text to type something on the bar in white.

    Shiny Bar - #10

  11. On your layers window, click on Layer Styles Layer Styles and select Bevel and Emboss.

    Shiny Bar - #11

  12. Leave the Style on Inner Bevel, but change the Technique to Chisel Hard, the Direction to Down, and the Size to 1px. You can leave the rest the same.

    Shiny Bar - #12

    The text now looks like this:

    Shiny Bar - #12

  13. Create another New Layer New Layer. I will name this one, text shadow.

    Shiny Bar - #13

  14. Load a selection on your text, and then use the Paint Bucket Paint Bucket to fill layer text shadow with black.

    Shiny Bar - #14

  15. Set the Opacity of layer text shadow to 10%.

    Shiny Bar - #15

  16. Use the Rectangular Marquee Rectangular Marquee, and make a selection that covers the top half of the text. Hit delete on your keyboard to remove that part.

    Shiny Bar - #16

    And now we’re done!

    Shiny Bar - finished

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