Rounded glass buttons are very famous and if you are a windows user, then you might be seeing it already in the form of Windows Start Button. However, this is just a basic tutorial which will teach you to make a basic round glass button.
So, lets get started!
- First of all, start Adobe Photoshop and create a new canvas by selecting File>New…
- In the dialog that appears next, make sure that the height and width that you selected are of same size. For the purpose of this tutorial, I have selected 500 pixels are 500 pixels. You can select any size of your choice but larger is more better and crisp. I have also selected RGB color as 16-bit because PNG format is available for 16-bit images. PNG format allows you to export your image with a transparent background so that you don’t have to camouflage your button in the given background.
- Now, make a circle filling your canvas using Ellipse Tool. Hold down shift while dragging to make a perfect circle.
- Now that the circle has been created, choose your foreground and background colors to match the gradient you want on your circle. I am going to make a violet gradient on my circle, so, select lighter color of gradient as foreground and darker color of gradient on background.
- Now, select the layer named ‘Shape 1’, Right-click on it and select ‘Blending Options’.
- In the dialog box that opens, click on ‘Gradient Overlay’ such that it gets checked and highlighted. In the right hand pane, select the gradient that you want, check ‘reverse’ to reverse the gradient colors.
As in my previous post, you can use scale to scale your gradient to your choice. I recommend that you use Linear gradient style.
- Right-click the ‘Shape 1’ layer and select ‘Rasterize’.
- Now, its time to make that small reflective effect that makes your button look like glass. Create a new layer by pressing Ctrl+Shift+N. Rename the layer to ‘reflection’.
- Select the ‘Shape 1’ layer again and click on the Magic Wand tool.
- Make sure that its tolerance is set to 100. Tolerance is the number of shades of a color to be included in selection. Since we have a single shade, tolerance of 100 is enough for us. Also make sure that ‘Anti-alias’ and ‘Contagious’ both are selected.
- Now, click center of your button gradient such that it gets selected automatically. Make sure that the entire round figure gets selected..
- Now select round marquee tool.
- Now, make sure that mode has been set to intersect and feather is 0 px with anti-alias checked.
- Draw your reflective curve in free form such that arc passes through center of your circle.
- Now, select layer ‘reflection’ and set your foreground color to white. Click on the gradient tool and select gradient as ‘Foreground to Transparent’ and draw your gradient from bottom to top.
- Your image should look something like this.
- Set the opacity of layer ‘reflection’ to 10% and press Ctrl+D to deselect your selection.
- But if you had selected ‘Radial’ gradient in step 6, then your final result would be following…
- Last thing that remains in the shadow because it adds final touch to your glass effect. For that, right click ‘Shape 1’ layer and select ‘Blending Options’. Click on ‘Drop Shadow’ option such that it gets selected. Now adjust ‘DIstance’ to 4 px, ‘Spread’ to 10% and ‘Size’ to 10 px. Also make sure that you have set the opacity to 94%.
- Your shadow might now be fully visible. For that, select Move tool. Click on ‘Shape 1’ layer. You should see dotted line around your circle. Adjust its size so that the shadow fits inside. You should hold on ‘Shift’ key if you want your image to be perfectly in shape (preserve aspect ratio).
- For radial gradient type, your image should finally look something like this…
