Making Plastic Buttons

Using Photoshop (any version)
[Written By Kid Red from Kid Red Productions]

 

Making Plastic Buttons
1. Open a new document or create a new layer.


2. Choose the oval selection tool and create an oval. Then do a gradient of blue (foreground) to darker blue (background).


3. Now command click on that layer to bring up it's pixel selection. Now move that selection upwards.


4. Now command+shift and click on the oval layer. This will subtract the oval's pixels from your selection.


5. Move the selection down until the top edge of the selection is flush with the top edge of the oval. Then go to Select/Modify/Contract and contract the selection by 2 pixels.


7. Now do a white transparent gradient from the top to the bottom of the selection.


8. Repeat steps 1-6 but this time moving the selection to the bottom of the oval rather than the top.


Now you can make colorful glossy buttons to use on your site.