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Advanced Photoshop Techniques for Web Designers – Part 2

By Marko Prljić

28 August 2009 | Category: Uncategorized

This is my second article about about advanced Photoshop techniques for web designers. In case you missed my previous article, we have already covered buttons, navigation, shadows and a few other useful techniques. In this article we look at how to create fold and light Effects as well as 3D elements. This is going to be a long tutorial so grab your favorite biscuits and cup of tea and let's get started!

Editors Note: Andy Clarke will be teaching an interesting session called “How to Design in the Browser” and Elliot Jay Stocks will be showing you how to design the “The Perfect Portfolio” at The Future of Web Design Tour.

Fold

Now let’s fold some papers, shell we? Used to be, and probably still is, the top feature of Web 2.0 design. You have probably seen this on peel stickers that appeared on almost every website not long ago. I still like this type of fold better then peel stickers, so I’ve chosen this example for you. This example is from Bridge 55

Step 1

Open New Document, set canvas to 470px wide and 300px high, fill it with #d4cdb1. Create a new layer and with Rounded Rectangle Tool draw in this shape, about 310px wide and 400px high. Fill it with #391e0b.

Step 2

Using Pen Tool create a rectangle like shown in the image. Fill it with #e5e2d1.

Step 3

Select the path of the rectangle with Direct Selection Tool. Now, choose Pen Tool again, come near the path and you will notice a small “+” sign appear near the Pen Tool. Click on the path to add two extra points just like shown in the image.

Step 4

With Direct Selection Tool click on one point and bend the curve like shown in the image. Do the same with the second point.

Step 5

Ok, we’re almost done with the fold. No we need to hide the rectangle corner. We will do this almost the same way as we did the actual fold (triangle). Select the path and add few more points where we will transform our path. See the image.

Step 6

Move points like shown in the image.

Step 7

Here we need to do a little bit of extra work to nicely curve the shape. Move the point of rectangle to the nearest point of rectangle shape (fold) just like shown in the image. Notice the handles and their position now.

Step 8

Adjust the handles just like shown in the image. This way we curved the edge of rectangle to follow the fold.

Step 9

Almost done. Just add a Gradient Overlay to rectangle shape. Use the settings like shown in the image. Also, add a tiny Drop Shadow.

Step 10

After adding some navigation items, this is how it should look like. Pretty easy, don’t you think?

Out of the Box

Another nice 3D effect to gain more attention to some parts of the website. This example is from Dave Jay

Step 1

Open New Document, set canvas to 470px wide and 300px high. Create a New layer. Fill the document with #15100c. Draw in a rectangle that divides the canvas (about 280px x 310px)and leave only one side of rectangle (left) inside the canvas. Give it a stroke 2px, inside, #918972. I added a shadow using the same technique I explained in Part 1 of this tutorial (Faded shadow). You should be getting something like you see in the image.

Step 2

Draw in a Rounded Rectangle, radius 3px, filled with #3e726e.

Step 3

Rotate the shape like you see in the image.

Step 4

Now we need to draw the fold. Select the Pen Tool, click once near the edge of the green shape. Second click should be little lower, but this time click and drag to create the curve. You will notice the handles that appear as soon as you drag the point.

Step 5

Now close the path. Move the layer under the green shape layer.

Step 6

With Direct Selection Tool select the green shape. You will notice that two points and handles will appear.

Step 7

With Direct Selection Tool click and drag the right point down to the half of the white shape (fold). Use the image for reference.

Step 8

Adjust the handles of the green shape a bit and you will get the same result as you see in the image below.

Step 9

Select the green shape layer. Add a 3px white outside stroke. Now we need to delete the right end of the stroke. We will do this by distributing the stroke effect to a separate layer and masking the right end. While green shape layer selected go to Layer>Layer Style>Create Layer. Take a look at your layer palette now and you will notice an extra layer above the green shape layer. Select it and add a Quick Mask. With Lasso Tool create a selection like you seen in the image and fill it with black.

Step 10

This is how it should look like now.

Step 11

Now we’re almost done, just a few finishing touches. Let’s create a shadow inside the fold. Select the white shape layer (fold). Create a new layer above. Select a 17px Soft Brush, set background color to black. Now, carefully click few times on top of the selection so that the edge of the brush touches the selection.

Step 12

This is how it should look like. I have created a few more effects on the green stripe that I will explain in next few steps (Light Effects).

Step 13

I just copied the whole stripe, duplicated it and changed base colors of shapes. Done!

Blur

This effect is really neat and simple. Hardly noticeable, yet without it the design would be missing that extra touch. This example is from Phodana

Step 1

Open New Document, set canvas to 470px wide and 300px high. Background used for this example taken from Digital Juice Juice Drops Collection.

Step 2

With Rectangle Tool draw in a shape about 390px x 225px and fill it with white.

Step 3

Create a new layer and draw in a smaller rectangle about 330px x 195x and fill it with light gray color.

Step 4

Now, Ctrl (Cmnd) + Click the big rectangle layer shape to create a selection. Select the Background layer (image). Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and enter 2px for Radius.

Step 5

Lower the opacity of big rectangle shape layer to 35%. This is how it should look like.

Step 6

Add a tiny Outer Glow effect to transparent rectangle. Use settings like shown in the image. Set the glow color to #004e84.

Step 7

That’s it!

Light effects

If you don’t add that extra layer of top light, your site design is rubbish. :D No, just joking of course. These are really that extra touches that make some sites better then others. For this example I used one of my own templates I crated. This example is from PRO Design. More about light and shadow here.

Step 1

Open New Document, set canvas to 470px wide and 300px high. Fill it with #3b3a3a. Draw in a rectangle about 60px high and 470px wide. Fill it with #eae7e7.

Step 2

Create new layer above and draw in another rectangle about the same dimensions like the previous one. Fill it with #28b9c6.

Step 3

Now add some effects to blue rectangle. Gradient overlay, use settings from the image. Stroke 1px, inside, color #27c4d3.

Step 4

This is what you should get by now.

Step 5

Now, this looks nice but something is missing though. We need to simulate light and shadow even more. We will do this by adding 1px dark and light lines on top and bottom of the shape. For dark line set #000000 and for light line set #6d6d6d as background color.

Step 6

This looks much better don’t you think?

Step 7

Adding light effects. Ctrl (Cmnd) + Click the blue rectangle layer. Go to Select>Modify>Contract and enter 1px. Create a new layer and change mode to Overlay. Choose a 300px Soft Brush,set background color to white and click few times with the edge of the brush near the selection where you want to apply the light effect.

Step 8

Subtle but nice.

Step 9

Do the same for the top part.

Step 10

Overall it looks better, definitely!

Step 11

I added some navigation items and logo.

Background effects

Even with one good background you can achieve great visual experience. These can be sometimes hard to create and take more time then other stuff but it’s definitely worth it. This example is from FortyTwo

Step 1

Open New Document, set canvas to 880px wide and 560px high. Fill it with #002142.

Step 2

Draw in a rectangle half the height of the canvas.

Step 3

Apply Gradient Overlay with colors and settings as shown in the image.

Step 4

Create a new layer above and draw in another rectangle to fill the canvas. Apply the same Gradient Overlay, set it in opposite direction this time.

Step 5

Place a Light bulb graphic. I used one from iStock.

Step 6

Let’s do some light effects. Ctrl (Cmnd) + Click the upper rectangle layer to create a selection. Choose a 600px Soft Brush, set color to #4a7ba5 and click one or two times so that the top edge of the brush touches the top of the selection. Now, choose a smaller brush size, 300px, set color to #8cb9da and click again two times little lower. Finally, choose 100px Soft Brush, set color to #e5e9ec and click again two times almost at the bottom of the selection (behind the bulb). Copy this layer one time. Set layer mode to Overlay and set opacity to 65%.

Step 7

This is how it should look like.

Step 8

Copy these two layers and merge them together. Go to Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical and nudge the layer down just like you see in the image. The top side of the flipped light effect layer should be touching the top side of the bottom rectangle shape we drew few steps before.

Step 9

Add a Quick Mask to it and with 600px Soft Brush delete the edges of the flipped light effect layer, just like you see in the image.

Step 10

Create a new layer under the flipped light effect, set background color to white and with big 800px Soft Brush draw in more soft light (click once). Again, add a Quick Mask, and with a smaller brush mask the edges. This doesn’t need to be perfect.

Step 11

In order to add a Pattern overlay, we need to create pattern first. I have created this pattern for you, so all you need to do is apply it to the document. Create a new layer above everything, fill it with #ffffff, set mode to Overlay and reduce opacity to 3%. Add a Pattern Overlay with this pattern here:

Step 12

This is how the effect should look like.

Step 13

We need to create a Light bulb reflection on the surface. To do this, copy the light bulb and flip it vertically, nudge it down. With Marquee Tool create a rounded selection about the same size like shown in the image. Go to Select>Modify>Feather and enter 30px. Press Delete few times to delete the bottom of the reflected Light bulb.

Step 14

And, we’re done.

Wait a minute! Where did these two circles behind the bulb come from?

Yup! It’s a small detail that makes the design complete. Let me show you how to create it.

Step 15

Ctrl (Cmnd) + Click the top rectangle to make a selection. Choose a 800px hard Brush, set color to #b4e8ff and click one time to create the circle.

Step 16

Set the layer opacity to 2%. Copy this layer. Go to Edit>Free Transform and scale the copied circle a bit down. Done!

Final Preview

So we’re done with this. I hope you could easily follow my tutorial and managed to recreate the same effects as shown. Here is the final image preview. Btw. the guys at FourtyTwo used an image from iStock

This is it for Part 2 of our Photoshop Techniques, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Furthermore, I hope you also learned something new that you will be able to apply to your next web design job.

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