Locked lesson.
About this lesson
Combine layered styles and animation to create this great effect.
Exercise files
There are no related exercise files for this lesson, or we cannot provide them due to copyright issues.
Quick reference
Topic: Animated Glowing Button
Create a glowing button.
When to use
Are you ready for an ominous but stylish power button to give a little presence to your designs? Combine layered styles and animation to create this great effect.
Instructions
Set up
- New document of 800 by 600 pxs.
- Set background color to 222222.
- Option + Delete (Mac) Alt + Backspace (Windows) to fill color.
- Command + R (Mac), Control + R (Windows) to reveal rulers.
- Menu/View/Snap (on).
- Pull out guilds from left and top to snap into middle.
The circle shape
- Ellipses Shape Tool, drag out shape from centre while holding down Shift and the Option/Alt key.
- Gradient Overlay - Blend mode: Normal,
- Gradient color left: 292929,
- Gradient color right: 1b1b1b.
The 2nd circle shape
- Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) + ‘J’ to duplicate layer.
- Right-click and clear current layer styles.
- Change color to 262626.
- Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) + ‘T’ to enter ‘Free Transform Mode’.
- Hold Shift key and scale down. Press Enter.
Cut a hole in the 2nd Circle
- In the Shape tools, choose custom shape.
- In the shape picker find the ‘Circle Thin Frame’ shape.
- In options bar choose ‘Subtract from Shape’.
- Drag out shape from centre while holding down Shift and the Option/Alt key.
Add layer styles
- Bevel and emboss:
- Blend mode: Normal,
- Depth: 100,
- Size: 2,
- Angle: 90,
- Style: Pillow Emboss,
- Highlight Mode: Overlay,
- Shadow Mode: Multiply,
- Highlight Opacity: color 0062ff,
- Shadow Opacity: 30%,
- Gloss Contour: Cone Inverted.
- Drop shadow:
- Blend mode: Multiply,
- Opacity: 55%,
- Size: 20,
- Angle: 90,
- Distance: 6,
- Style: Pillow Emboss.
Add a reflected glow
- Select first shape and Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) + ‘J’ to duplicate layer.
- Change new layer name to ‘Reflected Glow’.
- Go to layer styles box and set fill opacity to 0%.
- Gradient overlay - Blend mode: Normal,
- Opacity: 75%,
- Style: Radial,
- Gradient color left: 0088ff,
- Gradient color Right: Set to Transparent: Move gradient to upper right. Change scale to 75%.
Add main glow
- Select reflected layer shape and Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) + ‘J’ to duplicate layer.
- Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) + ‘T’. ‘S’ + Hold Shift and Alt/Option and scale down, return to accept changes.
- Gradient overlay - Blend mode: Color Dodge,
- Opacity: 100%,
- Style: Radial,
- Gradient Color Left: 00193e,
- Gradient Color Right: Set at 30% and 76 ceff.
Activate the timeline
- Convert both glow layers to smart objects.
- Menu/Workspaces/Timeline.
- Press the ‘Create Video Timeline’ button, select ‘Create Video Timeline’.
Animate the glows
- In the timeline open up the main glow layer properties.
- Click the ‘Transform’ stopwatch at frame 0.
- Move plays head to 15 frames.
- Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) + ‘T’ and in the options bar enter 180°.
- Move plays head to 1 second.
- Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) + ‘T’ and in the options bar enter 180°.
- Repeat process for the reflected glow layer.
Finish animation
- Drag endpoint (on top of timeline layers) to 1 second.
- Menu/File/Save for Web.
- Make sure that GIF is selected.
- Switch looping options to forever.
- Save to computer.
- 00:00 Now before I begin adding shapes, let's go ahead and set up the document first.
- 00:09 I'm gonna be starting with an 800 by 600 pixel document,
- 00:12 which should be large enough for a simple design like this.
- 00:16 Now in terms of the background color,
- 00:17 it's going to be what I am basing the other elements off of,
- 00:20 this isn't required, but I found that it creates a nice, smooth design.
- 00:24 I am gonna be using a dark gray, the value is going to be two, two, two, two, two.
- 00:29 Once the color set Option Delete on the Mac or
- 00:33 Alt Backspace on Windows, will fill your background with the foreground color.
- 00:39 The last thing I'm gonna set up are my guides.
- 00:41 This will help position the circles perfectly in the center of my document.
- 00:46 If you don't see your rulers on the left and top of your work space, Command or
- 00:50 Control R will reveal them allowing you to
- 00:53 pull out your guides from the left and the top.
- 00:55 And as long as Snap is turned on under the view menu at the top,
- 00:59 your guide should snap nicely at the horizontal and vertical center.
- 01:05 Good, now we're ready to start creating.
- 01:07 In your tools bar on the left, go ahead and grab the eclipse tool, and make sure
- 01:11 on the options bar at the top, that you're gonna be creating a shape and not a path.
- 01:17 Now starting in the center of your document where the guides intercept,
- 01:20 start dragging out your first ellipse.
- 01:23 You're gonna notice two problems, one it's not a perfect circle and
- 01:27 two it's not being created from the center.
- 01:30 The first problem can be solved by simply holding down your shift key while
- 01:33 dragging out your shape.
- 01:35 This will constrain it to a perfect circle or
- 01:37 a perfect rectangle, depending on which tool you have active.
- 01:41 Second, to create the shape from the center, in addition to
- 01:43 your Shift key hold down your Option key on the Mac or Alt key on Windows.
- 01:48 As long as these two keys are held down,
- 01:51 you'll be creating a perfect circle being created from the center of your document.
- 01:54 Now that the first shape is created,
- 01:57 we want to add a gradient overly to this shape.
- 02:00 Go ahead and double click on the layer in your layers panel to bring up
- 02:03 the layer styles dialogue box.
- 02:05 Once you're in here, hop into the gradient overlay section and
- 02:08 click on the gradient bar to bring up the gradient editor.
- 02:12 Now we can define our colors.
- 02:14 The color on the left is going to be the color at the bottom of this shape.
- 02:17 As I mentioned earlier,
- 02:18 our colors are going to be defined based on our background color.
- 02:22 So I can simply sample a background color by clicking on it,
- 02:25 and then I can adjust the color to my liking.
- 02:27 For the bottom color,
- 02:28 it's going to be just a little bit lighter than the background color, and then for
- 02:32 the color on the right, I'm gonna do the same thing.
- 02:35 I can sample the background color, and then this time,
- 02:37 it's gonna be slightly darker.
- 02:40 Perfect, so now that the first shape is complete, we're gonna skip the glows for
- 02:44 a second and focus on the uppermost shape.
- 02:46 This is gonna be the shape that's gonna act as a window to the glow.
- 02:50 To keep things simple, I'm gonna quickly duplicate the shape that we
- 02:53 just created with the Command or Control J shortcut, and
- 02:57 once the shape has been duplicated, right clicking on the shape in the latest panel
- 03:01 will allow me to clear the current layer style so I can start fresh.
- 03:05 I'm also gonna change the color of the shape to prepare it for our layer styles.
- 03:09 Double clicking on the shape's thumbnail will bring up the color picker.
- 03:13 I'm gonna set it ever so slightly than the background color.
- 03:16 The value's gonna be two, six, two, six, two,six, two, six,
- 03:19 once I add the layer styles this will change though.
- 03:23 Once the new color's been set this shape needs to be scaled down just a little bit.
- 03:27 Go ahead and enter free transform mode, you can do this with your command or
- 03:30 control t shortcut, and then scale the shape down.
- 03:34 Make sure to hold down your shift key to constrain it to a perfect circle.
- 03:37 We don't want any ovaling going on, and once you're happy with
- 03:40 the size press return or enter on your keyboard to accept the transformation.
- 03:45 Good, now we need to create the window that will allow us to see the glow,
- 03:48 we're gonna do this using a custom shape to cut out a hole in the shape that we
- 03:52 just duplicated.
- 03:54 In your tools bar, where you found the ellipse tool, go ahead and
- 03:57 grab the custom shape tool.
- 03:59 Now on your options bar, at the top, click the shape picker and
- 04:02 scroll down until you see the circle thin frame shape.
- 04:07 If you haven't loaded in all the shapes that come with Photoshop yet, go ahead and
- 04:10 click on the icon at the top right corner of this panel.
- 04:14 Choose all, and then choose either append, or okay.
- 04:18 If you choose append, the shapes will be added to the end of your current list.
- 04:22 If you choose okay, it's gonna replace all the shapes completely.
- 04:25 So once your shape has been chosen,
- 04:27 we want to subtract the shape from the current shape.
- 04:30 You can do this by either selecting subtract from shape option on the options
- 04:34 bar or simply hold down your Alt or Option key before you create the shape.
- 04:40 You're gonna notice that when I hold down my Option key,
- 04:42 the cursor now has a minus sign.
- 04:44 This tells me that it's gonna be subtracted from the shape.
- 04:47 Once you start creating your shape,
- 04:49 make sure to hold down the Shift key to constrain it to a perfect circle.
- 04:53 I'm gonna drop it right around here, leaving a little room around the edge.
- 04:57 Good. Now, of course,
- 04:58 what's a shape without layered styles?
- 05:00 I'm only gonna be adding two to this layer, a Bevel and
- 05:02 Emboss, and a Drop Shadow.
- 05:04 Both will help give this shape some depth.
- 05:07 For the Bevel style, I must set it at Pillow Emboss.
- 05:10 I'm gonna keep the depth at 100% but
- 05:13 I'm gonna decrease the size to around two pixels.
- 05:16 This will give me a really nice subtle bevel.
- 05:18 Now, down below on your shading, the angle of the light is completely up to you.
- 05:22 You can keep it at 120 degrees, or
- 05:24 you can rotate it based on your personal preference.
- 05:27 I'm gonna pop it at 90 degrees.
- 05:30 As for the highlight and shadow mode,
- 05:31 the highlight mode is gonna be set to overlay with a nice baby blue color.
- 05:36 This will add a very slight blue glow around the edges of your shape.
- 05:40 The shadow mode will be kept in multiply, but
- 05:42 I am going to decrease the opacity to around 30%.
- 05:46 And finally, to finish off the bevel,
- 05:48 I am going to switch the gloss contour to cone inverted.
- 05:52 Of course you can experiment with the different contours to see which
- 05:55 one works best, and
- 05:56 finally the last layer style I am gonna be adding is a simple drop shadow.
- 06:00 I'm gonna drop the opacity down a touch to around 55%.
- 06:03 I'm gonna set the angle at 90 degrees to match my bevel's lighting source,
- 06:08 if it isn't already, and I'm gonna set the distance at six pixels and
- 06:12 the size at 20 pixels to soften it out.
- 06:15 Perfect, and that'll do it for this shape.
- 06:18 Now we get to the fun stuff, the glows.
- 06:20 This design will contain two glows.
- 06:23 One that will act as a reflection on the back shape and
- 06:26 a stronger glow that will appear in the window.
- 06:28 Let's go ahead and create the reflected glow first,
- 06:31 in your layers panel go ahead and select that first shape that we created.
- 06:35 And then just like we did before, I'm gonna duplicate it with my Command or
- 06:38 Control j shortcut, and then clear it's layer styles, just like I did before.
- 06:43 Now this time, when I jump into my layer styles dialogue box,
- 06:46 I want to be sure to set the fill opacity to zero percent.
- 06:49 Setting your fill opacity to zero percent will hide the contents of the shape,
- 06:54 but it will allow us to see any layer styles that we might add,
- 06:58 like a gradient overlay.
- 06:59 This gradient is gonna be a little bit different from the one that we
- 07:02 added earlier.
- 07:03 First, I'm gonna set the style at radial and
- 07:05 then I'm gonna open up the gradient editor to edit the colors.
- 07:09 When the gradient editor is up, the left color is gonna be the main color of
- 07:12 the glow, which in this case will be a nice baby blue.
- 07:15 I'm gonna use the value zero, zero, a, eight, f, f.
- 07:20 Now, the color on the right will be completely transparent.
- 07:23 This can be done by clicking on the stop that's above the gradient bar,
- 07:27 and then decreasing the opacity to zero percent.
- 07:30 Now, because there's a transition, we need to give our gradient a color to fade to.
- 07:35 Because the design is mostly dark colors,
- 07:38 setting the color at black will do the trick.
- 07:41 So right now you are probably thinking, where is my gradient, well right now it
- 07:46 is hiding behind the top mole shape, that window shape that we created earlier.
- 07:50 Now some of you may not know this, but gradients can be moved.
- 07:53 If you place your cursor over top of your document, you can click and
- 07:57 drag that gradient anywhere you want.
- 08:00 I'm gonna place it at the top right corner so that the rim is nicely lit.
- 08:04 You can also control the scale of the gradient if you don't want it as large,
- 08:08 I'll scale it down to around 75%, and then move it to it's final location.
- 08:13 Good, now we can move on to the main glow, which is gonna appear in the window.
- 08:17 As I love keeping things simple, go ahead and create a duplicate of
- 08:20 the glow that we just worked on, again with the Command and Control j shortcut.
- 08:24 Once it has been duplicated, go ahead and enter free transform mode with your
- 08:27 Command and Control T shortcut, and scale it down.
- 08:30 It should be the size of the window shape that is one top.
- 08:33 You should see the path as you are transforming it, and
- 08:36 just like when creating a shape, holding down your Shift and Alt or
- 08:39 Option key will scale it from the center while keeping it a perfect circle.
- 08:44 Once it's in place, press Return or Enter to accept the transformation.
- 08:48 Now we can go ahead and alter the gradient.
- 08:50 Once you're back in the Gradient editor, start by setting the right stop back
- 08:54 at 100% opacity, and then change the color of that right stop to a dark blue.
- 08:59 I'm going to use the value zero, zero one, nine, three, e.
- 09:04 This will give a very subtle glow to the inside of the window.
- 09:08 Now, we're going to be adding one more stop around 30%.
- 09:11 If you click right underneath the gradient bar,
- 09:14 you'll be able to add an additional stop and move it into place.
- 09:18 You can see the location at the bottom.
- 09:20 Once it's in place, this color's gonna be a lighter baby blue.
- 09:23 The value's gonna be seven, six, c, d, f, f.
- 09:28 Now, right now it's probably not looking that great.
- 09:30 Go ahead and accept the gradient, and
- 09:32 then change the blend mode of the gradient overlay to color dodge.
- 09:37 That's much better, and just like the last gradient,
- 09:39 you can move it into place if you need to.
- 09:42 Okay, the design is complete and now it's time to animate.
- 09:46 Now, before I start the animation section,
- 09:48 this technique will only work on Photo Shop CS6.
- 09:51 You don't need extended but you just need any version of Photo Shop CS6.
- 09:55 CS5 or below does not have the ability to animate the transformations and
- 10:01 with that I'm gonna take a super quick break and
- 10:03 I'll be right back to show you guys how were gonna animate this thing.
- 10:06 All right, I'm back and we're ready to animate.
- 10:09 So there's going to be two layers we're going to be animating, the reflected glow,
- 10:12 and glow that appears in the window.
- 10:14 Now, because of the blending mode changes,
- 10:17 we're going to be animating each of these layers individually.
- 10:20 If you were to merge both of them as a smart object,
- 10:24 the blend modes would get lost leaving us with a pretty ugly result.
- 10:28 Instead, we're going to be converting each glow to a smart object which will allows
- 10:32 us to animate the transformations.
- 10:34 To do this, right click on the first glow and
- 10:37 select the convert to smart object option.
- 10:40 Now, do the same thing for the next glow, but
- 10:42 this one you might notice if you change the blend modes on any of the glows,
- 10:46 converting to a smart object disregards the chain.
- 10:49 But, you can simply change the overall blend mode.
- 10:52 Back to color dodge to fix this issue.
- 10:55 This is why we are converting each layer individually.
- 10:58 Now it is time to animate.
- 10:59 To open the timeline, you can either double click on the tab at the bottom of
- 11:02 your work space, or you can find it under the window menu at the top.
- 11:07 Once the timeline is visible,
- 11:08 you will most likely need to create a new video timeline.
- 11:11 This will list all of your layers and
- 11:13 reflect the currently selected layer from your layers panel.
- 11:16 Let's start with the glow at the bottom,
- 11:19 when that layer is selected you'll want to expand that layer in
- 11:22 the timeline to reveal the different elements that can be animated.
- 11:25 We're gonna want to animate a transform which includes rotation.
- 11:29 To start you want to click on the stop watch icon beside transform to
- 11:33 create the first key frame.
- 11:35 Once you've created the first key frame, grab the play head and
- 11:37 scrub it a little bit to the right.
- 11:40 This will be our half way point where we're going to make the first rotation.
- 11:44 Enter free transform mode again and with command or control t, and
- 11:47 then up on your options bar, you can simply enter 180 for the degrees.
- 11:52 Which is the most you can rotate a layer at once.
- 11:56 Once you accept the transformation the first animation will be made.
- 12:00 You can see it in action by scrubbing back to the first frame and
- 12:03 then pressing your spacebar.
- 12:04 Now, don't worry if you see any loss in quality.
- 12:07 Once the animation's been rendered it'll be nice and sharp.
- 12:10 Now, the same can be done for the second half of the rotation.
- 12:13 Scrub a little bit to the right.
- 12:16 Enter free transform mode, enter 180 for
- 12:18 the degrees, accept the transformation, and your first animation is complete.
- 12:24 Now let's do the exact same thing for the glow on top.
- 12:28 Once again select the layer and expand it in your time line.
- 12:32 Add the first key frame by pressing the stop watch beside transform and then
- 12:37 scrabble over to the right in the same location you did for the previous layer.
- 12:41 Enter free transform mode, rotate 180 degrees, again scrub to the right,
- 12:48 enter free transform and finally rotate another 180 degrees.
- 12:54 And that should complete your animation.
- 12:56 Now to set the final duration of the animation, at the far right corner of
- 13:00 the Timeline you're gonna find the Work Area Endpoint, which you can drag to
- 13:04 the last key frame that you created to set the final duration of the clip.
- 13:09 And finally, if you want your animation to loop rather than just play once,
- 13:13 under the Timeline menu at the top right.
- 13:15 You can choose to loop the playback and that will do it, once your animation is
- 13:20 complete, you can either render it out as a video using the render option at
- 13:23 the bottom of your timeline, or you can save it as a GIF to use it on the web.
- 13:28 Under the file menu, you can choose the save for web option, once you
- 13:31 select GIF at the bottom, you can choose whether it plays back once or forever.
- 13:36 Now again, don't worry if the preview looks choppy.
- 13:39 Once it's saved you're gonna have a nice smooth animation like you see right here.
- 13:43 So try it out yourself
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