Create a Cloud Icon

Quick reference

• 00:04 In todays tutorial, we're going to be creating this futuristic cloud icon in
• 00:07 Photoshop.
• 00:08 Of course, the first thing that we need to do is map out the cloud.
• 00:12 To start, we're going to create the base of the cloud - this can be done with a
• 00:15 rounded rectangle, which you can find in your Tools bar.
• 00:18 We want to set the radius at a nice large number, to give us perfectly round
• 00:22 corners. 200 should work fine.
• 00:22 When that's set, drag out the rectangle as wide as you want the
• 00:28 cloud to be.
• 00:28 Now that the base is complete, let's add the smaller circles.
• 00:32 Switching over to the Ellipse tool, make sure that the ‘add to shape area’ option is
• 00:36 active on your Options bar.
• 00:37 Draw out your first ellipse, which will be the smaller the two on the left side
• 00:41 to the cloud.
• 00:42 If you want to move the ellipse around as you're creating it, hold down your
• 00:45 spacebar.
• 00:45 When the first ellipse has been created, draw out the second one on the right side.
• 00:50 This will be the bigger of the two. Make sure you're holding on your Shift key to
• 00:53 ensure they create a perfect circle.
• 00:55 Once shapes are in place, you can still move them around. In your Tools bar, grab
• 00:58 your Path Selection tool -
• 01:00 it's the black curser icon. Clicking on any one of the created shapes will display
• 01:04 its path,
• 01:05 allowing you to shift the shape around if needed. Now, before we tackle the layer styles,
• 01:09 let’s add a little bit of definition to the shape.
• 01:11 In the Layers panel, duplicate the current cloud shapes by either tracking
• 01:15 to the ‘new layer’ icon at the bottom
• 01:16 or use your Command- or Control-J shortcut. Once that has been duplicated,
• 01:21 double click on the color box beside the bottom cloud, and darken its color slightly.
• 01:25 This will help us tell the two apart. When the color has been changed, move the shape
• 01:29 down around 10 pixels.
• 01:30 This can be quickly done by holding down the Shift key and then pressing the down
• 01:33 arrow on your keyboard.
• 01:35 Perfect! It's now time for layer styles. Let's start with the top cloud by adding a
• 01:39 gradient overlay.
• 01:40 In terms of the colors, we’re going to tweak the colors of the original design just a
• 01:43 little bit,
• 01:44 creating a more vibrant cloud. The color on the left will be the bottom color:
• 01:48 I'll use the value 01 25 43.
• 01:52 The color on the right, which will be the top color,
• 01:55 will be 1A 64 B1. 42 00:01:59,170 --> 00:02:02,910 The next layer style we're going to add will be a bevel and emboss, to give our
• 02:02 cloud a bit of an edge.
• 02:04 In the top section, everything's going to be left as is. Now, down under shading,
• 02:08 start by turning off global light, then change the angle to 90 degrees,
• 02:12 and the altitude to 50 degrees. For the highlight mode,
• 02:16 set the blend mode to Overlay with an opacity of 35%.
• 02:19 As we're not too concerned about a shadow, turn the shadow opacity
• 02:23 down to zero. Next, we're going to add an inner shadow, which is
• 02:26 actually going to act as a sharp highlight at the bottom of our cloud.
• 02:30 Change the blend mode to Overlay ,set the color as white,
• 02:33 and the opacity at 60%. When that's done, turn off global light
• 02:39 and set the angle at -90 degrees, so that the highlight is added at the bottom
• 02:43 of our shape.
• 02:43 Finally turned the distance to 1 and the size 0.
• 02:47 Now, to add an additional glow, let's add an inner glow.
• 02:50 Once again, change the blend mode to Overlay, the color to white
• 02:54 and the opacity to 40%. Down below, the only option you need to adjust
• 02:59 is the size: change that to 15. And finally,
• 03:02 let's add a stroke, to add a slight outline around the cloud.
• 03:05 If the color isn't already black, set it to a pitch black,
• 03:09 and then set the size to 1. This shape's layer styles are complete.
• 03:13 Let's move on to the shape in the back, which is giving our cloud some depth.
• 03:16 This shape will only have two layer styles:
• 03:18 a gradient overlay and a stroke. Before we start adjusting the gradient colors,
• 03:22 change the style to reflected and the angle to 180 degrees.
• 03:26 This is going to help achieve a rounded look to the shape. As for the colors, we’re
• 03:30 going to be using four stops,
• 03:32 so we want to add two more. Clicking right below the gradient bar will add a
• 03:35 new color stop.
• 03:37 We want to place one at around 55% and one
• 03:40 at 65%. If you're having trouble placing them in the right
• 03:43 location,
• 03:44 you can manually enter them at the bottom. The two colors on the left
• 03:48 and the color on the far right are going to be identical. The value I'm going to use is
• 03:53 00 28 50. Once one of the colors is set, you can click on the other stops
• 03:58 and sample the color that you just set. As for the last color, this can act as a
• 04:03 highlight,
• 04:03 to give a rounded look to the corners. Make sure to use a lighter value for
• 04:06 this one
• 04:07 00 36 69.
• 04:11 Now if you create a larger or smaller cloud, you may need to adjust the positioning of the
• 04:15 stops, but that should give you a rounded look to the shape in the back.
• 04:18 The layer style we're going to add will be a stroke.
• 04:21 This isn't going to be your typical outline.
• 04:22 In the top section, change the size to 1, and then the position to Inside.
• 04:27 Now down below, change the fill type to gradient
• 04:30 and then when the new options appear, set the angle to 180 degrees.
• 04:34 As for the colors of this gradient, we're going to use three simple colors.
• 04:38 The color on the far left will be a nice bright red,
• 04:42 the far right will be a baby blue and then, adding a new stop in the middle,
• 04:46 change the color to a bright yellow. This will give you neat colorful shine at the
• 04:50 bottom of your icon.
• 04:52 Once the layer styles have been added, you might want to slightly scale the back
• 04:54 shape horizontally,
• 04:56 to add to the curved effect. Enter ‘free transform’ mode by using your Command- or
• 05:00 Control-T shortcut,
• 05:01 and then with your ALT or Option key held down, drag either one the side nodes inwards.
• 05:06 Press return or Enter once you've completed the transformation.
• 05:10 At this point, the main design is complete, but let's go through a few
• 05:12 optional steps,
• 05:14 the first being a subtle shadow under the cloud. Creating a new layer below
• 05:17 both cloud shapes,
• 05:18 grab your Elliptical Marquee tool and drag out a very thin oval below the
• 05:22 shapes,
• 05:23 making sure it's slightly longer than the base of the cloud.
• 05:26 When the marquee has been created, fill it with black. 108 00:05:29,860 --> 00:05:30,400 If black is your foreground color,
• 05:30 which you can achieve by pressing the D key on your keyboard, Option/Delete or
• 05:33 ALT/Backspace
• 05:34 will fill the selection with black. Now to move away from the shadows
• 05:38 sharp edges,
• 05:39 let's blur it a little bit. Head up to the filter menu, down to blur,
• 05:42 and then ‘Gaussian Blur’. A value of seven should work quite well.
• 05:46 Now, turn down the opacity to around 40% to finish the shadow.
• 05:50 Next, let's add a reflection in the Layers panel.
• 05:54 Select both your cloud layers.
• 05:54 This can be done by clicking on either one of them and then with your Command or
• 05:57 Control key held down,
• 05:59 click on the second one. When they're both selected, we want to duplicate them
• 06:02 and move them down.
• 06:03 Hold down your ALT or Option key as well as your Shift key and then drag downwards.
• 06:08 You should now have a duplicate of your cloud. Because we're not going to be modifying any
• 06:12 of the layer styles,
• 06:13 it's safe to merge these two layers together. I don't often recommend
• 06:16 merging, but in this case, I'll let it slide.
• 06:17 Hold down Command or Control and press the letter
• 06:20 E to merge those selected layers. Now we need to flip it.
• 06:23 Head up to the Edit menu, go down to transform and then flip vertical.
• 06:28 Place it right below the top cloud once it's been flipped.
• 06:31 Now, just like we do with the shadow,
• 06:32 let's blur the reflection slightly. Again, head up to the filter menu,
• 06:35 blur, Gaussian Blur. This time the value of two should work well.
• 06:39 Once its been blurred, turn the opacity down to 30% and then add a layer mask.
• 06:42 This will help us fade out the reflection. Once a layer mask has
• 06:46 been added, grab your gradient tool
• 06:48 and make sure white is your foreground color and black is your background color.
• 06:52 On the Options bar, choose the linear foreground to background gradient.
• 06:55 Now drag out a gradient from the top of the reflection to around a quarter of the
• 06:59 way down.
• 06:59 And that should do it.

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