Locked lesson.
About this lesson
As offsite storage is becoming more predominant and trusted, a customized cloud icon can go a long way in communicating to your co-workers and clients.
Exercise files
Download the Photoshop file used in the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.
Create a Cloud Icon.psd11.2 MB
Quick reference
Topic
Create a modern cloud icon in Photoshop.
When to use
As offsite storage is becoming more predominant and trusted, a customized cloud icon can go a long way in communicating to your co-workers and clients.
Instructions
Create the base
- Create a rounded rectangle which you can find in your Tools Bar
- Set radius to 200
Add smaller circles to the base
- Switch on Add to Shape area option in the Options Bar
- Draw out two circles to create the overall cloud shape
Duplicate the current shape layer (Command- or Control-J shortcut)
- In the bottom layer make the color a little darker
- Move it down about 10 pixels
Add layer styles to the top cloud
- Create gradient overlay: The color on the left: 012543, the color on the right: 1A64B1
- Bevel And Emboss, Global Light: off, Angle: 90 degrees, Style, Altitude: 50 degrees, Blend Mode: Overlay, Opacity: 35%, Shadow Opacity:0%,
- Section: Inner Shadow: Blend Mode: Overlay, Color: white, Opacity; 60%, Angle: -90, Use Global Light; Distance: 1, Size: 1
- Inner Glow, Blend Mode: Blend Mode: Overlay, Color: white, Opacity; 40%, Source, Choke, Size:15,
- Stroke: Color: Black, size: 1
Add layer styles to the bottom cloud
- Create gradient overlay: Style: Reflected, Angle:180 degrees, Color (4 stops) The color on the left: 00 28 50, 55%: 00 28 50 , 65% 00 36 69: The color on the right 00 28 50
- Stroke: Color: Black, size: 1, Position: Inside, Fill: Gradient, Angle:180,
- The color on the left: red, the color on the right: baby blue, add new stop with color: yellow.
Scale the bottom cloud down
- Enter free transform mode by using your Command- or Control-T shortcut.
- With your ALT or Option key held down, drag either one of the side nodes inwards.
Add a shadow below
- Grab your Elliptical Marquee Tool and drag out a very thin oval below
- Fill with black
- Filter Menu, down to Blur and then Gaussian Blur: Value 7
- Opacity 40%
Tip
To add a reflection to the icon:
- Select both your cloud layers. Hold on your ALT or Option key as well as your Shift key and then drag downwards.
- Hold down Command or Control and press the letter E to merge those selected layers.
- From Edit Menu, go down to Transform and then Flip Vertical.
- Filter Menu, down to Blur and then Gaussian Blur: Value 2, Opacity: 30%
- Add a Layer Mask (with black as your background color).
- On the Options Bar choose the Linear Foreground to Background gradient.
- Drag out a gradient from the top of the reflection to around a quarter of the way down
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- 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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