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Light Button
There are many uses, especially in websites and interface design, for a button that has a small light inside. It can be used to add a futuristic look or a control board appearance to any flat panels on your website. They are appealing in that they give your site extra flare, while not coming across as too flashy to distract the visitor. In this tutorial, we'll break down the simple steps necessary to create one of these buttons.
Step-by-Step Instructions:
1. Open a new document in Photoshop.
2. Create a new layer and call it "Button".
3. On the active "Button" layer, create a circular selection using the Eliptical Marquee tool.
4. Now select the Gradient tool. Change the settings so that it is a radial gradient.
5. In the Gradient Editor, create a gradient that goes from a light color to a dark color. For simplicity of this tutorial, we'll just go with white to black.
6. Now drag the Gradient cursor from the top left of the circular selection to the lower right. Then let go. This will give us the appearance of a 3D ball.
7. Goto Select > Modify > Contract. Enter a value in the Contract box that appears. This will be the amount of pixels that you want the border rim of your button. Click OK.
8. Your previous circular selection should now have shrunken inwards over the 3D ball image. (IF the circular selection becomes angular in some areas after contracting, then simply goto Select > Modify > Smooth and enter a value to smooth it out).
9. Now repeat Step 6, but this time, go from the lower right area of the circular selection to the upper left.
10. With the new gradient going in the opposite direction in the smaller circular selection, you should now have a beveled 3D button image.
11. Keep the circular selection still active, goto Select > Modify > Contract again. Enter a value. This will create the circular selection for the light that will go inside of the button. (Smooth out the circular selection again with Select > Modify > Smooth, if necessary).
12. Now create a new gradient color scheme in the Gradient Editor for the light. I chose white to green to dark green as my color scheme.
13. Be sure that the small circular selection inside the button is still active and create a new layer. Call it "Light".
14. With the "Light" layer active, follow the same procedure in Step 6. That is, use the gradient cursor and drag from upper left to lower right inside the small circular selection.
15. The small light should now be colored in. Right click on the "Light" layer and select "Blending Properties".
16. Click the checkbox next to "Drop Shadow" and adjust the opacity of the shadow so that it fits right with the rest of the button. (Also feel free to tweak the Distance, Spread, and Size sliders to get just the right shading effect of the shadow from the light).
17. Congratulations! Your done!
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