How to replicate this...

[Rick]

Welcome JoshN
Wendy and Gauss no fighting now

[sfm]

Welcome aboard JoshN

Wendy and Gaus are playing I'm following the leader the leader the leader I'm following the leader where they may go hip hop hip he he he
sfm

Originally posted by JoshN
Also, in Step 5, when you Hold CTRL and click on "Layer 1" to select it, I get the error No pixels were selected. At this point I stopped.
Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong.?

It means that your layer 1 doesn't contain any pixels. My impression is that you already went wrong in the beginning when you created this new file. Make sure that the settings for this new file look like this:

[JoshN]

OK, it's still doing the same thing. When I opened PS this morning I immediately went to Image>Mode. RGB Color was already selected. I checked this throughout the tut and it stayed that way, but the color still shows up as grayscale.

Gaussian, the only difference in your settings to mine was that my background was originally transparent. I changed this to white. I still receive the no pixels selected error.

I know I'm not stupid and that I'm following the steps as written, but it's just not working. Thanks for being patient with me.

[JoshN]

Great! New problem. (Sorry) In Step 5 after inversing, it states to activate layer 2. Nowhere in this step or previous steps does it state to create a layer 2. Also, the steps that I'm following do not create a layer 2.

I'm sure this is simple for y'all, but this just isn't working for me.

[wbiss]

Hmmmm.... Just quickly looking through the tutorial, layer 2 should be the layer that you have your 'highlight' on. Let me read/work through it myself and see if there is a 'translation/understanding' problem. I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Re the grayscale problem, can you post a screen capture of what you are talking about? It would help me to figure out what's happening with that.

Take heart JoshN. We'll get you sorted out.

Here are my corrrections to this tutorial. I used Photoshop 7.
Good luck

1.

OK, start with a new image about 400x400 px with a your chosen background, (IM using white) No you can make any kind of wacky shape for your button, but for this tutorial I will show you one shape. Start by creating a new layer (layer1) don?t forget this step and using the Rectangular Marquee draw a rectangle roughly the size you want your button. See picture opposite.

2.

OK now click the channels tab and create a new channel. Fill the selection in with white. You can now deselect (CTRL +D) Now go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and use a setting of about 3.5 Click OK. Next go to Image>Adjust>Levels and drag the two bottom triangles towards the center until the button looks nice and smooth (see image). Click OK when done. OK hold CTRL and click on the channel "Alpha 1" to select it. Click the Layers Tab.
Click on the layer icon (background will switch from black to white)


3.

Now fill your selection in with your chosen color, im using R:255 G:126 B:0 Now Deselect (CTRL+D). Now to make the button more interesting go to Edit>Transform>Perspective now drag the bottom right point inwards so that your button goes to the same shape as mine (or something similar)
Double click inside the button to make the transformation final


4.

Now, To make the highlight, create a new layer (layer2) Using the Freeform pen Just draw a rough wiggle circle around the top of the shape as seen in the picture. Once you have your path, Right click and choose "Make Selection" use default settings.
Default settings is wrong; after you choose ?Make Selection? you have to select under ?operation? New Selection
Then Right click again and choose "Turn off path" ?Turn off path? is not needed
Now create a new layer Don?t create a new layer. This step is wrong. The new layer has already been created in the beginning
Fill the selection in with white.

5.

Next Hold CTRL and click on "Layer 1" to select it. Go to Select>Modify>Contract and enter 1. Now go to Select>Inverse. Now make sure you have "Layer 2" active and hit delete. Now hold CTRL and click on "Layer 2" to select it then hit DELETE about 4 times to completely get rid of the white. Do Not lose the selection.

6.

Now press D then X to reset the colors. Select the gradient tool Using the Linear Gradient in the options tab change the gradient to "Foreground to transparent" and drag the gradient from the top of the selection to the bottom you should now get a highlight effect.

7.

OK so you have the highlight now you need the dark shadow. So do the same as before, using the freeform pen draw a wiggly line across the bottom of your button ( see picture) now again, right click and choose "Make selection" use default settings? Default settings is wrong; after you choose ?Make Selection? you have to select under ?operation? New Selection and the right click and choose "Turn off path" ?Turn off path? is not needed
Now create a new layer ( layer 3), Don't lose that selection.

8.

This time fill the selection in with black On a new layer Just fill the selection, but don?t do it on a new layer; that step is wrong (the layer was already created at the end of step 7) Hold CTRL and click on "Layer1" to select it. Go to Select>Modify>Contract and enter 1 then go to Select>Inverse and with "layer 3" active in the layers palette hit delete. Now hold CTRL and click on "layer 3" to select it, hit DELETE about 4 times to remove all the black, Do NOT lose the selection.

9.

Now set black as your foreground color, and using a the linear gradient with ?foreground to transparent? selected, drag from the bottom of the selection to the top. Then Deselect (CTRL +D) now you may want to blue the black shadow a little Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, I used a setting of 3.0, then I lowered the layers opacity down to 42. Now you are done with the button add a Drop Shadow to "layer 1" Layer>Effects>Drop shadow.

I didn?t do step 10-11

[wbiss]

Thanks for beating me to the "punch" on this one G-Man! I was going to walk through the tute myself and try to sort it out for JoshN, but YOU are so much better at that kind of thing.

[wbiss]

My results...

Nice Wendy, that only shows that it can be done.


JoshN, there's nothing wrong with you.
I understand that some steps are different compared to PS7, since this tutorial was written for PS5, but all in all I still think that this tutorial is NOT well written.

I prefer book tutorials. That someone is good with Photoshop doesn't mean that he can write decent web tutorials. If I read Deke McClelland's stuff for example, I know that I?m dealing with quality, although even in books you will find mistakes, but not as much as in most web tutorials.

Books have to sell, web tutorials are a good deed of someone.

Just my 2 cents