Step 6: Finishing The Gleam

Whew! We're almost done with the gleam.

The first thing you should do now is duplicate the 'Unclipped Gleam' layer, name the new layer something along the lines of 'Raster Gleam', and hide the 'Unclipped Gleam' layer for safe keeping. You will save a ton of time if you keep an untouched copy of the 'Unclipped Gleam' layer around, just in case you tweak the the shape of your buttons later on. Trust me!

Now, control-click on the 'Buttons' layer. This should automatically define a selection boundary that's exactly the same as the outline of all the button shapes on that layer! If it doesn't select them all, click on the layer's vector mask widget a couple times, then control-click on the layer again. This removes any existing individual shape selections, and makes sure that the selection boundary matches all of the button shapes. Make sure you switch to the 'Raster Gleam' layer, then use the 'Select > Modify > Contract...' menu item to contract the selection by two pixels. Once the selection is slightly inset from the sides of the buttons, use the 'Select > Inverse' menu item to invert the selection. Your project should now look like it does in the first example.

Here's the fun part! Cut the contents of the selection. This should trim away all of the gradient seen outside of the buttons, leaving gleam on the button faces and nothing else. Next, get rid of the selection boundary (or select the entire image) and use a gaussian blur of 0.5 pixels to soften the edges of the gradients a little. This will help them blend into the buttons nicely. Finally, set the 'Raster Gleam' layer's opacity to about 80% or whatever you think looks good. I find that the gleam is a little too gleamy at 100%.

Once this is done, your results should look like the second example. Pretty sweet, huh?

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