Step 8: Adding Some Flair
Now's the time to tweak your button shapes a little, to add some visual flair.
I mostly use the direct selection tool to move individual or groups of control
points around until I get what I like. This is not the easiest thing to do, but
with a little practice it's not so bad. In this example, I just kept bumping
the points defining the ends of the buttons inwards towards the center, giving
the group of buttons a nice tapered shape. The second example shows you what
the results look like without seeing the edges of the vectors.
Remember to change the shape of the grooves the same way you change the shape
of the buttons!
Notice that all the dynamic layer styles update to match the new button shapes
automatically! Unfortunately, the rasterized gleam gradients do not. That's
why I had you save an untouched copy of the 'Unclipped Gleam' layer. You can
now throw away the current 'Raster Gleam' layer, duplicate 'Unclipped Gleam'
and repeat step six to clip the gleam to the new button shapes, which takes
no time at all!
<< Previous Page
Next Page >>