Round Glassy Buttons

Create a new transparent image 200 x 200 pixels.

Double click on the Fountain Fill icon in the lower right corner of your interface.

In the Type choose Radial.

In the Center offset Horizontal should be 0 and Vertical should be about -20. You can play with that setting later if you'd like.

In the Color Blend choose Two color and for the From color choose a very dark blue. Mine is #4040FF. For the To color choose a light blue. Mine is #090B55. Click ok.

Select the Circle Mask tool and draw a circle in the center of your canvas. Fill it with the Fill tool.

Create a new object and drag it under the circle object. Fill it also with the gradient fill.

Double click on the bottom object and go to Properties. Name it Backgrnd.

Double click on the top object and name it Base.

    

With the Base object selected hold down the Ctrl key and hit the c key.

Hold down the Ctrl key and hit the v key.

This should have copied the base object and created a new one just above it.

Double click on the new object and name it hard light. Set it's merge properties to Hard Light.

    

Hold down the Ctrl key and hit the v key. This should have pasted a new object.

Double click the new object and name it lighten. Set it's merge properties to Lightness and reduce it's opacity to 50.

    

Selected the lighten object. Hold down the Ctrl key and hit the c key. Hold down the Ctrl key and hit the v key. This should have copied and pasted a new object.

Double click on the new object and name it burn. Set it's merge properties to Color Burn and set it's opacity to 50 if it isn't already.

    

Below is an image that looks smoky. Right click on it and save it to your hard drive. Open it in PhotoPaint. Go to Edit>Copy. Make sure the button image is active and go to Edit>Paste.

This will paste the smoky image into the button image as a new object on the top of the stack. Move the new object down to just above the burn object.

Double click on the new object and name it clouds and glass. Set it's merge properties to Overlay.

Select the Base object. Go to Mask>Create from objects.

Select the clouds and glass object.

Go to Mask>Invert.

Go to Object>Clip Mask>Create>From Inverted Object.

Go to Mask>Remove.

    

Below is an image of a photo. Right click on it and save it to your hard drive. Open it in PhotoPaint. Go to Edit>Copy. Make sure the button image is active and go to Edit>Paste.

This will paste the photo image into the button image as a new object on the top of the stack. Move the new object down to just above the clouds and glass object.

Double click on the new object and name it photo. Set it's merge properties to Subtract and set it's opacity to 15.

Select the Base object. Go to Mask>Create from objects.

Select the photo object.

Go to Mask>Invert.

Go to Object>Clip Mask>Create>From Inverted Object.

Go to Mask>Remove.

    

Create a new object.

Double click on the new object and name it large bottom highlight. Set it's opacity to 65.

Using a large soft brush set to white with a size of about 68 click one time in the area shown below.

    

Create a new object.

Double click the new object and name it top large highlight. Set it's merge properties to Soft Light.

Using the same large white brush as above, paint across the top of the button.

    

Create a new object.

Double click on the new object and name it small top highlight.

Using a small soft brush about 35 in size with white, click once in the area shown below.

    

Create a new object.

Double click on the new object and name it linear grad. Set it's merge properties to Screen and it's opacity to 50.

Fill the new object with a linear gradient from black to white.

Go to Mask>Remove. Select the Object Pick tool and size the object as shown below.

    

We're done. We now have a glassy looking round button.

You can make it look like it is recessed in the background by creating two new objects and naming them white shadow and black shadow respectively. Move them both to below the Base object. For each object, one at a time, make sure the Object Picker tool is selected and move one up two (up arrow key) and left two (left arrow key) and the other one down two and right two.

For each shadow object go to Mask>Shape>Expand and expand them 3. Go to Effects>Blur>Gaussion Blur and apply a 2 pixel radius blur.

Below is what our Objects panel looks like when we're done.

With a few modifications you can apply this effect to other shapes and text.

Have fun!

Copyright Vikki Olds, All Rights Reserved