| 3D Button in PhotoImpact 4.2 | |
This
is what we are going to make!
1. Open a new image 200x200 pixels with a white background. With your selection tool set as follows, and starting at (100,100), draw a circle.
2. Choose your fill tool, and click on the lower right corner to choose which fill you want. Choose the circle gradient, setting the foreground color to white and the background color to black.
3. Place your cursor in the upper left hand corner of your circle, approximately half way in towards the center of the circle. Drag the fill tool down towards the bottom right corner of your circle, creating a circle. When the new selection is almost the same size as your original selection, release the mouse to fill your circle with the gradient.
4. Right click on your image, and select "none". This should deselect your image. Choose your selection tool with the same settings as before, and starting at (100,100) draw another circle somewhat smaller than the original circle. The difference in the circles depends on how big you want the base of your button to be.
5. Choose the Transform tool with the following settings:
6. Click on the rotate button below:
7. Right click and select "Merge all". Choose your selection tool again, with the same circle settings, and starting at (100,100) draw another circle almost the same size as your last circle.
8. Repeat the rotation sequence in numbers 5 & 6 above. DO NOT DESELECT YOUR INNER CIRCLE!
9. To colorize your button, choose Format --> Color balance. You should get a pop up screen with several different thumbnails of the image in different colors. You can move the Thumbnail variation slider to get a more dramatic effect. Play around with the colors until you find one you like.
10. Now go ahead and right click and merge all. You now have a neato 3d button. To make it push in when moused over, duplicate your image (CTRL-D), and follow steps 7-9. Use whatever javascripting source you usually use, and you now have a cool 3d button that presses in when you mouse over! Resize as necessary!
The Finished Product!
This tutorial was adapted from a PhotoShop tutorial written by Mark at Designs by Mark with his express written permission. He has a lot of great tutorials and other items, check his site out! His tutorials are geared towards PhotoShop though, so you do have to experiment some to figure out how to do it in PhotoImpact!
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