| Spot |
Athens, Georgia, USA (UGA) |
| Real Name |
Justin |
| Age |
21 |
| Self-Proclaimed |
Webmaster
Graphical Artist
PHP Coder |
| Tools |
GIMP 2.2.0
Notepad |
| Music |
Incubus
Jimmy Eat World
LostProphets
OutKast
Puddle of Mudd
Sublime
Musiq
Santana
STP
Jet
Usher |
| Contact |
AIM: Prowler1224
justin at carchive.net |
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If you've been alive, I'm sure you've seen about 18 of these tutorials for all four of the big graphics programs: GIMP, Photoshop, Paintshop Pro 7, and Corel Photopaint. I figure, I might as well do one also.
Let's start off with a new image with a white background. Make a new transparent layer. Draw and fill a rectangle using the Rectangular Selection Tool. Fill it with the color black. |
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Deselect (shift+ctrl+a or select>none), and then Gaussian Blur (RLE) the rectangle 36x36.
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Remember the rounded corners tutorial? If you're uncertain about how to do this step, refer to it; however, I'll give a brief description here. Go to Image>colors>levels, and set Modify Channels for Level to alpha. Move all three arrows close to the center (and close together) on the output levels box until you receive a pill shape.
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Now, go to the layers dialog box and click "keep trans." to turn it on. Select a color, such as what I used, #0b4063, and go to Edit>Fill With FG Color (or ctrl+,).
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Here comes the tricky part that requires more user input and decision than I can give. Select the layer's alpha (right click on the layer and choose "Alpha To Selection." Duplicate your pill layer, and grab the rectangular select tool. Hold down alt, and click and drag the selection about 4/7 of the way down the shape (move only vertically down, about how the image to the right looks). Now, fill the selection with #4f4f4f or a dark gray (keep trans should still be on from the last step), invert selection (ctrl+i or Select>Invert) and clear (ctrl+k or edit>clear). Deselect (shift+ctrl+a or select>none), turn off "keep trans." and then Gaussian Blur (RLE) 16x16.
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Deselect (shift+ctrl+a or select>none), turn off "keep trans." and then Gaussian Blur (RLE) 16x16. Set the layer mode to "Divide (Dodge)." Duplicate the layer, turn on keep trans., and with a light gray (I used #e2e2e2), fill with the fg color: Edit>Fill With FG Color (or ctrl+,).
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Here we go again: Select the original pill layer's alpha (right click on the layer and choose "Alpha To Selection." Duplicate your pill layer, move it to the top of the layer stack, and grab the rectangular select tool. Hold down alt, and click and drag the selection about 2/7 of the way up the shape (move only vertically up, about how the image to the right looks). Invert selection (ctrl+i or Select>Invert) and clear (ctrl+k or edit>clear). Grab the Blend tool, set your fg color to white. Set the blend tool options to FG to Transparent next to "Blend:", and make a gradient from the top of the pill to the bottom of the selection. Fiddle with it, undoing as you please, until you get it looking how you want it (keep trans should still be on from the last step). The following is optional: deselect (shift+ctrl+a or select>none), turn off "keep trans." and then Gaussian Blur (RLE) 8x8. Opacity should be modified depending on your judgment.
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Finally we have something we can work with. Once you merge your layers (make sure you don't merge it with the white layer), you can duplicate the pill shape, offset it, blur by 12x12 or so, and modify the opacity to create a shadow as shown the the left. You can add overlays, text (place text below it and modify the opacity of the pill so that that it seems to "shine through," and place a copy of the text above it that's blurred 8x8 and overlayed). That's it!
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Things to remember/Extra Information:
-Just remember: you can modify this a little bit for different shapes. Experiment with different colors and whatnot.
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