Shiny Bar

This tutorial teaches how to make a shiny black bar, but it can easily be altered to use different colors.

Prerequisites

Please know how to do the following before using this tutorial.

Objective

Final Result

Tutorial

  1. Open a new, blank canvas. I will be using a 400x50 one.

  2. Create a New Layer New Layer. I will name this layer, bar.

  3. Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool.

    Make sure Create filled region is selected. Set the radius around 5-10px.

  4. On layer bar, create a Rounded Rectangle in black.

  5. Create a new layer above bar. I will name it, highlight.

  6. Load a selection on layer bar. Using the Paint Bucket Paint Bucket, fill layer highlight with white.

  7. Set the Opacity of layer highlight to 30%.

    We now have this.

  8. Select the Eraser tool Eraser, and use a small brush size with faded edges.

    Erase the bottom half of layer highlight. You can hold Shift to help make straight lines.

  9. Use the Text tool Text to write in the middle of the bar in white.

  10. In your Layers window, select Bevel and Emboss from the Layer Styles Layer Styles (or go to Layer >> Layer Styles >> Bevel and Emboss).

    Set the Style to Inner Bevel, the Direction to Down, the Technique to Chisel Hard, and lower the Size to 1px.

    Your text should now look like this.

  11. Create a new layer, which I will name text shadow.

  12. Load a selection on your text, and then fill layer text shadow with black.

  13. Set the Opacity of layer text shadow to 10%.

  14. Use the Rectangular Marquee Rectangular Marquee, and make a selection over the top half of the text. Hit Delete on your keyboard to remove half of layer text shadow.

  15. That's it! If you want a different color bar, you can change both the bar color and the highlight.

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