The Final Image

This is what we will be creating:

Step 1: Setting Up the Document

Create a new Photoshop Document (File>New) at 850px x 600px.

Use the Gradient Tool to make a subtle gradient (I used two shades of blue)

Step 2: Creating the Pencil Body

Create new group called ‘Pencil’ with a new layer inside called ‘Body’

Using the Rectangular Marquee Tool, create a long rectangle that will become the pencil’s body and fill with a red color

Add bevel and emboss with these settings:

Your image should look like this:

Step 3: Adding to the Pencil

Create a new layer named ‘Wood’. On this layer, create a
square with the rectangular marquee tool and fill with black.

Select two different shades of tan for your Background and Foreground colors, then go to Filter>Render>Fibers to add fibers to the box with the following settings:

Your image should resemble this:

Step 4: Sharpening the Pencil

Transform (Ctrl/Cmd + T) the layer ‘Wood’ to a tapered shape. Place the
shape over the ‘Body’ layer as shown:

Add a bevel and emboss:

Your image should look like this (be sure to erase any areas of the pencil that
stick past the wood)

Step 5: Defining the Pencil Tip

Create a new brush by opening up the Brushes Pallete and applying
these settings (dont forget to save the brush preset):

Use the new brush to erase the top and bottom of the wooden tip

Step 6: Adding a Graphite Tip

Create a new layer called ‘Tip’ and place it under the ‘Wood’ layer.

Select a brush size of 6px and paint a graphite tip. Give it a bevel and emboss with the following settings:

Your image should look like this:

Step 7: Rotating into Place

Rotate (Ctrl/Cmd + T) the pencil to a desired position. This can be done easily by selecting the entire ‘Pencil’ group

Step 8: Creating the Highlights

Create a new brush with the following settings:

Step 9: Adding Highlights

Use the new brush to paint a highlight over the tip of the pencil. (A size
3 brush should work well).

Using the same brush on a new layer called ‘Highlights’, add some highlights (using white) and some lowlights (using a darker red) to the pencil. Vary the sizes as shown:

Adjust the layers opacity to 30%

Step 10: Finishing the Highlights

Create second new layer called ‘Highlights2′ and use the same brush to add a final highlight over the body of the pencil as shown in the image. Change the opacity to 76%

Step 11: Adjusting the Hierarchy

Create a new group and call it ‘Pencil Shadows’. Place it under the ‘Pencil’ folder

Step 12: Preparing for Shadows

Make a copy the ‘Pencil’ group and select ‘Merge Group’

Use the levels to change the merged image to all black

Rename this layer to ‘Shadows’ and place it inside the ‘Pencil Shadows’ group. Make 2 copies of this layer and name them as shown:

Step 13: Adding the Shadows

Select the ‘Shadows’ layer: Transform the shadow to the position shown:

Add a Gaussian Blur of 1.0 pixels and give the layer an Opacity of 18%.

Select the ‘Shadows2′ layer and Transform the layer as shown:

Give this an Opacity of 3%

Select the ‘Shadows3′ layer. Transform it as shown:

Give this layer a Gaussian Blur of 13.0 pixels and an Opacity of 45%

Step 14: Finishing the Shadows

Create a new layer called ‘Zero Shadow’. Use a brush (sized at 13 pixels and 100% hardness) to add a black line immediately under the pencil.

Give this layer a Motion Blur of around 140 pixels at the same angle as the pencil. Set the layer’s Opacity to 80%

Copy the layer you just worked on and give it a Gaussian Blur of 3 pixels and an Opacity of 44%

Unhide all of the shadow layers

Step 15: Adding Paper

Create a new group called ‘Paper’. Inside this group folder, create a new layer
called ‘Paper’.

Use the rectagular marquee tool to create the shape of a peice of paper and fill with #f1f1e9

Step 16: Transforming the Paper

Transform the ‘Paper’ layer so that it appears in perspective:

Step 17: Adding Shadows to the Paper

Make a copy of the ‘Paper’ layer, name it ‘Paper Shadows’ and place it below the original ‘Paper’ layer

Adjust its levels as follows:

Give this layer a Gaussian Blur of 1.1 px

Step 18: Adding More Shadows to the Paper

Copy the layer ‘Paper Shadows’

Give this layer a Gaussian blur of 30px and an Opacity of 10%

Step 19: Adding Depth to the Paper

Select the ‘Paper’ layer and go to Filter>Liquify. Use the liquify filter to make the edges of the paper appear uneven

Your image should resemble this:

Step 20: You’re Done!

The image is done.
If you want, you can add a reflection and some sketches to complete the scene:

To add a reflection, just copy the ‘Pencil’ group and merge it, then position the reflection appropriately and give it a low opacity setting.

To add a sketch, simply create a one on a new layer and transform it into perspective.

The Fruit

We will be creating an orange, a banana and some grapes:

How to make an Orange

Step 1: Creating a New Document

Create a new Photoshop Document (File>New). For this tutorial, I created one 600px x 400px (72 dpi).

Step 2: Creating the Shape

Create a New Layer.. Use the Elliptical Marquee Tool to make a circle. Fill it with an orange color.

Step 3: Adding Noise

Add some noise to this layer (Filter>Noise>Add Noise). This will add a little texture, necessary for next step to work.

Step 4: Adding Texture

Select Filter>Artistic>Plastic Wrap with the following settings:

Step 5: Adding Effects

Double click on the layer to open the Layer Styles panel and add the following effects:

Your image should look like this:

Step 6: Adding the Navel

Add a New Layer. Select the Paint Brush Tool and choose the ‘star 70 pixels’ brush form your brushes palette. Without moving your mouse click 3-4 times to get a nice, dark star;

Step 7: Finishing the Orange

Transform the star with the Warp Mode (Image>Transform>Warp) until you get a desirable orange navel.

Change this layer’s Belnd Mode to Overlay and our final image should look like this:

For some added detail, use the Dodge and Burn Tools to add some highlights and shadows. Example:

How to make a Banana

Step 1: Creating a New Document

Create a new Photoshop Document (File>New). For the banana, I created one 900px x 600px (72 dpi).

Step 2: Making a Yellow Rectangle

Create a New Layer. Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to create a rectangle. Fill with yellow.

Step 3: Setting up the Texture

Create a New Layer and make a second rectangle as shown below. Fill this with black.

Step 4: Creating the Texture

Select Filter>Render>Fibers and use the following settings (make sure you have white and black selected as your foreground and background colors):

Your image should now look like this:

Step 5: Adjusting the Texture

Rotate and Transform (Ctrl/Cmd + T) this layer to cover the yellow rectangle and change the Blend Mode to Multiply.

Step 6: Adding the Texture

Use the Alt/Opt Key in the layers panel to make this layer a clipping layer, and adjust the opacity to about 6%.

Step 7: Shaping the Banana

Select the 2 layers and Merge (Ctrl/Cmd + E). Use the Warp Mode (Image>Transform>Warp) to transform the yellow rectangle into a banana shape as shown:

Step 8: Refining the Shape

Continue to use the Warp Mode on the ends as needed. Also, use the Eraser tool to perfect the shape:

Step 9: Detailing the Banana

Use the Dodge and Burn Tools to add highlights and shadows to your banana. Focus on the tips, they are always much darker.

Step 10: Edging the Banana

On a New Layer, use the Elliptical Marquee Tool to create an oval. Fill with White. Make sure to line the oval up to overlap the banana as shown:

Step 11: Edging the Banana (continued)

Make this new layer a clipping layer (use the Alt/Opt key in the Layers Panel). Also, change the Blend Mode to Screen and adjust the layer’s opacity to 25%.

Step 12: Finishing the Banana

If needed, you can blur or smudge your oval’s edge to soften the ‘seem’. Also, for added detail include hints of green on the banana. (On a new layer, use the paint brush to add strokes of a pale green color. Make this layer a clipping layer and change the blend mode to ‘color’. Then use Gaussian Blur to soften the color.

How to make Grapes

Step 1: Creating a New Document

Create a new Photoshop Document (File>New). For the grapes, I created one 600px x 400px (72 dpi).

Step 2: Creating the Shape

Create a New Layer. Use the Elliptical Marquee Tool to create an oval. Fill this with a medium gray color (such as: R=91 G=91 B=91)

Step 3: Creating the Grape

Double Click on this layer to bring up the Layer Styles Panel. Add the following effects:

Your grape should now look like this:

Step 4: Multiplying the Grapes

Duplicate the grape as many times as you wish (Hold down the Alt/Opt key while you select the grape to move a copy). Also, rotate (Ctrl/Cmd + T) your grapes in different directions for variety.

Step 1: Creating a New Document

We are going to create a new document with a standard resolution of 256px. But because our icon is quite short the height will be smaller.

Next, grab the Paint Bucket Tool (G), and fill the document with the following colour #F2F2F2. This is to make viewing easier.

Step 2: Setting The Base

Using the Ellipse Tool (U), draw an oval on a new layer as shown above. Let’s name this "Top".

Step 3: Going 3D

Select your Move Tool (V). While holding down the alt key, press the down arrow 20 times. This will determine the height of the icon. Now select the past duplicates and Merge (ctrl+E). Arrange that layer below the "Top" layer. Remember that there should be one extra layer named "Top". We’ll just name this new merged layer "3D" for readability.

Step 4: Layer Styles

Now we are going to apply some Layer Styles to the "Top" layer (the non-3D one). You can do this by double clicking on the layer.

You should end up with this:

Step 5: 3D Layer Styles

Now select the "3D" layer and apply the following Layer Styles.

Once you are done you should have this:

Step 6: Creating The Shadow

Create a new layer below the previous two layers and name it "Shadow". Get the selection of the "Top" layer by ctrl+clicking on the layer icon. Fill the selection with Black and Deselect (ctrl+D) it. Go to Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur and use 5px. Set the Opacity to 75%. Using the Move Tool (V), shift the shadow down just below the body of the icon.

Step 7: Adding Polish

Create new layer right at the top. Get a White Brush with a Hardness of 0% and Master Diameter of 125px. Get the selection of the "3D" layer and Brush once at the corner. Set the Opacity to 85%.

Create another layer and get a Black Brush with a Hardness of 0% and a Master Diameter of 20px and Brush it downwards while holding Shift. Use Gaussian Blur with 8px. Now ctrl+click on the "3D" layer icon then ctrl+alt+click on the "Top" layer mask icon. Finally invert your selection with ctrl+shift+I and Delete the selection. Repeat the same process with a white Brush with 25px Master Diameter and set the Opacity to 70%.

Step 8: Adding Glow

Create a new layer and name it "Glow". Get the selection of the "3D" layer and move it up by 7px. Fill the selection with the following colour: #6ab2f6. Before deselecting, shift the selection up by another 3px and press Delete. Bring down the Fill to 70%.

Now give it the following Layer Styles.

Get the selection of the current layer and create a new layer. Get a White Brush with 0% Hardness and 300px Diameter and and click once right in the center of the selection. Bring down the Opacity to 70%. Set the Blending Mode to Overlay.

Step 9: Adding Definition

Create a new layer and get the selection of the "3D" layer. Fill the selection with any colour you want. I chose black for easier reference. Bring the Fill to 0% and add the following Layer Styles.

Create another layer and get the selection of the “Top” layer. Shift it down by 4px and Fill it with black. Move the selection up by 2px and press Delete. Apply a 1px Gaussian Blur to it and set the Opacity to 10%.

Step 10: Making it Shine

Create a new layer with the Opacity of 75%. Get the selection of the “Top” layer and get a white Brush with 0% Hardness and 250px Diameter. Click once right at the edge of the selection.

Now create a new layer and get a Pen Tool (P). Draw it as seen below and right-click>Make Selection. Fill it with White. Set Opacity to 25% and Fill to 50%. Get the selection of "Top" layer and Invert Selection (ctrl+shift+I) then press Delete. Apply the following Layer Styles.

Repeat the same process except with a different Layer Style so that it looks like so.

Create a new layer with 80% Opacity. Click once with a White Brush on the edge of the selection of "Top" layer. It has 0% Hardness, 200px Diameter. Create another layer. With the same selection and same Brush with 70px Diameter, click once at the same spot.

With a new layer, get a selection of the "Top" layer and shift it down by 1px. Fill it with White and shift the selection up by 1px then press Delete. Apply Gaussian Blur with 1px.

Step 11: Creating The Face

Duplicate (ctrl+J) the "Top" layer, place it right at the top and rename it to "Inner". Transform (ctrl+T), and while pressing alt+shift, and shrink it as shown below. Then add the following Layer Styles.

Create a new layer and get the selection of "Inner" layer. Using a White Brush click once at the center, bottom edge of the selection. Set the Opacity to 40%.

Step 12: Creating Depth & Detail

Duplicate the "Inner" layer and place it right at the top. Clear the Layer Style by right-clicking on the layer then "Clear Layer Style". Apply the following Layer Styles to it.

Create a new layer and get the Gradient Tool. You can select this by first selecting the Fill Tool (G) then pressing Shift+G. Set the colours to Default (D). Select the Radial Gradient option. Get the selection of "Inner" layer and Fill it as shown, then set the Opacity to 20% and Blending Mode to Screen.

Create a new layer. Get the selection of "Inner" and nudge it down and right once each. Fill it with White then nudge it back to it’s original position and press Delete. Set the Opacity to 80%.

Create a new layer and while using the same selection, nudge it down by 4px. Fill it with White and nudgeit down another 1px then press Delete. Set the Opacity to 30%.

Now create a new layer and and grab the Pen Tool and draw the following shape. Notice the point of contact between the shining areas. Also apply the following Layer Styles with 15% Opacity and 50% Fill.

Step 13: Adding Alphabets

Create a new layer and select the Type Tool (T) with any colour. Use Arial as the font and set it to Bold and 98px. Any font is fine actually. Now type in "Ps" and place it in the center of the icon. Right-click on the layer and click Rasterize Type. Transform it and shorten it slightly. Right-click the bounding box and click Perspective. Squeeze the top in to make it look 3D. Later add the following Layer Styles with 0% Fill.

Step 14: Final Details

Create a new layer. Get the selection of the "Ps" layer and nudge it up and right once each. Fill it with White then shift the selection back and press Delete. Set the Opacity to 30%.

Finally create the last layer and get the selection of the "3D" layer. Fill it with White and apply Filter>Noise>Add Noise with Gaussian and Monochromatic enabled. Set the Blending Mode to Multiply and Opacity to 30%.

Now you are DONE! You can hide or delete the background if you want to export it as an icon. But it’s not over if you want to make a set. For now your icon should look something like this.

Step 15: Creating a Set

You can save this document and duplicate it. Open the new one and find for the layer called "Glow". Temporarily hide the layer right above it. Now go Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation or (ctrl+U) for layer "Glow" and adjust the Hue to whatever you like. Once you’re done, go to the Layer Style>Outer Glow and adjust the colour to whatever you like. Now you can un-hide your above layer.

Navigate to your font layer. Delete it and repeat the process I taught you to create another alphabet you want. Remember to change the above layer which is the edge shine. Repeat this step for as many other icons you want.

Download the PSD and Icon Set

Materials Needed:

• Stock Photo of your choice. I have used iStock: Female &
  Funky Swirls.
• Cloud Brushes: JavierZhX
• Photoshop Action: Manicho.
• Sinedots 2

The Final Image

You can see the original full sized piece here. This tutorial is based off my original work shown in the full size image.

Step 1: Plan Ahead

First thing to look at is the angle of your photo and consider what direction your photo is already moving in. If you take a look at my final outcome, I chose a diagonal angle (already an active direction) since that is what fitted best with the subject.

I have also chosen to use the two main colours that were already on the stock photo—Greyscale (black/white/grey) & Blue. You may also want to add tones/ contrast at the very end but we will get to that soon enough.

Step 2: The Swirls

I have opened up the .EPS file for the swirls to a nice large size and cut out 3. Using our imagination, we can place them and rotate them to follow the direction we decided earlier on. Once you have them in a nice place turn all of the swirls greyscale (Shift+Ctrl+U). Make sure they are all on seperate layers.

The reason as to why I’ve told you to keep the swirls on different layers is because we will be editing them a bit, and you wouldnt be able to do that if they are all merged flat layers.

Swirl 1: This is the swirl on her left arm. Set the layer opacity to 50%. I really dont like having so much grey on the model—the base stock is what you have to either go around or try to “flow” through. I will be removing some of the swirl parts to make her body still show yet still have some swirl bits around her arm as if it’s joined to her or as if she’s jumping through it.

As you can see I have removed parts from her arm and stomach.

When you remove parts of the swirl you can use either or both of these tools: Eraser Tool with a Soft Brush and/ or the Polygonal Laso Tool. The Pen tool can be used to draw selections or masks too if you feel comfortable with it. I used the Eraser Tool for the stomach area and the hand, while I used the Polygonal Laso Tool for the arm.

Swirl 2: This is the swirl on her right arm. Set the layer opacity to 50%. This is pretty much the same as “swirl 1″: make it flow with her body in the angle shes jumping.

As you can see I have removed parts from her arm and hand.

.

Swirl 3: This is the swirl on her legs going up to the stomach. Set the layer opacity to 50%. Tthis is a bit more difficult then the other two as you may have to remove some more to make it look good and not “out of place”.

Step 3: Adding Some Colour

To add some colour onto the swirls/ graphic just take a soft round brush and make a line curving inside parts of the swirls, this will make it look as if the colours were on it already.

This is just a base—the swirls and colour will look more refined later on.

Once you have drawn a few lines (if they are not close it’s ok to put them on the same layer but if they are close together put them on seperate layers. This makes editing easier.) use the Smudge Tool. Point the corners out making them fade around corners.

After you have smudged all the brush strokes, set those layers to Hard Light blending mode.

It will now look like the image to the right. It should have a nice ‘glow’ to it.

You can repeat this process for any other colors you may want to add, just be careful you don’t combine so many colors that nothing fits together.

Step 4: The Diagonal Lines

To create the lines in our image, we’re going to use the Polygonal Laso Tool. You can also try a pixel stretching technique, and rotating the stretched pixels if you’re comfortable with that.

All you have to do is click (outside the art) hold down Shift on your keyboard and click again over the other side of the art (while holding shift you will see it the tool works in nice angles) make a straight line down a few pixels click again then work your way back up to where you first clicked. It’s a diagonal line! Fill it in (with the paint bucket) once you’ve closed it off.

Create a few more stripes in various sizes and color.

All my diagonal lines are on top of all the other layers. I have also used different colours to fill in the lines, various versions of the blue colour that I selected – darker blue, lighter blue etc.

Now to make them blend more, merge the stripes. Duplicate (CRTL+J) the stripes and hide them (click on the eye next to one of the stripe layers). Set the new stripes layer to: Colour Burn. Now this will look a bit heavy on the eyes so get your Eraser Tool and set it to a really big size( “]” key) and remove 50% of the stripes in the middle like the image below:

Now Un-hide the other stripes layer, duplicate it and repeat the above step but with a layer setting of Overlay and erase a different area, but keep the stripes away from the stomach, face etc etc you can touch parts of the body with the stripes just dont cover the model in them.

If you want more intensity in colour if you haven’t got a lot then duplicate the original stripe lines and go to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur and set it to about 20 and layer setting to
Overlay move them to a part where there isnt many lines.

Keep an original stripe layer at all times while doing this. Once you’ve done all the stripes you can now add the stripe “lines” this is done by using the original stripe layer—select all the stripe layers (CTRL + Click the layer witht he original stripes). Go to Select -> Modify -> Contract, a small box will pop up, by the size of your image it will depend if you want nice small 1px lines put in 1. I will be using this setting (1 for 1 pixel lines). Once you click “OK” it will contract it for you, press delete on your keyboard.

Your original stripes are now 1 pixel lines. Do the same as what you did with the bigger stripes but you can set them to anything you like, I will be setting the layers to: Linear Dodge and Overlay. Don’t forget to keep an original handy but hidden. If you want your 1 pixel lines to stand out more you can try this, get any layer of lines duplicate them and go to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur and set it to about 2.0 to 3.0.

You can also duplicate the bigger lines to add to random areas, for example her right arm is facing slightly away from the angle I chose so I will add a little bit of the big stripes next/ near to it. Also her knee is facing downwards so I added a little bit there too.

Step 5: The Blue Gradient Lines

This Requires the Pen Tool. I am only using this to increase the intesity of the blue colours in the swirls.

When I use this tool I use the settings shown in the image below.

Make a new layer then select the Pen Tool and click on the end of a blue smudged area (on the swirl part) then click on the other end of it. You should have a line, click in the middle of it and click and hold CTRL (also hold the left mouse button down like when you click) and drag it to a rounded shape, click near the first point you created and do the same so it sort of looks like the image above.

Right click the path (the rounded shape you just created) and click Fill Path. Make sure you have the blue colour selected as your Foreground color. You should now have a blue shape with the pen tool paths still around it—just click delete twice to get rid of the paths. Once you have the shape by itself get the Eraser Tool and rub out the inner part of the shape then set the shapes’ layer to Hard Light like the image to the right. Duplicate it and move it down slightly. Do the same for the others.

Step 6: The Clouds

Use which ever cloud textures/brushes you want. I have picked 4 just to surround the model.

Step 7: Tones & Sinedots

I used a program called Sinedots II plugin for Photoshop to get the white lines across the model. You just download it, open it up in the filters menu and click random til you get a nice one that will fit in with the image. Duplicate it and blur it to 3.0.

Really, it’s that simple.

If you’re clever with Illustrator, you can probably create them using that software as well.

For the Tones, I like using “Photoshop Actions” or “Photo Filters”. Some are great, some aren’t so great. Here are some examples:

With this outcome merged everything and placed the merged image into a new canvas, duplicated the image twice and the one closest to the original I set it to Multiply (layer blending), then added the tone from Manicho (found in at the top of this tutorial) its “#42 Contrast Desat 3″ onto the second one, set that to Overlay, opacity 50%, duplicated that and erased the top and bottom grey corners to add depth to the model/ graphics.

Experiment with tones and the intensity of your image. Test out different color combinations to see what you can do with your own version of this!

Now we can make visible all our below layers and to pick up a nice color for our indicator. I´m going to use a very bright blue: #24fffc. This is just a matter of preferences and since we created vector shapes we can easily change their color in the future if we want to.

Now we´re going to scale our shapes down to make them fit inside our Dark Area using our “Light_Ambient” layer as the boundries of our transfotmation like so. Remember to hold down SHIFT and ALT keys while scaling

Now to get rid of the extra indicator at the bottom of our icon we can use 2 different techniques. We already saw how a Layer Mask can be very handy for that kind of visibility operations. However and since this two layers are pure vector shapes, we can take benefit of the tools provided by Photoshop to modify and transform shapes forms within Vector Layers. I´m going to show you this other technique.

First thing we need to do is to hide our “meter_shape02″ to have a cleaner vision of what we´re doing. Now we make sure our vector thumbnail from our “meter_shape01″ layer is selected (once again click on it and you will notice how the different contours of the vector content from layer are highlighted). Now we select the PEN TOOL by selecting it from the tools panel or by clicking the P KEY. Like we did when we substract the circle from our meter in the last step we need to set the PEN TOOL to that same behaviour and ensure that Shape Layers and not just Paths are selected as the default way the tool draw the objects.

Now, and once again using our guides and the boundries of our canvas as a reference we´re going to draw a triangle, starting from the center, then going to the bottom-left corner of our canvas, then to the bottom-right and finally by returning to the center of our guides like so:

Now, if you followed the instructions I provided for the degree rotation when creating our meter_shapes you will notice that there´s a little portion at the left-bottom and right-bottom parts of our indicator that aren´t totally hiden. You may consider that this could be a cool addition to the icon and you may want to leave it this way. However, for demonstration porpueses and going to get rid of those little squares too, just to show you how Direct Selection works inside Vector Layers composed by mutiple shapes.

So now, with our Vector Shapes still active we select our DIRECT SELECTION TOOL again (the white arrow) and we draw a nice selection of the bottom part of our triangle. This way we ensure we´re not selecting any other shape contained into the layer. Now we press CTRL/OPT+T to access the TRANSFORM TOOL and then by right-clicking we select the Scale option from the pop up menu.

Now we can transfrom its width by moving the horizontal sliders while holding the ALT KEY to force the transformation to start from the center or, as explained above, by setting around 105% the values for the width transformation in the TRANSFORM TOOL menu at the top of our window.

Now, depending on the rotation settings you used to create the “meter_shapes”, you may want or not to repeat this for the “meter_shape02″ layer. I think it looks just fine this way so I will leave “meter_shape02″ as it is but, again, it is up to you now you know the tecnique. Your icon should look like this:

Step 13: Creating the Icon – The Arrow Holder

Ok, now it is time to take care of the part that will hold our future arrow in the center of the icon. First we need to do is to select the ELIPSE TOOL and to set the Foreground Color to White – #FFFFFF. Now, and as usual, we´ll use our guides as a reference to draw a circle holding SHIFTand ALT keys while dragging from the center of our guides. Make it around 75px Wwide and high but this, of course, will depend if you´re creating a 512x512px or not. Otherwise, make it nicely proportioned with the rest of the icon. We may name this new layer “center_wheel_big”. Now we change its Layer Style like so:

Now we´re going to duplicate this “center_wheel_big” and rename it to “center_wheel_small” and using the TRANSFORM TOOL and as usual by holding SHIFT and ALT keys we´re going to scale down this new layer to around 20%. Now we´re going to change its blending mode from the current ones to just a Bevel and Emboss effect like this:

Now we select both, “center_wheel_big” and “center_wheel_small” and by holding SHIFT key we´re going to move down a little these two layers having in mind we have to leave enough room for the arrow we´re about to create. New position should be something like this:

Once we move our “center_wheel” shapes we can group them inside a folder and call this new folder “meter wheel” or something that just make sense to you. Now we´re going to add some subtle style to each one of the layers. Go to the Layer Style window for any of the two layers and insert the following values. Once we´ve accepted the modification we just can copy the Layer Style by right-clicking the layer from the layers panel and chossing Copy Layer Style and paste it to the other “meter_shape” layer by right-clikcing this second layer and chossing Paste Layer Style from the pop up menu

Step 14: Creating the Icon – Adding the Numbers

Now I think it would a good idea to add the numbers all around our Dark Area. Once we add them we´ll have a clearest idea about how room we have to add our arrow and how big it needs to be. So, like previous steps, this could be different for you depending on the font and the size you choose for the numbers. For this tutorial I´m going to use Myriad Pro Semibold as the font at 12px for the size and with a -40 for the letter tracking. I´m using the same color we applied to the “meter_shape” layers #24fffc.

It is up to you how many numbers you add and the difference between the values from one to another, just keep all numbers nicely aligned at the sides and evently distributed all across their way. Pay attention to for example the difference between two and three digits numbers and how this affect its position and alignment. Keep explorig until you find something you feel it´s working with the rest of the icon. I ended with this distribution:

Once we have our numbers aligned we can apply some glowing. Just select any number and go:

Like we did before we now can copy the Layer Style from this modified number and copy it to the others by selecting them all at once and chosing Paste Layer Style from the pop up menu that will show up.

Step 15: Creating the Icon – The Arrow

Now we´re going to create a new folder and name it “arrow” . We place it just below our “center Wheel” folder and hide this last folder to have a better view of our working process. We set our Foreground Color to a nice and vivid red like #f71d1d and pick the PEN TOOL. Then we draw an rectangled triangle using the numbers we just created and our vertical guide as a reference and placing its hipothenus side in the opposite side of our vertical gide like so:

Now with our PEN TOOL still selected if we press and hold CTRL/OPT KEY we have access to the DIRECT SELECTION TOOL which can be used to easily reshape our vector form and set appropiate proportions to our arrow. In convination with the TRANSFORM TOOL we can scale, reposition, rotate and reshape our arrow until we find a position and a shape we´re comfortable looking at and that fits with the overall look of our icon. Since we´re manipulating a vector object we´re not going to lose any quality in the process, no matter how many times we transform our shape.

I did a little reshape to make it more simetric and also rotate it to make the arrow point at middle-lower values. I placed the arrow as follows:

Now we rename this layer to “arrow_shape01″ and apply the following Layer Style to it:

Now we duplicate our “arrow_shape01″, rename it to “arrow_shape02″ and we place it below our “arrow_shape01″. Now we clear its Layer style change its color to a darker red like #d20000 and move it by hitting the LEFT ARROW KEY once and the DOWN ARROW KEY twice from our keyboard

Now we´re going to add some lighting to our arrow by selecting the POLYGONAL LASSO TOOL ( L KEY ) and we´re going to create a selection like this:

Now we create a new layer above our “arrow_shape01″, name it “arrow_light”, press the D KEY, then X KEY to get back to our default colors and to set our Foreground Color to white, then we switch to the GRADIENT TOOL and with the following settings we draw a gradient like so:

Deselect your current selection. Now CTRL/OPT+CLICK on the thumb from the “arrow_shape01″ (the one is on top) and press CTRL+SHIFT+I to invert the selection, then hit BACKSPACE to clear those pixels. Now we low the opacity of this layer down to around 50%. We can make visible our “center wheel” folder now. Your image should look like this:

Step 16: Creating the Icon – The Counter

In this step we´re about to create the counter that displays the numbers simaluating a total count of whatever your meter is counting. First thing we need to do is to create a new folder and name it “counter” and place it above all existing layers. This is where our layers for this part will lay. It should be a good idea to hide our “center wheel” and “arrow” folders.

Now we change our Foregound Color to #111111, select the RECTANGLE TOOL and, using our guides as a reference point, draw a nice and proportioned rectangle by holding down ALT key while draggind our shape. Make it around 150px wide and 30px high like so:

Now go to add some Layer Style using the following values:

Rename this layer to “counter_shape01″ and duplicate it. Then rename the duplicated one to “counter_shape02″. We leave it above our “counter_shape01″. Now we set its fill to 0% and change its Layer Style to the following:

We can now make visible our below layers and, while holding the SHIFT KEY, move down the “counter” folder to an appropiate posotion like so:

Again I´m going to use Myriad Pro Semibold font for the numbers inside the counter. This time at 11px and with a letter tracking of around +130 to leave enough room for the sepearators we´re about to create. I entered 8 numbers and as usual we can take benefit of the TRANSFORM TOOL to align the row of numbers at the middle of the canvas (and the counter shape too). Now for the numbers we´re going to add the following Layer Style:

Now your image shoudl look like this:

Final step is to add the separators between the numbers. To do that we´re going to set our Foreground Color to #ffffff and we´re going to select the line tool, setting its weight to 1px. Now holding SHIFT KEY and between our first two numbers we´re going to draw a line using or “counter_shape” as a reference for its height. We can name this new layer to “single_separator01″.

Now we´re going to press CTRL/OPT+T to acces the TRANSFORM TOOL and holding down the ALT KEY we´re going to scale down its height to around 80%.

Now we´re going to add some layer style to our separator:

Now we´re going to repeat this process to create the other separators by duplicating our “single_separator01″ keeping an eye on the amount of space between numbers and ensuring we align each new separator at the middle of that space. Your image should look like this:

Step 17: Creating the Icon – Adding some more Lighting Details

We´re very close to finish the icon, actually we are not going to add any more objects to it. Instead, we´re going to make our icon more interesting by adding some more lighting details.

First we need to create a new layer between our “arrow” and “center wheel” folders and name it “light_focus”. This layer visibility will affect the arrow and all layers below but not our “center wheel” objects and above layers so this way we can play a little more with shadows and lights we already created for some of the objects laying on top of this layer.

Now we´re going to select our BRUSH TOOL again and with #ffffff color selected and with a brush diameter of around 300px and a hardness of 0%, we´re going to make a single click at more or less the following postition:

Now we change the Blending Mode for this layer from Normal to Overlay and we set the opacity down to around 50%. Now, and as seen in previous steps, we´re going to CRTL/OPT+CLICK on our “base_black” layer, then press CTRL/OPT+SHIFT+I to invert the selection and hit BACKSPACE to remove the possible extra pixels going out of bounds our Dark Area.

Now your image should like like this:

Good!. Now we could add some inner shadow to the Dark Area of our icon where the numbers and all the meter elements are laying. To do that we´re going to create a new layer just in top of all current layers and name it “inner_shadow”. We could just use the Inner Shadow effect from the Layer´s Style but we´re going to create our own effect by making some brushing instead. The reason for this is that the pre-made effect from Photoshop is too much perfect in my opinion since it is all generated from the edges to the center. We can make some tweeking to it but to get the effect we´re looking for we want our icon to look iluminated with some irregularities and to achieve that effect we want our shadow to be more “imperfect”.

So, once again, we CTRL+CLICK on our “base_black” layer, select the “BRUSH TOOL” and with our Foreground Color set to #000000 and a Diameter of around 300px and a Hardness of 0% for our tool, we start brushing all around our icon like so:

Once we finish the brushing we can now press CTRL/OPT+D to deselect our current selection and set the Blending Mode for this layer from Normal to Soft Light leaving its Transparency at 100%. Now your image should look like something similar to this:

Last thing is to add our main shadow, the one will simulate that the icon is standing on an surface generating its own shadow as a reaction of the lighting is coming from above. So, to do that, we´re going to create a new layer at the top of our locked Background layer and name it “main_shadow”. Now we select the ELIPTICAL MARQUEE TOOL and using our guides as a reference and holding the ALT KEY we draw our selection from the center to the sides like so:

Now holding SHIFT KEY we can move our selection to the bottom of our icon. For now, make the bottom the selection to match the bottom of the icon. With our Foreground Color set to #000000 we select the PAINT BUCKET TOOL by selecting it from the Tools Panel or by pressing the G KEY and we click over our selection to fill it with black.

Now we can deselect our current selection and go Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur… and set the value for the RADIUS about 10px. We click Ok and go Filter/Blur/Motion Blur…and this time we choose 0 degress for the ANGLE and about 120 for the DISTANCE and click OK. Now we can move down our shadow to show up a little more of the darkest area at the center. Now if we press CTRL/OPT+T we can see something to keep an eye on:

Notice where our TRANSFORM TOOL is drawing the boundries of our shadow?. It is indicating that our shadow is getting out of bounds of our canvas and that means if we save the icon as it is, specially as a PNG, that little part of the shadow placed outside our canvas will cause our icon to appear cutted at the bottom. This is a very common mistake when dealing with icon shadows and it is always a good practice to make sure our bottom shadows are not exceding the limits of the canvas even when they look just fine. Most of the shadows are very subtle at their endings and it´s easy to not to see that cropping issue until you export your icon as PNG.

Ok, so to fix this we´re just going to scale down a little our shadow using our TRANSFORM TOOL box to fit the shadow into the boundries of our canvas. Now you´re image should look like this:

Step 18: Creating the Icon – Final Touches

Now we could add the text that will indicate in some way the kind of meter we´re looking at. I originally created this icon as a server traffic indicator and I used the words “SERVER TRAFFIC and KPS” to make it more obvious but you can use your own creativity or imagination to make the icon indicates whatever you wish to show. For the text I used Myriad Pro Semibold font, all caps and this time at 3,16 px and placed at the center of the icon using my guides as a reference. I set the paragraph style to align text at the center as well. I putted these text layers inside a folder calles “text”. I also moved the text down a bit for a better positioning just like so:

We´re almost done!. The last step of this tutorial is very important. We´ve spent a lot of time creating the shapes, aligning them correctly and making the icon to look proportioned and nice but we didn´t pay much attention to one of the most important things when creating icons: COLOR.

Now, since we´re not going to make use of the guides anymore we can just press CTRL/OPT+H to hide them and to have a better view of the adjustments we´re about to do.

Let´s make our icon more vivid and easy to the eyes by just adding some adjustment layers in combination with layer masking. One of the advantatges of this way of working is that you can easily modify the global appearance of your icon without the need of go looking for specific layers to change the color for a certain effect or shape

So, first we´re going to create a new folder just at the top of all our existing layers and name it “color adjustment”. Now and for the last time we´re going to CRTL/OPT+CLICK on the “base_black” layer to create a selection of the Dark Area of our icon where the main color adjustment will occur. Now inside the folder we just created we´re going to click the Add layer mask button located at the bottom part of our layers panel

Now we´re going to add a new Brightness and Contrast adjustment layer by clicking on the Create new Fill or Adjustment Layer button located at the right from the previous Add layer mask button. We select Brightness and Contrast from the pop up menu. Now we´re going to set the BRIGHTNESS value to around 30 and the CONTRAST to around 60.

Now we´re going add a levels adjustment layer by repeating the previous process but this time choosing Levels from the Create new Fill or Adjustment Layer menu. This setting may differ if you are using different colors for your numbers and “meter wheel” shapes. Since we used a light blue color in this tutorial we want our icon to look a little “bluish” simulating that some light is emerging from the icon and it is affected by the color of the inside elements. So for this new Levels Layer we´re going to use the following values: RGB channel should be set around 8, 1 and 238 for the first, second and thrid slider respectively. for the RED CHANNEL should be around 11, 1, 255, GREEN CHANNEL will remain untouched and for the BLUE CHANNEL we go 0, 1, 240.

Now if you followed along this tutorial using the same settings your final image should look something similar to this:

Step 19: Conclusion

Besides the creation of the icon, my intention with this turotial was to show you some principles and good practices when facing icon design. First is to keep all your shapes correctly aligned using guides and by making transform operations percentually using the tool that Photoshop is offering to us.

Another good practice is to keep your work as much simple as you can, and to use all the nice features Photoshop has like we did with our personalized action. They only thing we need to know is what we want to achieve and which tools can make our life easier to make our idea happen.

Download the Source Files

Due to the length of this tutorial, we’ve split this post into 2 parts. You are still welcome to download the free PSD in part 2.

Materials Needed:

• Carbon Pattern

Step 1: Setting Up Our Document – Creating our Canvas

Create a new Photoshop document (CTRL/OPT+N) and set the different values for the input fields to the ones displayed in the image. I’m going to create the icon at 512x512px but you can apply the same concepts I’m going to show here to almost any resolution/size, you just had to keep proportions and to scale styles correctly.

Now you can just press OK or wait a bit and read the next Step.

Step 2: Setting Up Our Document – Creating and Saving Custom Presets

This step is kinda optional but its concept can be applied to everybody’s needs depending on what kind of designs you’re planning to create over and over as for example in this case, an icon designer that is constantly working on creating Leopard ready Icons.

Once you set up a document with certain values you can save them by clicking the Save Preset button then choosing a name for your new preset and selecting which values you want to preserve for future new documents.

In this case I’m saving all values used to create this file as a base for future projects that will involve 512px icon creation. So, the next time we want to start a project of this kind, all we need to do instead of writing the different values inside the input fields, is just to select the new custom saved preset and we’re good to go.

Step 3: Setting Up Our Document – The Proper Alignment

Now we’re going to take profit of the Photoshop’s GUIDE TOOL to align our icon and to be able to work from the center. This way we ensure to create shapes with proper proportions.

To do that we go to View/New Guide… and we insert 50% for the horizontal orientation and then repeat the process and select again 50% for the vertical orientation.

Step 4: Creating the Icon – Basic Shapes

Ok, so now we’re ready to start working on our icon. First thing we need to do is to set our Foreground color to #ebebeb, select the ELIPSE TOOL and make sure we have shape layers and not just paths or fill pixels as the behaviour of the tool.

It is important we set the settings mentioned above and displayed on the right before we start drawing our shape because the shape tool acts in a different way when these settings differ from the ones showed.

Now we can center our pointer in the intersection of our guides and with our SHIFT and ALT keys pressed, start dragging our shape from the center to the upper left corner of the canvas. When the shape is complete, rename this layer to “main_shape”.

Step 5: Creating the Icon – Styling our main_shape

To achieve the desired effect and with our “main_shape” selected go to Layer’s Blending Options and set the values as showed below for Bevel and Emboss, Gradient Overlay and Stroke.

Step 6: Creating the Icon – Adding more Shapes

Let’s add some depth to the base of our icon by duplicating our current “main_shape” layer, renaming it to “main_shape_02″ and changing its Blending Options from the current ones to the ones displayed as follows:

Once you have applied the new layer style press CTRL/OPT+T to scale down your “main_shape_02″ down around a 95%. Insert the values in the following fields from the TRANSFORM TOOL.

Step 7: Creating the Icon – Adding our Dark Metter Area

Now we’re ready to start working on the black area that will contain our meter indicator. Duplicate your previous “main_shape02″ and change its shape color from the current #ebebeb to #111111. Rename this new layer to “base_black” and scale it down as explained in the previous step but this time around a 98%.

Access to the Layer’s Blending Options and change the following values:

Now we finally add the carbon fiber pattern made by env1ro and we leave its scale at the default 100%.

Don’t worry if you don’t see any difference with all this blending effects applied, that will change once we start adding light details and other elements to the icon.

Step 8: Creating the Icon – Adding some lighting to our Dark Area

At his point let’s make our icon a little more interesting by adding some lighting effects into our Dark Area. Let’s duplicate this “base_black” layer, rename it to “base_black_lighting” and set its fill to 0%.

We can now clear its layer style by right clicking the layer from the Layers Palette and choosing “Clear layer Style”. Now we can add a brand new Gradient Overlay effect to the layer.

We press D to go back to our default colors ( White for the foreground and Black for the background respectively )then press the “Add Layer Mask” button located at the bottom of the Layers Palette to add a new mask. Make sure our new layer mask is selected.

- you will notice that because it appears focused with a white square if you compare it with the other minuatures located at the sides and, because the name of your document changes from standard layer to whatever layer is selected+layer mask at the top of your document window boundries - .

Now we pick the GRADIENT TOOL, choose the following settings and start drawing our gradient as shown in the next image. Use the bottom of your document and the intersection of your guides at the center as a reference to your gradient start and ending points.

Your icon shoudl like something similar to this:

Step 9: Creating the Icon – Adding more detail to our Carbon Pattern

I really like to keep all my icons as much editable as possible using just vector shapes and layer styles. However sometimes it is impossible to keep this way or working if you want to achieve certin effects that are very difficult to do with standard Photoshop vector tools. So to give more detail to the carbon patter added in step 7 we are going to work with rasterized content in order to achive the effect we want to see.

First thing we need to do is to duplicate our “base_black” layer and place it just on top from the original “base_black” so this copy will rest below our “base_black_lighting” layer.

Now, for our new “base_black_copy”, we uncheck all its styles from the Layer Styles except for the pattern overlay. We can do that by double cliking the layer and accesing its Layer’s Style Window or like as show here on the left by expanding its attached styles from the Layers Palette and clicking on the little eye icon at the left of every style we have applied in our layer.

Then we set its fill to 0%. Now we create a new layer just in top of our “base_black_copy” and we select and merge both ( CRTL/OPT + E ), the brand new blank layer and our “base_black_copy” and rename the merged layer result to “pattern_refined”.

Now for this new “pattern_refined” layer we set its fill to 0% again since it has been changed to 100% when merged. Now, we’re ready to get rid of some parts of our layer. First zoom in at around 1200% with the ZOOM TOOL ( Z KEY ) and select the MAGIC WAND TOOL ( W KEY ). Now apply the following settings to the tool and click on any black pixel as showed below.

Once we have our desired selection we press BACKSPACE to clear the selected pixels from the layer and we apply the following setting s to the Layer Styles of our “pattern_refined” layer. You will notice that since it is the result from a merge operation there’s no pattern overlay effect applied anymore.

Now your icon should look similar to this:

Do you see the strange pixelation that occurs specially at the top and bottom of the icon?. You can compare the smooth edges from the previous layer to this new “patter_refined” layer by hidding and showing this last one from the Layers Palette. This happen because the effects from the blending mode we previously applied are going out of bounds from the actual shape so we should fix this if we want our icon to be visualy consistent.

Since the pixelation only occurs at very edges of the layer, we can use a Layer Mask to hide those imperfections. To do that we are going to look for the “base_black” layer into our Layers Palette. Now we CTRL/OPT + CLICK on the little thumb showing the rounded contour of the “base_black” layer to make a selection of the shape. Now we go to Select/Modify/Contract and we set value for the contract selection to 2px. Now we go to the bottom of our layers palette and as show in the previous step we with our “patter_refined” layer selected, we add a new Layer Mask but this time, since there’s already an active selection, the new Layer Mask will only show the content inside our selection hidding those ugly pixelated borders.

Now your image should look like this:

Step 10: Creating the Icon – Adding some more lighting

Now it is a good time to add a little more lighting to our icon. We have spend a lot of time and did some efforts making our pattern to look really crisp and now we can take profit of that by adding some light that will emphatize that.

Let’s create a new layer just in top of everything and rename it to “light_ambient”.

First of all, and with our new layer selected, is to set our Foreground Color to white and to pick a really big soft brush (B KEY) by setting its master diameter to around 700px and its hardness to 0%. Now we’re going to place the middle of our brush (the contour you can see when you switch to the brush tool) approximately at the top edge of our canvas and click once. Like so:

Like in the previous step, we’re going to use our “base_black” layer as a reference for the selection, so once again we CTRL/OPT +CLICK on that layer and then we switch to the SELECTION TOOL (M KEY). Once we have selected the tool we hit the DOWN ARROW KEY from our keyboard around 10 times (or move the selection down around 10px) and then we do SHIFT+CTRL/OPT+I to inverse the selection and we hit BACKSPACE.

At this point your image should look like this

Nice. Now we CTRL/OPT+CLICK on our “base_black” again to change the selection to the original contour of the black shape and inverse the selection by doing again SHIFT+CTRL/OPT+I to get rid of the pixels outside the base shape we draw with the brush and may remain from the previous delete operation. We set the blending mode for this layer from Normal to Screen and set its opacity at around 25%.

We now can hit CTRL/OPT+D to deselect our current selection if it’s active yet.

As an additinal touch, we’re going to create a new Layer Mask (as explained in previous steps) by hitting the little icon located at the botton of the Layers palette and with our brush tool (we keep the 700px diameter) and #808080 selected for our Foreground Color we’re going to make single clicks all around the sides and bottom part of our layer mask from left to right as the opposite direction of the clock wheels. So, we start at 21:00, then 18:00 then 15:00. As explained in a previous image, we’ll use the boundries of our canvas to position the middle of the brush.

Now your image should look similar to this one below:

Step 11: Creating the Meter – Using Actions and Vector Tools

Many people don’t think too much about actions when using Photoshop. However they’re a very powerful help when you have to deal with tedious and repetitive tasks and it can save us a lot of time and effort.

We’re going to apply that concept in the cretion of our icon. As you can see from the finished image there are a series of little bars evently spaced all across the upper and at the sides of the inner part of the icon that serve us as a meter where the arrow moves in between as an indicator of whatever you want to indicate. It would be very tedious to create those little bars one by one and even more tedious to reposition them perfectly to create the visual sensation of continuity between marks. So, to do that and keep it as simple as possible, we’re going to create our own action that will make the work for us.

First we should hide all our existing layer in order to keep our vision clear. Now we’re going to select the LINE TOOL from the vector shapes menu and holding the SHIFT KEY we’re going to draw a line from the very top of our canvas to the very bottom just to keep shapes in proportion and nice. It is very handy to keep your guides visible. Set the options for the LINE TOOL as shown below. Color doesn’t really matter at this point, we will be able to change it easily since we’re creating vector shapes. For now I will use just #000000.

Now it would be a good idea to reposition our line just at the center of the image just to make sure all is perefectly aligned. To do that we’re going to take benefit from the TRANSFORM TOOL and, to be more specific, from its reference point feature. We first press CTRL/OPT+T to acces the tool, then we place the reference point for the object at its center (if it isn’t already there) and then, we set 256px (512px/2) for both, horizontal and vertical positions. This way we make sure that our object is at the exact middle of our canvas and we can perform the follwoing tasks without any visual imperfection.

Now we go to Window/Actions (or press ALT/F9) to make our Action Panel visible and we click on the little icon menu located at the top right corner of the panel and choose New Action. We can give a name to our action. Now we press Record.

At this point we’re going to select our DIRECT SELECTION TOOL (the white arrow) and we are going to make a selection including all the shape from our new line. Then we go CTRL/OPT+C to copy the shape, CTRL/OPT V to paste it and then CTRL/OPT+T to acces the TRANSFORM TOOL again.

Now we’re going to locate the rotation setings for the TRANSFORM TOOL and we’re going to insert a value of 9 degress of positive rotation. Now we can stop the action by clicking the Stop button located at the bottom of the Actions Panel.

Very close to the Stop button is where the Play button is located. Yet in your actions panel, make sure you have selected the very first operation of your new action (it should be the “copy” operation”). Now you can hit the Play button and see the action running. You will have to do that several times to complete the circle but it will not take much longer than a few seconds. Now imagine copying, pasting and rotating all those new lines one by one. Sure it takes several minutes to achieve to not to talk about those little mistakes everyone does when involved in repetitive tasks….

Now this would be a good time to rename this layer to “meter_shape01″. Now your image and layer should look like this. Remember we hide all layers below our “meter_shape01″.

Time to duplicate our brand new “meter_shape01″ and rename it to “meter_shape02″, then we hide this last layer and select our “meter_shape01″ again. With our Vector Mask selected (click on the thumb to make sure it is the same way we did for our Layer Mask in previous steps) we’re going to select the ELIPSE TOOL and set its behaviour to Substract From Shape Area. Now taking as a reference our guides we draw a circle from the middle holding SHIFT and ALT keys to make a perfect circle. For our “meter_shape02″ we should end with something like this:

Now we hide “meter_shape01″ and repeat the same operation for “main_shaoe02″ but this time extending our substracter elipse shape a bit more to the edge. You should end with something like this:

Ok, so let’s rotate our “main_shape02″ by pressing CTRL/OPT+T to access the TRANSFORM TOOL and, as we did for the creation of out action, we set the rotation value to 4,5 degrees for the transform operation. Now if we make visible our “meter_shape01″ we should see something like show here below:

CONTINUE TO PART 2

Step 1: Creating a New Document

Create a new document with 800 on 600 pixels, resolution 300 dpi and a transparent background.

Step 2: Making the Texture

For texture, we do a selection with the Rectangular Marquee tool and fill it with black. After that, go to Filter> Noise> Add Noise and set to 70%, Gaussian, Monochromatic.

Step 3:

Then go to Filter> Blur> Motion Blur and set to the Angle of 0, Distance: 62 pixels. Thus we have the texture of bamboo fiber, now press Ctrl + T and reduce the height only slightly, to compress the fibers.

As you can see we have two layers, one with the texture and the second empty.

Step 4:

Let’s hide the texture layer and make a rectangular selection in the base layer, with the same size as the texture, for wich we press Ctrl + Click on the thumbnail of the texture layer. Once the selection is made, fill it with black, and open the window of Hue / Saturation by pressing Ctrl + U, we choose a green color and press OK.

Now show the texture layer and set the layer blending mode to Hard Light and then merge the layers with Ctrl + Shift + E. Press Ctrl + T to change the shape of the texture, right click on the transform area, and select Warp. With this tool, we give to the texture, the curves of bamboo.

Step 5: Volume

Now let’s use the Burn tool to add shadows in the lower side of the rod, we have to configure the tool with low exposure and a medium hardness, for me it is more convenient to use a large size in the tool.

Step 6:

After adding the shadows, let’s add the lights to get the volume. Select the Dodge tool and use it in the top side of the bamboo, with low exposure.

Step 7: Intesection

Once we have the texture and the basic form we´ll do the intersection. We will begin reducing the size of the bamboo cane by pressing Ctrl + T, and doubled it to obtain two segments, we will drag one on each other and select the tip of the rod above.

Once we have the selection, press Ctrl + T to transform and right-click on the selection, select Warp and try to make the curves of the bamboo, if the texture is broken in the process, we can use the Clone Stamp tool to repair.

Step 8:

Now we will simulate the shadow, so we will use the Burn tool to make the shadows, as seen in the image, and then use the Dodge tool for the lights.

Step 9:

Let´s repeat the step 7, here i show you how to use the Warp Transformation.

Step 10:

As we did before, we add the lights and shadows, this operation must be repeat in both tips of each cane.

Step 11: The Branchs

To draw the branch, we will use the pen tool and then convert the path to selection, fill it with black, let’s create a new layer where you draw a black rectangle. Go to Filter> Noise> Add Noise and then go to Filter> Blur> Motion Blur, as we did before to create the texture of the fibers.

Step 12:

Now we select the texture, press Ctrl+T, select Warp Transformation and put it on the branch shape, press Enter and change the branch texture layer blending mode to Hard Light. Press Ctrl+Click on the branch thumbnail to select the branch shape, invert the selection pressing Ctrl+Shift+i and delete the excess. Then merge the branch layer width the branch texture layer with Ctrl + Shift + E.

Step 13:

Let´s add the volume to the branch using the Burn Tool and the Dodge Tool as we did with the cane. Also we have to use this technique on the bamboo to simulate the branch shadow.

Step 14:

Press Ctrl+u to open the Hue/Saturation window and configure the hue, saturation and lightness to match the branch with the bamboo.

Step 15:

Now let´s draw the second segment of the branch, use the Pen Tool to draw and fill it with black, use the Hue/Saturation Window to colorize it with a green tone and then, add the volume with the Burn Tool and the Dodge Tool.

Step 16:

Now create a new layer called Details, and select a texturized brush with a very big size and use it on the bamboo.

Step 17:

Press on the bamboo layer thumbnail to select it, invert the selection and delete the excess.

Step 18:

Open the Hue/Saturation Window and colorize the details with a green tone.

Step 19:

Reduce the deatails layer fill to 66%.

Step 20: The Leaf

Now let´s create two layers called leaf and leaf texture, using the Pen Tool we will draw the leaf and with the Rectangular Marquee Tool let´s do the texture as we did before for the bamboo and the branch.

Step 21:

Put the leaf texture over the leaf and hide it, then open the Hue/Saturation Window to colorize the leaf with green.

Step 22:

Now display the leaf texture layer, change the layer blending mode to Hard Light and reduce the fill to 47%. Press Ctrl+T, choose the Warp transformation mode as steps before and adjust the fibers to the leaf form, then delete the excess.

Step 23:

Before we merge the leaf texture layer and the leaf layer, with the leaf texture layer selected press Ctrl+m to open the Curves Window, for add contrast.

Step 24:

We will duplicate the leaf and use transformation to change the leaf form, and use the Dodge Tool for add some shine.

Step 25:

To create the background, we will create a new folder called “On Focus”, and we put in the folder, the bamboo, the branch and the leaf. Then we create a new layer called BG, where using the Gradient Editor, we choose a gradient from green to black, and we apply it with the radial gradient tool.

Step 26: The Bamboo Forest

Then we will duplicate the bamboo and rotate the duplicates changing the size, to create the “bamboo forest”.

Step 27:

After that let´s crate a new folder called “Back” where we will copy the bamboo and duplicate it decreasing the size to make a back layer of forest, then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, with a radius of 1,4 pixels and we apply it to every layer of the “back folder”.

Step 28:

Now we create a new folder called “Front” where we will repeat the step before, but this time we increase the size of the bamboo, and we will add a gaussian blur with a radius of 3,8 pixels. In these tree steps, we have simulated a camera view.

Step 29:

Let´s create an adjustment layer of curves over the “back folder”, where we will decrease the light, obscuring the back of the scene.

Step 30:

Now we will select all the layers in the “Front Folder”, hold Ctrl while selecting to add the selections, all the canes in the front must to be selected when you add a curves adjustment layer, this way photoshop will create a mask in the layer, you have to be sure the adjustment layer affects only the bamboo in the front folder, if not, you have to invert the selection in the mask. In this adjustment layer, we will increase the light.

Step 31:

Let´s add a curves adjustment layer, go to the curves panel and press on the hand button, this button allows you to manually choose a light point on the image and drag up with the mouse to increase the curve, and then choose a shadow point and drag down to decrease the shadows and add contrast to the image.

Step 32:

Finally we create a new layer called “spot” and fill it with black, choose the Elliptical Marquee Tool and make a elliptical selection, then press the right button and select Feather option and write 30 pixels, press ok and then press delete, and finally we decrease the opacity of the spot layer to 43%.

Final Result:

Download the Source Files