You might have seen that in Adobe
Photoshop, you can create very stunning text or buttons with a realistic
plastic material surface. You can do the same in Fireworks4, and even easier.
Before you begin this tutorial you
should have a quite good understanding of the 'Pen' tool's functions, as
it will play a vital role in the end effect. Note: The examples shown,
are not in actual size.
1.
Start
off by opening a new image, about 300x300 pixels.
Then grab the 'pen tool', and simply
start making an object, preferably looking like a letter of some sort,
but not too complex. If you don't get the results you are looking, then
you can drag the points of the object to the preferred location. Take a
look at the example to the left, to get an idea of what I mean.
2.
Select
the object you have created, now that you have finished polishing it, and
copy it (Ctrl+C). Go to effects (Alt+F7), and add an outer glow, with preferably
these settings:
3.
Remember
you copied the letter before? Now paste it (Ctrl+V). Give it a radial fill
(Shift+F7). Press the 'Fill' button in the tools menu. Now you can see
a black line with a dot at each end. When you hover your cursor over one
of the ends it inverts the color of your cursor, that means it's drag able.
You need to select the center "dot", and drag it the place of your object
where you want the light to come from.
