1. You
will need to know how to make a pipe for this tutorial. Make your pipe
then take the Marquee Tool and make a little marquee rectangle
for your button on the pipe.
2.
Now click on your channels tab, Then create a new layer. Now fill in the
marquee with white and hit Ctrl+D to deselect. Go to Filter >> Blur
>> Gaussian Blur and set it to 8, then go to Image >> Adjust
>> Levels and put ( 124 | 1.22 | 151 ) where it says Input
Levels.
3.
Go back to the layers, Go to Selection >> Load Selection
in the drop down box where it says Channels click alpha 1.
Put white as your Foreground color and black as your Background color and
grab the Gradient Tool and site it to foreground to background
and start from the bottom line and go to the top line of the marquee.
4. Go
to Selection >> Modify >> Contrast and contrast by
2 and then create a new layer. Put black as your Foreground color and go
to Edit >> Stroke and stroke it by 1 make sure the location
is set to inside. Put your button color as the back ground color and and
white as your foreground. Now grab the Gradient Tool again
and start at the bottom line and go to the top line of the marquee.
5. Go
to Selection >> Modify >> Contrast and contrast it by 1.
Create a new layer and hold the ALT key and take the Marquee Tool and cut
the bottom half of the marquee off. Take the Gradient Tool
and keep the colors set to the same and go from the top past the bottom
line and stop half way like the image to your left.
6.
Hold ctrl and click on the layer with the full button, go to Selection
>> Modify >> Contrast and set it to 1 again, take the Marquee
Tool but this time cut off the top half. Now create a new layer
and keep white as your Foreground color and select the Gradient Tool
and set it to Foreground to Transparent and start at the bottom and stop
half way between the marquee now hit Ctrl +D to deselect.
7. Take
the Text Tool and click on the image then type in your text and keep white
for you text color it looks the best for light color buttons. There is
your simple way to make a plastic button.
