# Making Aqua objects, buttons, text



## gwynarion (May 17, 2002)

Good evening,

I was wondering if any of you fine people might be able to give me some help.  With my newly acquired Photoshop 7.0 I have been venturing into the world of making Aqua looking things.  So far I've turned out a couple decent looking circles and ellipses, but I would like to go further.

Getting to where I am now has been facilitated by several online tutorials, but all of those dealt with very simple shapes.  I would like to move on to trying more complex items like text.  I think that what I need is a tutorial of some sort on how to do this, but I have not been able to find one.  If any of you know of such a resource I would appreciate hearing about it.  Thank you very much and I look forward to your responses.


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## mrfluffy (May 18, 2002)

try aquatint (www.sticksoftware.com), it's not perfect but not bad either.


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## gwynarion (May 18, 2002)

Thank you for your suggestion, but I would like to learn to do this myself using the tools I already possess.  I will keep it in mind for the future, though.


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## Trip (May 19, 2002)

Hello there! Here's the way that I do, but please note that it's not perfect and doesn't look 100% aqua. Maybe in an hour or two I'll post how you can make things really look aqua! 

It's very simple, it's called "Double Bevel", can you guess why? Ok: get the image you want to make 'aqua' and load 'em up into a new canvas. Bevel it so white is on the top of the image and black on the bottom, make the black's opacity setting be at 34%. Copy the entire image, make a new canvas and paste it in. Again: bevel the image. only this time white will be on the bottom and black on top, change black's opacity setting to be around 10% this time. And there ya go!

You'll have to mess around with some settings, but that's the easiest (non-pro) way to make a aqua look/feel for interfaces.

Expect a better tutorial with my next post.


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## Bluefusion (May 20, 2002)

I would seriously suggest using Interface Builder (on the Dev Tools CD) to make Aqua buttons, etc. It makes the process extremely easy, and they're REAL aqua, as well, not Photoshopped Aqua


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## Trip (May 20, 2002)

*cough* BlueFusion: read the whole thread.  *cough*



> _Originally posted by gwynarion _
> * I would like to learn to do this myself using the tools I already possess. *



Photoshop'n is the way to go, yo.


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## Bluefusion (May 20, 2002)

Yes, Trip, I knew that. We all own a copy of Dev Tools.    (Not trying to be annoying, but in truth it's the easiest way and it produces the best results))

Peace. Out.


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