Photoshop - Cool Glassy Icon Creation
This photoshop tutorial will teach on how to make a cool glassy icon to be display not only on your website, but also for graphics use on banners, printout material and more.
Make a document of any size, normally for me i will always use 500 x 500 for small graphics creation. Using the rounded rectangle tool, having around 8px of radius, draw a perfect square by holding the shift key when draging your mouse. After the square had been created, open the layer blending option, choose the gradient overlay, insert the 2 colors on the respective side (as shown as the above image). Name this layer icon-bg
Then duplicate another layer of it, name this layer glass, select the glass layer, move it to above of icon-bg’s layer, change its color to white(#ffffff) by using the blending option’s color overlay. Change the opacity of it to around 50%. Use the square marquee toolbar draw a selection and you will reach to somewhere that’s shown in the above image. With that marquee selection is active and the glass layer is selected, press the delete key.
Now you will basically have a glass look on it. To further smoothen the look of it, this is an optional step, use the round marquee tool, draw a selection according to what’s shown on the above image. Go to Select > Feather (Ctrl+Alt+D), give it 30px of feather, press “delete” once.
Ctrl+click on the thumbnail of the layer icon-bg to have a marquee selection on it, then go to Select > Modify > Expand, insert 1px and press OK. Then create a new layer below icon-bg, fill the marquee selection with white (#ffffff) color, name the layer shine
After the above step, you wont see any difference because of the white background. So to make things easier to see, create another layer below shine, simply draw a black (#000000) color rectangle, and you will see what you’d done so far. Name this layer dummy-bg
Again use the round marquee tool, draw a selection as shown in the above image, then go to Select > Feather (Ctrl+Alt+D), give it again a 30px, with the shine layer selected, press “delete” twice.
Repeat the above step for the top area, but this time only press “delete” once”.
Now you can see the shine beside it, tweak a bit of the opacity on the shine layer if you want to.
Again Ctrl+click on the thumbnail of the layer icon-bg, go to Select > Modify > Expand, this time insert 2px on it. Create a new layer above the layer dummy-bg but below the layer shine, fill the marquee selection with a color, here i fill it with black (#000000). Give this layer a name of icon-frame
Now hide the layer dummy-bg and you will see what’s shown on the above image, and we are almost done.
Finally, open the blending option for the layer icon-frame, enable the gradient overlay, put in the respective color as shown on the image.
Now basically you’re done, all you have to do now is create the symbol you want and put it in, i will try use the RSS symbol here as an example
Add an inner shadow on it if you want and that’s it, you’d just made yourself a nice, cool, glassy icon!
There are many things you can do with this icon design, here i’ll make an example of what you can do. Reflection. I know many people already know how to do a nice reflection and shadow, but still i will show it for the sake of those who doens’t know. I will go through this very fast and not so detail.
Continue with the previous work, create a layer below this icon, using the Eclipse Tool, black fill, draw a long but thin eclipse as shown in the above image
Using the Gaussian Blur tool, blur it with 1.0px. Then adjust the opacity a bit
Now duplicate the whole icon, flip it vertical, nudge it until its bottom part touches each other like what is shown on the image
Then using round marquee, select the region shown in the image, use feather of 30px again, press “delete” 3 - 4 times
Adjust the opacity, and now you have yourself a beautiful effect with this icon you’d just made!
Color tweaking also can be done on this icon, with this you could achieve something shown at bottom. With this, hope you enjoy the tutorial!
53 Comment(s) On This Topic
seraphangel said during March 9th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
nice tutorial, was wondering when you will continue with your shoutbox tutorial.
boon said during March 9th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
probably after this tutorial, my next coming tutorial will be continue-ing the shoutbox
crystal said during March 11th, 2007 at 2:37 am
wahhh happiness to me le. i also wanted to ask you for some guide :P. nice icon
boon said during March 11th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
hahah, bring it to me
enjoy the tutorial woh 
mohamed said during March 18th, 2007 at 3:37 am
very good tutorial
http://www.ushareing.com
datelus said during March 18th, 2007 at 4:54 am
Really well made tutorial
thank you
boon said during March 18th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
mohamed, datelus: thanks! hope u enjoy it
Nab said during March 19th, 2007 at 6:00 am
I had some problems whith the glass.
When pressing the delete key the complete glass layer gets deleted.
Also, I am not sure about this “change its color to white(#ffffff) by using the blending option’s color overlay”. Do I need to deactivate the gradient overlay?
ilovegooey said during March 19th, 2007 at 10:08 am
Nice tut, thanks
ilovegooey.co.uk
boon said during March 19th, 2007 at 10:09 am
i believe that’s at the step 2 right. Assuming ur marquee selection is the same as mine which is at the bottom portion, then i believe u are having ur layer window active while u pressed the delete. I guess before u press delete ur last click was on the layer window itself, this would activate the layer window and deactivate the stage layer, so everything u do will only affect the layer window. To make sure u r deleting the right thing, What u have to do is click on the stage window (where u draw ur things), then only press delete
u do not have to deactivate the gradient overlay, because if u enable the color overlay, it will over-right, or in other words cover up the gradient overlay. In short, color overlay on top of gradient overlay.
hope this clear things up for u
Nelly said during March 19th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Hi, I am a beginner in PhotoShop.
“After the square had been created, open the layer blending option, choose the gradient overlay, insert the 2 colors on the respective side”
Can you explain how i can insert 2 colors on the respective side?
Thanks!
Nab said during March 20th, 2007 at 12:30 am
I now created the icon. Thanks for the tutorial.
@Nelly: I am not sure if this is the best and fastest way but I will try:
Open the gradient overlay window, double click into the drop down menu where you can see the two gradient colors. Now you see a color bar with two squares at the top and two squares at the bottom. Double click the bottom squares and enter your color value.
If there is a better way, I am also interested.
boon said during March 20th, 2007 at 1:16 am
@Nelly: refer explanation below.
@Nab: i m not sure where ur drop down menu comes from, but here the way i do and is recommended to do so too.
right click on the layer (at the layer windows) of the object which u wanted to apply the gradient, select “Blending Options”.
Then will appear another window, in this window u can apply all sorts of properties onto tat particular layer (u can explore it urself later on). In this case, select on the “gradient overlay” (it will enable s the gradient), by default u will have the black/white gradient.
Now make sure u really click on the “gradient overlay” text instead of just the selection box, this is to go to the place where u can change the color. Now do the color change accordingly, i assume u will know where to change it once u see
Nelly said during March 20th, 2007 at 1:55 am
Got it, thanks guys!
boon said during March 20th, 2007 at 10:14 am
ur most welcome Nelly
B@rmaley.e> said during March 21st, 2007 at 12:42 am
Cool!
Nairrah said during March 25th, 2007 at 3:54 am
I too have the problem of the layer deleting. Can you break step 2 down even more?
Nairrah said during March 25th, 2007 at 4:00 am
I rasterized the layer then deleted. Was this the missing piece?
boon said during March 25th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
@Nairrah: in Photoshop, u will always have to select the layer in order to do “action” on the particular object on that layer, right?
so after the layer glass has been created. Move this layer above icon-bg layer. Then change its opacity. (I believe u get here right)
Then draw a rectangular marquee like shown on the image. after u finish drawing it, click on the layer glass. With this layer glass is selected, and also the marquee selection is still there, press delete. Then u will get what is in the image
klein said during March 30th, 2007 at 9:00 am
wow! this is very nice, i will do this trick in my site http://www.designersyard.com
boon said during March 31st, 2007 at 1:01 am
oh yeah Klein, hope to see the trick result on ur site soon
ouchast said during April 1st, 2007 at 3:12 am
Great tutorial!
I’m going to check out your other tutorials now.
ps user said during April 1st, 2007 at 6:34 pm
hi im kinda new to photoshop,
i had a problem in the second step..
when i selected the portion with the marquee tool and pressed delete, it wouldnt let me.. this error msg came up that sed ‘could not complete your request because the content of the layer is not directly editable’
thanks
boon said during April 1st, 2007 at 9:22 pm
@ouchast: thanks! hope u like the other tutorial as well! be sure to come back coz will have new tutorial once in a while
@ps user: could u explain how u draw the rectangle or the process u went thru to get step2? bcoz i really nvr come across to this error msg before. Elaborate more so that i can help u
ps user said during April 2nd, 2007 at 6:50 pm
yeah sure
k i opened up a new canvas, 500 by 500
then on a new layer i used the ‘Rounded Rectangle Tool(U)’ while pressing down shift like you said.
after that i added the gradient overlay n thats it. nothing extra.
when i tried deleting the part it wouldn’t let me. in fact it wont let me do anything to it! =S (such as paint brush tool, eraser tool, magic wand tool, fill etc. nothing! when i go over the canvas with the tool, the cursor turns into a little Ø sign)
im sure adding the blending option has nothing to do with it because i tried the tools on it even before that and it still wouldnt let me. im using photoshop 7 btw.
thanks help appreciated =)
boon said during April 2nd, 2007 at 7:02 pm
hi ps user,
my very first guess is everything that u draw on the stage is in vector format, to solve this u have to rasterize ur layer.
right click on the layer and select “rasterize layer”. If my guess is correct, after this action u will be able to use any tools on it
hope this helps!
ps user said during April 3rd, 2007 at 10:52 pm
ohhhhh ok
yep that solved it
thanks!
tutorials great btw keep em coming
boon said during April 4th, 2007 at 12:28 am
good to hear u solved it
thanks for the compliment, will post some other tutorial once i m free
meethere said during April 7th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
I am a total newbie to photoshop. This was my first attempt and to my surprise I was able to create the icon upto 11 as nicely as yours.
But i was not able to create those RSS style - can only place that small square
How to create those 2 curve bars ??
Also, i am having problem with reflection - How to duplicate whole icon - i can only duplicate individual layer
Thanks very much.
boon said during April 8th, 2007 at 12:59 am
hi meethere,
to make the rss icon, u can first create a white circle, then make another smaller circle align to its center, now u have an inner and outer circle. Then u can cut the outer circle base on the inner circle. After this u will basically have a donut shape circle, now place ur donut onto the icon, and cut it according to how bit u wan (around 1/4 of the donut), then u will have your 1st curve bar. Repeat the same for the smaller bar
to duplicate the whole icon, duplicate all the layers and merge them together, then only flip it.
hope this help
Mangled said during April 15th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Very good tutorial and really good explained, thanks
.Jazzy said during April 16th, 2007 at 1:12 am
I was stuck at the Dummy-Bg project,How exactly do i fill in that layer full black?
boon said during April 16th, 2007 at 10:01 am
hi .Jazzy, simply create a new layer underneath all the above’s layers, then use the Paint Bucket Tool (or press G), choose the black color in the color palette. Then left click on the stage, then it will fill this particular layer with black color.
geo said during May 20th, 2007 at 4:55 am
First of all AWESOME tutorial !!! Thanks
I had no problems creating the red icons like the one you have.
but when tried the blue version it sucked wait actually I suck at color selections:(
could you give me the colors for the blue icon that you have created. thanks
boon said during May 20th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
hi geo, first of all also, thanks for supporting my tutorial!
u could use #0045ac for the bottom part and #044ebc for the top
geo said during May 21st, 2007 at 2:22 am
Thanks boon
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JU5TY said during June 8th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Hi Boon
I’m very new to Photoshop, but I’ve made it to step 11!
When creating the RSS logo you said:
“Then u can cut the outer circle base on the inner circle. After this u will basically have a donut shape circle, now place ur donut onto the icon, and cut it according to how bit u wan (around 1/4 of the donut)”
Could you elaborate on how you cut the outer circle base on the inner circle to create the donut shape? Also once placed on the icon how do you cut it according, what tool do you cut with etc?
Also creating the mirror image, I have duplicated each layer and used the ‘Layer – Merge Layer’ to merge the duplicated layers. But when merged, they don’t show the layers in the correct order and I’m unable to flip them vertically.
Could you please elaborate on the duplicate/merge/flip process please?
Finally, ideally i’d like the logo in yellow, I selected the colours myself, but it all appeared a bit faint, is yellow a suitable colour for this logo? If it is would you be able to suggest colour codes for steps 1 and 11?
Sorry so many questions, I’m still learning the basics of Photoshop.
Many thanks for your help.
boon said during June 9th, 2007 at 12:16 am
hi Ju5ty,
first of all thanks for visiting this tutorial and giving me feedback
i assume u have an outer and inner circle now. simple just ctrl + click on the inner circle’s thumbnail then u will have a marquee selection over the inner circle. With that marquee selection is there, select the outer circle layer and press delete, then hide the inner circle layer. If everything goes accordingly, u will have ur donut shape now.
To cut it, just use the rectangle marquee tool, select the region where u wanna delete, in this case is those 3/4 unwanted part. Just select those 3/4 region part by part and delete it one by one.
—————————-
Now for the mirror. I suggest you group all the related layers together. To do so, select all the related layers, i assume u know how to multiple select the layers. Then ctrl+G to group all of them. Then duplicate the group and merger ONLY the group that u had duplicated. Then u will have duplicated image which is in order and u can do the flip process
—————————-
Yellow can be use, try #efce00 at the bottom and #fddc10 at the top, should work fine. However still is not recommended to use yellow because yellow itself is a very bright color and the brightness may cover up the glassiness of the icon itself.
—————————-
Hope these answer helps u!
JU5TY said during June 9th, 2007 at 6:28 am
Thanks Boon, you’re a star! All sorted now! Photoshop is addictive!
boon said during June 10th, 2007 at 2:44 am
haha, no problem at all
yup, it is very addictive indeed 
18 Essential Photoshop Tutorials for Blogger | The Tao of Blogging to Wealth said during September 10th, 2007 at 8:39 am
[…] Cool Glassy Feed Icon Creation […]
18 Tutoriales de Photoshop para bloggers said during September 14th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
[…] Cool Glassy Feed Icon Creation […]
Martin said during April 6th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Super tolles Tutorial. Sieht einfach klasse aus.
Super zum Photoshop verstehen.
RojoSanKa said during May 8th, 2008 at 4:42 am
anyone knows of a place i can find a good selection of symbols for this icon? Like the white feed symbol.
Alexnder said during June 30th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
- , , , .
http://remont-komplekt.ru/ said during July 6th, 2008 at 2:49 am
. .
Наташа said during September 6th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Как вам идея создать электронный сборник по вашему сайту? Можно все актуальные и полезные статьи внести в pdf и предоставлять возможность скачивать?! Я бы воспользовалась!
Андрей said during September 26th, 2008 at 7:36 am
Думаю сделать подобное в своем блоге. В принципе, приглянулся сайт.
Гангстерито said during October 21st, 2008 at 6:45 am
привет. Админ, хошь прикол ?
к тебе на сайт можна заходить через яндекс 
yandex.ru/redir?url=boonage.pjss2.net
Андрей said during November 7th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Красиво!
хотя идея не нова
уроки фотошопа said during November 7th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Спасибо за уроки фотошопа!
wintervssummer said during November 29th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
I very much love summer
Someone very much loves winter
I Wish to know whom more
For what you love winter?
For what you love summer? Let’s argue
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