[=== by nerio ===]
A Good design is bult from good Ideas…..... this is a good quote i follow generally in the design of new themes or skins, the idea must be original, and you must take all the time needed to realise it….....Personally i guarentee the result that your baby will be used by all users for a long time!! Here i’ll show you how to achieve a good Clock! its up to you to adapt it!!!
[=== by nerio ===]
Make a new document, let say it will be 100px/100px with transparent background and After draging the guides from top and the left (you know how to do it….right?!) take your circular marquee tool and place the crosshair at the EXACT point where the guidelines intersects. Hold down ALT+SHIFT and click and drag out a perfect circle, this will make a good circle. now fill it with a color like #77848F then go to layerstayles to add these settings:
You Should end up with something like shown here!!
In a new layer make another circle that have to be smaller then this one. and fill it with this gradient : From #5A6371 to the color of #A6ADBD from top to bottom with linear gradient, and apply these layerstayles :
You Should end up with something as shown below:
For More professional purposes, we need another smaller circle inside the two others, to have something really cool at the end ….......so make another one smaller circle!! and fill it with #B6B6B6 and apply these settings to the layer stayles:
...and the result:
Now, to give it more depth and realism, obviously a good reflection of the light is needed here to simulate the glass the covers the center of the Clock…...how to do it? very easy, load a selection from the second circle we made then make new layer, and turn your colors to default, grab the gradient tool with the colors set to : from white #FFFFFF to transparent then apply a linear gradient from top to the half of the circle.
Now, with the selection still loaded, in a new layer, do the same from the bottom part of the hole shape but this time with a radial gradient as shown here.
It’s a little confusing step but with more tries you should come over it
Hopefully done as well…......If yes move on to the next step!!!
Now Try to perspect and move your lights inside the hole thing like I done here to give it more realism!!! and give down the opacity of the two layers to about 80% or find what works best for you!!!
Now, we should add more details to give a nice shot.
So take your one pixel line tool located in the vectors tools panel, right under text tool then make a one pixel line in vertical postion in the center of the third circle we made earlier!!! Hold SHIFT button to make it straight!!!
Now, duplicate it, then hold SHIFT and Rotate it 90? Clockwise!! it’s not hard at all.
You Should end up with something like that! i deactivated the light layers for you to see it clearly!
Now, if done Group em the two one pixel layers together CTRL+E. load a selection from the third circle we made then contract the selection by 5px. then hit the delete key on keyboard!
You should have now four small axes where usually the numbers of hours should be written.
Here is what you should finally end up!!! That’s it, i better let you go through it and find new techniques by yourself!!!! :)
An A_Clock Plugin skin from my Crystal Fusion theme made with the same technique!
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