Design Magazine

http://cs5tutorial.net/design-a-3d-box-icon-in-photoshop/

Step 1: Create a new document

Start by creating a new document (Ctrl+N) 800×800 in dimension.

Step 2

Make a new layer(Ctrl+Shift+N).

Step 3

Make a selection using rectangle Marquee Tool(M) and Transform the selection as shown. Fill it with black.

Step 4

Change the color to grey (Right-click on the layer choose Blending options>Color overlay) and duplicate it. Move the duplicated layer as high as you want (this will determine box’s height). Make the duplicated layer black.

Step 5

Using Rectangle Marquee Tool (M), make a selection. Make a new layer, fill it with a gradient (Right-click on the layer Blending Options>Gradient overlay) Use a darker color on the lower part and a lighter color on the upper part. For my box, I used #f7bb01 for the upper part and #d3a305 for the lower part. Use shift to make the gradient go straight.

Step 6

We are going to fill the interior. Make a selection using Rectangular Tool (U). Make a new layer, fill it as shown. Make a layer for every side you fill.

Step 7

Make shadows for the sides (Use Burn Tool (O) with similar settings).

Step 8

Make shadows for the middle part of the interior. I suggest using a similar selection. Use Burn Tool (O) with similar settings.

Step 9

Make A selection similar to the one shown and fill it with the same colors you have used for the box. Make selections and add add a gradient with the same colors used for the box (dark one on the near part and ligther one for the far part) and add highlights for the center similar to the ones shown.

Step 10

Set your brush to a small size (3px for my size was perfect, 5px was a bit too big). Using Pen Tool, make a straight line on the corners, make a new layer for each line and make a stroke path (Pen Tool (P) — Right Click — Stroke Path — Set it on Brush and press Ok). Using Eraser bring the lines to the right tone. Do the same for the upper part of the box.

Step 11

Make a new selection and make a new layer. Using Gradient Tool (G) fill the selection with 2 tones of grey (darker for the close part and lighter for the far part). I used #dcdcdc as a light grey and #9b9b9b as the dark grey.

Step 12

Make a new layer and make a shadow using Pen Tool (P) by making a path that follows the form of the interior and using a size 3px (or bigger depending to your image size) stroke the path  as shown previously. Use for the color black and set the layer on overlay. Set the opacity as you want (I suggest 60-70%).

Step 13

Select the layer of the box  and make a selection for a small reflection and using Levels (L) lighten it a bit. Make a small selection as shown for a little shadow on the box and using Burn Tool (O) darken it as you want.

Step 14

Using Rectangle Tool (U) make a selection for the black line. Make a new layer UNDER the layer of the reflections and fill it with BLACK. Using Pen Tool (P) make a selection to see how will the rear line look. Make a selection and fill it with black where the yellow used to be. To add texture to the interior use Noise (Filter — Noise — Add Noise) on a black layer with the form of the interior (3rd picture). Set the noise on Soft Light blending mode and reduce the opacity of the layer.

Step 15

Make a selection for the papers. Make a selection similar to the one shown. Deselect from the selection the front of the box and fill the layer with white. To make the shadows use Pen Tool (P) with a feather similar to 1, 2px . Use Levels (L) to darken the paper accordingly.

Step 16

Duplicate the layer and fill the duplicated layer with a darker grey (I used #c4c4c4). Move the duplicated layer under the white paper. Using Free Transform (CTRL + T) rotate the paper. Make a selection and remove from the layer anything that is out of the box.

Step 17: Reflections&Shadow

Now comes the nice part. I explained how I added reflections and shadows. You can make them as you wish. To add texture to the front, use Noise (Filter>Noise>Add noise) as much as you want as shown previously.
Use Type Tool(T) to add a reffering text like .doc/.psd/.pdf etc. , it depends of what would you want to use this icon.

Final Result

http://cs5tutorial.net/firefish-photoshop-tutorial/

Step 1

Start with creating a document. Mine is 800×600 pixels. This is a nice workspace when creating icons.

Step 2

Draw a base shape of a fish body using the pen tool. This can be any fish you would like.

Step 3

Open the layer styles and apply a gradient with a yellow-orange-red-kind of color to make that fire-feeling and set the gradient-style to mirror. Now set the angle to 45º

Step 4

This is how your fish-shape should look like so far(if you did the same fish-shape as I did).

Step 5

Now we are going to make the eye of the fish.
Select the ellipse tool and draw a fully round circle. Hold down shift when applying the circle to make it perfectly round.
Open the layer styles and apply this styles

Step 6

Make another shape above our round circle and add some outerglow.

Step 7

Make a firey shape. This will add a nice fire-effect to our eye. Open the layer styles and apply some outer glow.

Step 8

Now we are going to set our body on fire using pen tool (I know, funny choice of words).
Make a long pointed shape. Apply a layer mask () and use the gradient-tool() to fade it out.

Step 9

Repeat step 8 about 18 times using different shapes and colors.

Step 10

Now, put every shape that you just did in a folder, and rename it to “Fireshapes”. Now duplicate the whole folder and press CTRL/CMD + E and the folder will become a layer. Rename the layer to “Fireshapes2″ Then press CTRL/CMD + T and pick the option on the very bottom
Now put it above the fish

Step 11

Now repeat step 10, rename this layer to “Fireshapes3″ and put it above “Fireshapes2″. Now lets add a yellow shape on the bottom using pentool to make this fish look a little bit more like a fish.

Step 12

Now we will use this layer style options to complete the next step.

Step 13

Now you know the technique of making fire-shapes using pen tool. I’ll be adding some shapes with gradients(step 12 for gradient settings) on the tail that I’ll put in a folder and rename it to “Tail”.
The tail is the area inside of the blue path.

Step 14

Now lets add a layer mask () to our tail folder and apply a gradient() to make it fade(). This has an effect inside of the blue path.

Step 15

This is how your outcome should be looking like so far.

Step 16

Now we are going to make the fin of the fish. It cant swim without a fin right? Make a shape like on the image above(I’m using #fcb100), fade it out using a layer mask () and the gradient tool().

Step 17

Now lets add some shapes above the fin to make it more “firey” using the same technique as in step 16.

Step 18

Make a shape on the fishes head, this will add a nice fire-feeling-effect.

Step 19

Repeat step 18 and fade it out using a layer mask() and the gradient tool().

Step 20

Now put everything we’ve done in a folder and call it “Fish”.

Step 21

Set the opacity of the fish folder to 69%.

Step 22

Duplicate the fish folder and press CTRL/CMD + E. This will make a copied layer above our fish folder. Add the styles above.

Step 23

This should be your outcome so far.

Step 25

Now we are going to apply out smoke and some of our star brushes. Copy and paste the smoke above the fish and draw some stars in the same layer, set the opacity of the layer to 69%( and add this layerstyle:

Step 26

Now paste in our globe icon and add a laye rmask(). Select a brush with a fair large size and set the hardness to 0 and fade out our globe using our large-size-brush, drawing on our layer mask with color #000000:

Step 27

Now place the globe icon behind the firefish.

Step 28

Press CTRL/CMD + T and hold down shift and resize the globe until it fits behind the firefish.

Step 29

No we are up to make the background.
Lets choose a background color. I’m going with #112047.

Step 30

Outcome with background color.

Step 31

Make a new layer on top of the background but behind the globe and firefish. Mark a third of your document using the selection tool. Fill it with darker color(#0e1939).

Step 32

Fade it out. Apply a layer mask, pick the gradient tool and fade it out upwards.

Step 33

Make an oval using the ellipse tool. Place it under the firefish. This is going to be our shadow.

Step 34

Now go to Filter > Blur > Motion blur and apply these settings(you need to do it twice, once for the x-axis and once for the y-axis):

Step 35

Now make a straight line over the globe using the line tool, open layer styles and apply some bevel and emboss(this time I’ll let you pick your own settings).

Step 36

Repeat step 35, but this time do it over the firefish.

Step 37

To finish it up, make a new layer and use the star brushes to draw some stars, this will make our “sky” more realistic.

Conclusion

So there you have it. We are now finished with our firefish, I hope this was to some help and you all learned some new Photoshop techniques and tricks. Don’t forget to leave a reply and let me know what you think!