[ps Cs2] Userbar Tutorial YAY My first tutorial ever...

[sylenzednuke 0]

USERBAR TUTORIAL - [sylenzed.nuke]

 

Well, this is my first ever tutorial and even I am a beginner at Photoshop but I think this

tutorial might be useful for some people who are even newer to Photoshop than I am. Although

this is for beginners, basic knowledge is required in order to follow this tutorial.

 

First we have to open up a new document, the size can vary but the recommended sizes are

300x19 px or 350x19 px because these are the standard sizes, but you have the free-will to

choose your own size. I am choosing 300x19 px and set the background to transparent.

*OPTIONAL but helps in some special userbars*

 

deadlink

 

Then, now we are designing a userbar for "Thunderbird Email Client" users. Mostly the gradience

in the background should reflect the logo or the interface of an application or company or product

but you can also follow your own way and add some gradience that will just bring the logo

up and you can also change the opacities and the angles and directions of the gradiences.

Just be sure, every single thing you do must be on different layers, operating on all of them

might be difficult but this helps a lot if somewhere you did any mistake.

Just add a gradience of your choice.

For me, I have done a single gradience over a "coloured" background.

 

 

Now, we will be adding some scalelines, those are just diagonal lines running all over your

userbar, you can use variations in this like instead of lines, square boxes, but they look

good only in signatures and not userbars.

 

Start of with opening a new transparent document with size 6x6 px. Zoom in 1600% and then select

the pencil ( B ) tool. Draw a diagonal line with black as your foreground colour.

 

Go to Edit > Define Pattern, and give an name that you want to it.

Get back to your userbar, create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) and then select the whole

canvas using (Ctrl + A). Press (Shift + F5), in the "Use" drop-down menu, select pattern and the

select the scaleline, you just drew. Then fill the whole canvas with it. Adjust the opacity of

the layer to suit your needs.

 

 

Create a new layer, search for a logo, on google and then delete the background of it using the magic wand tool,

resize it a little bit so that it would fit in your userbar.

Go to Layer > Layer Style > Outer Glow, adjust the glow of your logo and the colour to suit your needs.

 

Now comes the step where you will have to add some lightning effects to give your userbar a 3D look.

Create a new layer, select gradience and set the colour to white and the opacity to 50%.

Select the elliptical marquee select tool and then drag your mouse pointer from point 1 to point 2.

 

Now apply your gradience from top to bottom or whateer way you like, but try something whose

results would be similar to this image.

 

 

Now comes the text part, create a new layer, add some text to it, I chose the font Visitor, anf then

go to Layer > Layer Style > Stroke and set the parameters to those in the image below.

 

Now align the text to the right and it should turn out something like this.

 

Now this is the last step, where you add your border, pretty simple, actually the simplest.

Create a new layer, select the entire canvas (Ctrl + A) and then go to Edit > Stroke and set

the parameters to those in the below image.

 

Now deselect the area and you are done with you userbar.

My final result was :

 

You can try various variations, while gradience, border or those scalelines.

 

Hope this tutorial helped!

 

- [sylenzed.nuke]

 

Please if someone made their userbar, please post it here.

Edited December 17, 2016 by OpaQue (see edit history)

[Kubi 0]

Very nice tutorial, thank you for posting it. It's very simple and easy to understand, but with nice results!

[sylenzednuke 0]

I am glad you liked my tutorial, this was my first ever tutorial and considering the fact that I myself am a begginer to Photoshop I think I did a good job.If anyone created a userbar following this tutorial of mines, please post your results here...

Edited August 28, 2006 by sylenzednuke (see edit history)

[heaven_master_ash 0]

Hey Excellent Work U Have Worked Very hard For it As I Think But I Have To Say Nice Work excellent Quality

And Very Simple And Help Full Keep Posting Like That Thanx

[coybot 0]

hmm this is what i made out of your tutorial i got my own trick to do this but urs look fine to, here it is:

 

[Casino.Royale 0]

Even though userbars have been whored out your tutorial is pretty good loooking. Seems to be very well detailed and is sure to help some people out who are new to userbars. Also, just as a note for those who like to do userbars, using the font visitor BRK1 at size 10 looks really good on userbars. Nice job on the tutorial sylenzed.nuke and I hope you make some more to post up. Thanks for posting htis one.