Screencast Video Tutorials

Welcome to the third part in our Photoshop design tutorial. In this part you will learn how to design the featured slider area. If you need some visual instructions please view the screencast or check the outcome of the tutorial using the demo link to the right of the video.

Main Background Area

The main featured area background.

1. Create a new layer just above the white rounder corner shape.
2. In the layers menu hold CTRL and left click on the shape layer to get its outline.
3. Go to select then modify and contract the selection by 15px.
4. Fill in with colour #5ea22d
5. Using the rectangle outline, remove all of this area which is below the small grey bar. So it lines up with the bottom of the grey bar..
6. Add a gradient overlay of around 10%.
7. Add a 1px stroke to the inside, colour being a slightly darker green.
8. Add a new layer above the one just created, select the outline of main area and using the rectangle outline select the bottom 30px or so. (hold alt to deselect the top however section). Fill this with colour black, set blend mode to darken and opacity 7%.
9. For the shadow use the eliptical tool to create a black shallow eliptical shape running the length of the featured area but with around 15px less on either end.
10. Go into the filter menu and select gaussion blur. Set to around 9px.
11. Using the rectangle outline tool, delete the top half of this shape.
12. Reposition so its directly below the featured area and is centered.
13. Reduce the opacity.

Featured Area Title Text

Creating the text and the background to the text.

1. Type the text, font Museo Sans, size 30pt, anti-aliasing crisp, colour white.
2. Go into blending options and add a 1px drop shadow (darker than background).
3. Using the rectangle outline select an area which stretches roughly half the width of the featured area and holds the text with around 15px padding on top and bottom. Make sure it is aligned so that it is flush with the left side of the featured background.
4. Fill this layer in and go into blending options. Remove fill colour (0%).
5. Add a gradient overlay black to black, left to right with the right side being 0% opacity.
6. Add a gradient overlay to this rectangle, the same colour as the background for both ends (#f9f9f9). Set the second colour and set to 0% opacity. This should hide the shadows at the bottom making it seem like the shadows fade away. Make the blend mode overlay, opacity around 20%.

Featured Slide Main Content

Main content for the slide.

1. First make sure the guides are visible.
2. Go to lipsum.com and generate a paragraph of dummy text.
3. In the last 3/4 of the template create a pargraph of text and paste from lipsum.com. Size 12pt, Arial and no anti-aliasing.
4. Add a new layer and using the rectangle outline create a white box to hold a thumbnail. Make it so it has around 15-30px spacing from other elements.
5. Add to this box a 1px stroke with a darker green colour.
6. Open up an example image for the thumbnail. Copy and paste it onto a layer above the box. reposition it so it covers the box.
7. Get the outline of the box below and contract the outline by 3px.
8. In the select menu also select inverse selection and delete.
9. This should leave a 3px white border around the image, with the addition of a green border to that.

Featured Slide Icons

Icon and details section.

1. Open up the 3 different icons and paste onto the darker area at the bottom of the featured area, to the right of the thumbnail so they line up with the left side of the paragraph of text.
2. Space them out and example text for each – 12pt, Arial, none, white.
3. For the clock image press CTRL and T then at the top of the screen reduce the size to 16px x 16px to fit with the others.
4. For each image go into blending options and add a colour overlay of white.

Previous and Next Controls

Button containing the next and previous arrows.

1. Using the rounded rectangle create a rectangle to hold the arrow.
2. Rasterize the shape and delete the section where the featured area ends and the shadow starts.
3. Add a gradient overlay, grey at the top, white at the bottom.
4. Add a 1px white stroke.
5. Using the rectangle outline tool delete all the shadow layer which is directly under the button.
6. Using the custom shape tool select an arrow show and holding shift create an arrow.
7. Set the colour to the same as the admin link.
8. Add a 2px inner glow of darken black, 10%.
9. Add a 1px stroke which is the colour at the very bottom of the arrow (1px down from the arrow – so the background colour there). It should be lighter.
10. Duplicate the shape and go into edit and transform. Flip the outline horizontally and reposition.

These instructions are intended as a guide to go along with the screencast. For a better understanding of whats going on view the video.