Basic Vents Tutorial (view)
Submitted 2 November 05

STARTING OUT

1 ) Start by making a new document, 300px width and 200px height. Set the background color as #96957A.
2 ) Now make a new layer and call it "base shape"

There are many ways of doing the base you could either use the pen tool which I prefer using because you can make your own unique shape or you could just go ahead and make a base shape with one of the shape tools (rounded rectangle tool). Well go ahead and just use the Rounded Rectangle Tool for now, so select it. Set the foreground color as white #FFFFFF and draw a long (by height) rectangle on the base shape layer. Now slightly rotate the rectangle (crtl+t).



3 ) Now make a new layer and call it "gradient1"

Select your gradient tool, set it to linear gradient and edit the gradient and change it to foreground to transparent. Change the foreground color to Black #000000. Ctrl+click on base shape layer and from the top of the shape drag the gradient tool half way on the shape. Set the layer opacity to 80%.



4 ) Duplicate the gradient1 layer and rename the duplicated layer gradient2. Select gradient2.

Move the gradient2 layer 4px down and 2px left. Select your Eraser Tool and set it on 74% opacity, (Soft Round Brush) brush size 100px and erase half of the gradient. Select the base shape layer, select the Magic Wand Tool. Click the area outside the white rectangle. Go back to the gradient2 layer and hit delete, this should have deleted the bit that was going outside the actual base shape of our vent

Just change the Blending mode for the base shape layer to multiply to see how it looks so far.





5 ) Duplicate gradient2 layer and rename it "inside vent gradient1". Select the layer.

Move the layer about half way down of the base shape. Duplicate the inside vent gradient1 and rename it to inside vent gradient2. Select the layer and move the layer down 3px and 1px right. With inside vent gradient2 selected, press ctrl+e (combines this layer with the layer below it, the bottom layer keeps the same name Inside Vent Gradient1). So you should have something like this:



6 ) Make a new layer and name it outline.

Ctrl+click the base shape. Go, Select>Modify>Expand.. and put 1px, hit enter. Fill the select part white, now go Select>Modify>Contract.. and put 1px and hit enter, and hit delete. Now grab your Eraser Tool and set it to (Soft Round brush) brush size 100px, brush opacity=100%. Erase 1/4 of the white border we created, set the layer opacity to 50% and you should have a outcome of this:



7 ) Make a new layer and call it "brush detailing", Yes this is the part youll be doing some brushing, but nothing to hard just a little brush bits here and there.

Select your brush (Soft Round Brush), have the foreground color as white #FFFFFF. Brush around the top corners of the base shape, along the sides and the inside vent. Smudge it a bit with the Smudge Tool (Soft Round Smudge Brush, size10px, strength 50%). Just smudg and soften the top corners of the base until youre satisfied with what you have. Change the Blending Mode of the layer to Softlight and bring down the opacity of the layer to 80%.




Fixing Up. If you want.

Go back to "inside vent gradient1" and just erase a bit more of the bottom part of the gradient to make it a bit shorter.



YOURE DONE!

Something I did, but I used the pen tool for my own shape and just did the outline step for the inside vents. Just Expermient, everything you need to know about creating a nice vent for you interface.

Mine.



To get a better understanding of it, you can download the PSD. DOWNLOAD - (The zip file is no longer available. If anyone still has this let us know.)