Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. I'm going to show you how to design and create
your own, custom manhole cover! I provided this PSD template for you to download, so
you can follow along. Its link is located in this video's description or project files.
If you don't see the guidelines that I already set up, press Ctrl or Cmd + H.
Click the new Layer icon to make a new layer.
Open your "Custom Shape Tool" and choose “Pixels”.
Open your custom shapes.
Click the gear icon to open your Shape Presets and click "Symbols". When you see
this message, click OK to replace your current shapes with the shapes from Symbols.
Click this shape, which is called "Registration Target 2". Click the gear icon at the top
and make sure "Define Proportions" is ticked and "From Center" is checked. Place your cursor
on the center of the guidelines and drag out the shape to the edge of the manhole cover.
Then, release. Click the New Layer icon and open your Elliptical marquee Tool. Go to the
center and press and hold Alt or Option + Shift as you drag out a selection approximately
this size. Go to Edit and Stroke. Make the Width: 10 pixels and tick "Outside". Then,
click OK or press Enter or Return. Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the thumbnail of the ring to
make a selection of its shape. Drag the ring layer to the trash, since we now have its selection.
Press the "Delete" key on your keyboard to delete the area inside the selection.
Deselect it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + D. Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer. Go
to the center of the guidelines, press & hold Alt or Option + Shift and drag out another
circular selection approximately this size. As before, go to Edit and Stroke. This time,
make the Width 15 or 20 pixels. Then, click OK or press Enter or Return. As before, Ctrl-click
or Cmd-click the thumbnail of the ring to make a selection of its shape. Then, trash
the ring layer. Delete the area inside the selection and then, deselect it.
Using the same steps, make one more ring - this time with a Width of 20 or 30 pixels. Go to the
center and drag out a selection approximately this size. Delete the area inside the selection
and deselect it. Create a new layer and drag out another circular selection approximately this size.
Go to Edit and Stroke. This time, click "Inside" and make the Width: 5 pixels.
Then, deselect it. Create a new layer and using the same steps make an inner ring approximately
this size. Name the top layer, "Inner Ring" and the layer below it, "Outer Ring".
Make Layer 1 active. We're going to erase these 4 shapes and eventually replace them with holes.
Open your Eraser Tool and open your Eraser Picker. Make the size: 15 pixels and
the Hardness, Opacity and Flow: 100%. In this row, erase the left, right, top and bottom shapes.
Next, we'll place text on a circular path between the 2 rings. First, make the
top layer active and make a new layer above it.
Open your Ellipse Tool and choose "Path".
Go to the center and press and hold Alt or Option + Shift as you drag out a circular
path a little past the inner ring. Open your Horizontal Tool and pick a font. I'm using
"Agency FB Bold". If you'd like to use it as well, I provided its link in this video's
description or project files. I'll make its size approximately 18 points, Smooth and Center
Alignment. Go to the path and when you see that your cursor has a curvy line in the center,
left-click your mouse or pen and type out your text. We want to move our text, so the
bottom of it is flush with the path. To do this, highlight your text and go to Window
and Character to open the Character panel. Make the "Baseline Shift": 0 pts. Now, the
bottom of your text should be aligned with the path. To adjust the space between the
characters, drag the "Tracking" icon to the left or right. To rotate the text, click below
the first character and press and hold Alt or Option as you press the left or right arrow
key on your keyboard. To type in a line at the bottom, click your Move Tool and open
Paths. If you don't see the panel, go to Window and Paths. Click "Work Path" and open back
the Layers panel. Press "T" to open back your Type Tool and when you see the same icon,
type out your text. Most likely, it'll be upside down. To make it right side up, open
your Direct Selection Tool and when your cursor has 2 black arrows in the middle, drag your
text above the path. To move your text so the top of it is flush with the path, press
"T" to open back your Type Tool and drag it over your text. Drag the Baseline Shift icon
to the right or left until the top of your text is flush with the path. Open your Move
Tool. Next, I'll place an icon in the center. If you want, you can type in text instead.
If you choose to use an icon, make sure it's simple and one color. If there's a background,
you'll need to remove it. I've covered how to do this in many of my tutorials.
To place it onto your manhole document,
press Ctrl or Cmd + A to select it and Ctrl or Cmd + C to copy it. Open your manhole document
and press Ctrl or Cmd + V to paste the icon onto it.
To resize it to fit inside the inner ring, use your Transform Tool.
Name your icon or text.
We can close the Character panel, since we won't need it anymore.
To save space in the Layers panel,
let's place all the design elements that comprise the manhole design into a folder.
To do this, Shift-click Layer 1
to make all these layers active and press Ctrl or Cmd + G. Reduce the Fill to 0%.
Doing this make all the layers in the folder invisible, but it'll retain the full visibility of all
the effects that we'll be adding to layers inside the folder. Double-click the folder to
open its Layer Style window. Click "Bevel & Emboss". Make the Style: Inner Bevel, the
Technique: Chisel Hard and the Direction: Up. The Size is 6 pixels, the Angle is 120
degrees and the Altitude is 30 degrees. The Highlight Mode is Linear Dodge with an opacity
of 35%. The Shadow Mode is Multiply and its opacity is 70%. Click "Outer Glow". The Blend
Mode is Color Burn, the Opacity is 40% and color is black. The Technique is "Precise"
and the Spread and Size are both 15%. Click "Drop Shadow". The Blend Mode is Linear Burn,
the color is black and the opacity is 25%. Uncheck Global Light and make the Angle 145
degrees. The Distance is 6 pixels and the Size is 4 pixels. Then, click OK.
Next, we'll add the holes. Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer. Open your Elliptical Marquee
Tool and go to the center of the left space that you erased earlier. Drag out a circular
selection approximately this size. Fill the selection with any color. I'll fill it with
black. Then, deselect it. Reduce the Fill to 0% and place your cursor on "Effects". Press
and hold Alt or Option as you drag a copy of the Effects to the thumbnail above it.
Double-click "Bevel & Emboss" and change the Direction to "Down". Uncheck “Drop Shadow.
Then, click OK. Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the thumbnail of the left hole to make a selection
of its shape. Open your Zoom Tool and drag over the hole to zoom into it. Go to Select
and Transform Selection. Go to a corner and drag in the selection to the point where the
bevel begins. Then, press Enter or Return. Make a new layer and fill the selection with
black. Then, deselect it. To fit the document back onto your canvas, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0.
Place the top two layers into a folder using the same step that you used earlier.
Name it "Left hole" and make a copy of it. Name this layer, "Right hole". Press "v" to
open your Move Tool and press and hold "Shift" as you drag the hole straight across to the
center of the space you erased on the right. Make a copy and name it, "Top hole".
Drag it to the space at the top. Again, make a copy of it and name it "Bottom hole". As before,
press and hold Shift as you drag the hole straight down to the space at the bottom.
If you'd like to increase the size of the graphic, text and rings in the center, first,
let's place all of the hole folders into one folder and then name it.
Open the folder below it and scroll down to Layer 1. Click Layer 1 to make it active. Open your Elliptical
Marquee Tool, go to the center and drag out a selection a bit past the first set of radial
shapes. Press the Delete key on your keyboard to delete them. then, deselect it.
Click the Outer Ring to make it active, scroll up and Shift-click the top icon or text to make it
active, as well as all the layers in-between.
Open your Transform Tool and drag out the graphics to enlarge them.
To hide the guidelines, press Ctrl or Cmd + H.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!