Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. I'm going to show you how to create this sleek,
shiny pill from scratch.
This is an update of a tutorial I did on an earlier version of Photoshop.
Create a new document by going to File and New. For this example, make its
Width: 1550 pixels, its Height: 870 pixels and its Resolution 150 pixels per inch. The
Color Mode is RGB at 8 bits per channel. Then, click OK.
Go to View and make sure and Snap are checked.
If they're aren't, just click on them. Go to the ruler at the top
and drag out a guide line to the center of your document. It'll snap in place because
we have snap checked. If you don't see it, press Ctrl or Cmd + H. Go to the ruler on
the left and drag out another guide line to the center.
Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer.
In this layer, we'll make the shape of the pill.
Open your Rounded Rectangle Tool.
If your foreground and background colors aren't black and white respectively, press
"D" on your keyboard. Click "Pixels". If your version is CS5 or earlier,
the "Pixel" icon is here.
For its Radius, type in 200 pixels. Click the gear icon and tick "Unconstrained"
and check "From Center". Go to the center of your guide lines and drag out your pill shape.
Double-click on an empty area of the pill's layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Gradient Overlay". The Style is Linear and the Angle is 90 degrees. Click the gradient
bar. Click the lower, right "Stop" and the color box. For its Brightness, type in 50%.
Then, click OK or press Enter or Return for both windows. Click Stroke and the color box.
For the Brightness, type in 50%. Then, close the window.
Make the Size: 8 pixels. The Position is Outside and the Blend Mode is Normal.
Click Inner Glow. Make the Blend Mode: Normal, the
Opacity: 40% and the Size: 35 pixels. Then, click OK. Next, we'll add text onto the pill.
Open your Horizontal Type Tool and press "x" on your keyboard to invert your foreground
and background colors. For my font, I'll use Arial Black, however, you can use whatever
you like. I'll make its size: 125 points, Smooth and "Center Text". Click on your document
and type your text. To center it over your pill, click your Move Tool, and press Ctrl
or Cmd + A. Click the "Align Horizontal Centers" icon
and the "Align Vertical Centers" icon.
To deselect it, press Ctrl or Cmd + D. Next, we'll warp the text to simulate it wrapping
around the contour of the pill. To do this, press "T" to open your Type Tool and click
the "Warp Text" icon. Click "Bulge" and tick "Vertical".
Play with the "Bend" percentage until your text
is approximating the perspective distortion that it would have. Generally,
the longer your text is, the higher the Bend percentage should be. For this example, I
typed in a bend of 20%. Then, click OK. Change its Blend Mode to "Overlay".
Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer.
In this layer, we'll create the highlight on the pill.
Open your "Rounded Rectangle Tool".
Click the gear icon and uncheck "From Center".
Place your cursor at the top point
where your pill is starting to curve around and drag your tool
across approximating this shape. To center it over the top of your pill, press "v" on
your keyboard to open your Move Tool, press Ctrl or Cmd + A
and click the "Align Horizontal Centers" icon.
Then, deselect it.
Let's rename the layer, "Highlight". Double-click on the
thumbnail to open its Layer Style window.
Check, "Blend Interior Effects as Group".
Activating this advanced blending option will give us the effect that we want. Later, I'll
show you what the highlight would look like if we didn't check this option.
Click Gradient Overlay and the gradient bar.
Click the lower, left Stop and the color box.
For Brightness, type in 25%.
Then, close all the windows.
Change the Blend Mode to Screen
and reduce its opacity to 90%.
Let’s see what the highlight would like if we didn't check the"Blend Interior
Effects as Group" feature. As I toggle back and forth, you can see the difference.
Next, we'll split the pill into two halves
and make the right half a bit smaller.
Scroll to the bottom of the Layers panel
and hide the Background layer.
Scroll back up
and make a composite snapshot of your pill
by pressing Ctrl +Shift + Alt + E on Windows
or Cmd + Shift +Option+ E on a Mac.
Alt-click or Option-click on the eyeball next to the composite snapshot
to hide all the other layers. To save space in the Layers panel, let's group all the source
elements that comprise your pill into its own folder. To do this, make the highlight
layer active and Shift-click on the black shape of your pill to highlight all the elements.
Then, press Ctrl or Cmd + G.
Let's name the folder "Elements" and hide it. Make the white background visible.
Make the pill layer active and Ctrl-click or Cmd-click on the thumbnail
to make a selection of its shape. Open your Rectangular Marquee Tool.
Press and hold or Option + Shift
as you drag a selection over the left half of your pill snapping it
to the vertical guide line. Now, we have a selection of just the left half of your pill.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + J to cut and copy the left half of your pill onto its own layer.
Make the full pill active and again, Ctrl-click or Cmd-click on it to make a selection of
its shape. As before, press and hold Alt or Option + Shift as you drag a selection over
the right half of your pill, which makes a selection of just the right half.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + J to cut and copy it onto its own layer.
Now that we have the two halves of
the pill, we can trash the composite snapshot.
We don't need to see the guide lines anymore,
so let's hide them by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + H. We're going to make the right half of
the pill a bit smaller. To do this, open your Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T.
At the top, you'll see percentages for the Width and Height. If we click on the chain
link, whatever we type in one, will be copied into the other. Go to either the Width or
the Height and type in 99%. Notice, they're both the same because the chain link is active.
Press Enter or Return to accept the Transform.
To move the right half of the pill to the left half,
press "v" to open your Move Tool and press the left arrow on your keyboard
until the gap disappears. Next, we'll create the shadow.
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click on the thumbnail of the right half to make a selection of its shape.
Open your Rectangular Marquee Tool,
press and hold Alt or Option, as you drag over the right half of your pill just
a little to the right of the other selection. Then, release your cursor. You should now
see just a sliver of the selection. The shadow will be inside this area.
Open Levels by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + L.
For the Input midtones, type in point 65 and close the window. Then, deselect it.
Next, we'll add the reflection. First, let's merge the two halves into one layer.
To do this, Shift-click on the top layer to highlight it and press Ctrl or Cmd + E. Make
a copy of it and make the lower pill active. Reduce its opacity to 50%.
Go to Edit, Transform and "Flip Vertical".
Press "v" to open your Move Tool and press and hold "Shift" as you
drag the reflection below the solid pill.
We need to close to gap between the shadow and the pill only on the left half.
To move the reflection up one pixel at a time, press
the Up arrow key on your keyboard. There should remain a gap on the right half between the
pill and its reflection. Next, we'll make the reflection gradually fade into the background.
Click the Layer mask icon to make a layer mask next to the shadow. Open your Gradient Tool. Make
sure the Linear Gradient icon is highlighted and the gradient bar is black to white. Place
your cursor a little below halfway down the shadow and press and hold Shift as you drag
up the gradient line to the bottom of the pill. Then, release. Lastly, I'll show you
how to quickly give it color. Make the top layer active and click the Adjustment layer
icon. Click Hue / Saturation.
Check "Colorize" and slide the Saturation a bit to the right
to intensify the color. Then, slide the Hue to a color you like.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!