Make a Simple Shiny Button

This tutorial will show you very simply how to make a shiny button.
We’re going to make this piece:

No, it’s not Twitter colors with the standard blue, but darker, red Twitter button.

First thing is first, make a square canvas: mine is 200px by 200px.

Use the Rounded Rectangle Tool and start at the top left corner, hold shift, and drag the rectangle out until it reaches the bottom corner.

Add a stroke (outline) to this layer. Double click on the layer in the Layers window. Make it relatively thick, and on the “Inside”. Make the color a darker red.

On a new layer, use the Rectangular Marquee Tool and draw a square holding SHIFT, inside of the darker outer red stroke we just gave it.

While this is still selected, choose the Eyedropper Tool and select the lighter of the two reds that you see. For your other color in your palette, choose an even brighter red color. Now, select the Gradient Tool, making sure it is on a radial/circular gradient. Make sure the brighter red is the foreground color. Click and drag from the center of the square to the outer edge of the dotted line. This will create a circular gradient using the colors we selected!

You might have to do this a couple times to get it just right. You don’t want the bright red to touch the edges at all because you want it to blend with the existing red.

Now, take a Twitter “t” (either one you found or one you’ve created), and place it over the top of all of these layers.

Almost done!

On a new layer above the “t”, we’re going to create a gradient that becomes transparent.

Use the Rounded Rectangle Tool again and draw a rectangle inside of the dark red stroke. Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool and draw a circle/oval around the upper portion of the rectangle. Copy this and paste it on a new layer. Hide the rectangle that we just used to create this new shape.

In the Layers window, click on the Preserve Transparency box. Choose the Gradient Tool, with black and white as the colors. Change it from Radial to Linear. Draw a straight line either from the top to the bottom or bottom to the top. Either way you do it, you want the white at the top and the black at the bottom. To get a straight line, hold down SHIFT as you click and drag.