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Create a Cloud Icon

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About this lesson

As offsite storage is becoming more predominant and trusted, a customized cloud icon can go a long way in communicating to your co-workers and clients.   

Exercise files

Download the Photoshop file used in the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.

Create a Cloud Icon.psd
11.2 MB

Quick reference

Topic

Create a modern cloud icon in Photoshop.

When to use

As offsite storage is becoming more predominant and trusted, a customized cloud icon can go a long way in communicating to your co-workers and clients.  

Instructions

Create the base

  • Create a rounded rectangle which you can find in your Tools Bar
  • Set radius to 200

Add smaller circles to the base

  • Switch on Add to Shape area option in the Options Bar
  • Draw out two circles to create the overall cloud shape

Duplicate the current shape layer (Command- or Control-J shortcut)

  • In the bottom layer make the color a little darker
  • Move it down about 10 pixels

Add layer styles to the top cloud

  • Create gradient overlay: The color on the left: 012543, the color on the right: 1A64B1
  • Bevel And Emboss, Global Light: off, Angle: 90 degrees, Style, Altitude: 50 degrees, Blend Mode: Overlay, Opacity: 35%, Shadow Opacity:0%,
  • Section: Inner Shadow: Blend Mode: Overlay, Color: white, Opacity; 60%, Angle: -90, Use Global Light; Distance: 1, Size: 1
  • Inner Glow, Blend Mode: Blend Mode: Overlay, Color: white, Opacity; 40%, Source, Choke, Size:15,
  • Stroke: Color: Black, size: 1

Add layer styles to the bottom cloud

  • Create gradient overlay: Style: Reflected, Angle:180 degrees, Color (4 stops)  The color on the left: 00 28 50, 55%: 00 28 50 , 65% 00 36 69:  The color on the right 00 28 50
  • Stroke: Color: Black, size: 1, Position: Inside, Fill: Gradient, Angle:180,
  • The color on the left: red, the color on the right: baby blue, add new stop with color: yellow.

Scale the bottom cloud down

  • Enter free transform mode by using your Command- or Control-T shortcut.
  • With your ALT or Option key held down, drag either one of the side nodes inwards.

Add a shadow below

  • Grab your Elliptical Marquee Tool and drag out a very thin oval below
  • Fill with black
  • Filter Menu, down to Blur and then Gaussian Blur: Value 7
  • Opacity 40%

Tip

To add a reflection to the icon:

  • Select both your cloud layers. Hold on your ALT or Option key as well as your Shift key and then drag downwards.
  • Hold down Command or Control and press the letter E to merge those selected layers.
  • From Edit Menu, go down to Transform and then Flip Vertical.
  • Filter Menu, down to Blur and then Gaussian Blur: Value 2, Opacity: 30%
  • Add a Layer Mask (with black as your background color).
  • On the Options Bar choose the Linear Foreground to Background gradient.
  • Drag out a gradient from the top of the reflection to around a quarter of the way down

 

 

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  • 00:04 In todays tutorial, we're going to be creating this futuristic cloud icon in
  • 00:07 Photoshop.
  • 00:08 Of course, the first thing that we need to do is map out the cloud.
  • 00:12 To start, we're going to create the base of the cloud - this can be done with a
  • 00:15 rounded rectangle, which you can find in your Tools bar.
  • 00:18 We want to set the radius at a nice large number, to give us perfectly round
  • 00:22 corners. 200 should work fine.
  • 00:22 When that's set, drag out the rectangle as wide as you want the
  • 00:28 cloud to be.
  • 00:28 Now that the base is complete, let's add the smaller circles.
  • 00:32 Switching over to the Ellipse tool, make sure that the ‘add to shape area’ option is
  • 00:36 active on your Options bar.
  • 00:37 Draw out your first ellipse, which will be the smaller the two on the left side
  • 00:41 to the cloud.
  • 00:42 If you want to move the ellipse around as you're creating it, hold down your
  • 00:45 spacebar.
  • 00:45 When the first ellipse has been created, draw out the second one on the right side.
  • 00:50 This will be the bigger of the two. Make sure you're holding on your Shift key to
  • 00:53 ensure they create a perfect circle.
  • 00:55 Once shapes are in place, you can still move them around. In your Tools bar, grab
  • 00:58 your Path Selection tool -
  • 01:00 it's the black curser icon. Clicking on any one of the created shapes will display
  • 01:04 its path,
  • 01:05 allowing you to shift the shape around if needed. Now, before we tackle the layer styles,
  • 01:09 let’s add a little bit of definition to the shape.
  • 01:11 In the Layers panel, duplicate the current cloud shapes by either tracking
  • 01:15 to the ‘new layer’ icon at the bottom
  • 01:16 or use your Command- or Control-J shortcut. Once that has been duplicated,
  • 01:21 double click on the color box beside the bottom cloud, and darken its color slightly.
  • 01:25 This will help us tell the two apart. When the color has been changed, move the shape
  • 01:29 down around 10 pixels.
  • 01:30 This can be quickly done by holding down the Shift key and then pressing the down
  • 01:33 arrow on your keyboard.
  • 01:35 Perfect! It's now time for layer styles. Let's start with the top cloud by adding a
  • 01:39 gradient overlay.
  • 01:40 In terms of the colors, we’re going to tweak the colors of the original design just a
  • 01:43 little bit,
  • 01:44 creating a more vibrant cloud. The color on the left will be the bottom color:
  • 01:48 I'll use the value 01 25 43.
  • 01:52 The color on the right, which will be the top color,
  • 01:55 will be 1A 64 B1. 42 00:01:59,170 --> 00:02:02,910 The next layer style we're going to add will be a bevel and emboss, to give our
  • 02:02 cloud a bit of an edge.
  • 02:04 In the top section, everything's going to be left as is. Now, down under shading,
  • 02:08 start by turning off global light, then change the angle to 90 degrees,
  • 02:12 and the altitude to 50 degrees. For the highlight mode,
  • 02:16 set the blend mode to Overlay with an opacity of 35%.
  • 02:19 As we're not too concerned about a shadow, turn the shadow opacity
  • 02:23 down to zero. Next, we're going to add an inner shadow, which is
  • 02:26 actually going to act as a sharp highlight at the bottom of our cloud.
  • 02:30 Change the blend mode to Overlay ,set the color as white,
  • 02:33 and the opacity at 60%. When that's done, turn off global light
  • 02:39 and set the angle at -90 degrees, so that the highlight is added at the bottom
  • 02:43 of our shape.
  • 02:43 Finally turned the distance to 1 and the size 0.
  • 02:47 Now, to add an additional glow, let's add an inner glow.
  • 02:50 Once again, change the blend mode to Overlay, the color to white
  • 02:54 and the opacity to 40%. Down below, the only option you need to adjust
  • 02:59 is the size: change that to 15. And finally,
  • 03:02 let's add a stroke, to add a slight outline around the cloud.
  • 03:05 If the color isn't already black, set it to a pitch black,
  • 03:09 and then set the size to 1. This shape's layer styles are complete.
  • 03:13 Let's move on to the shape in the back, which is giving our cloud some depth.
  • 03:16 This shape will only have two layer styles:
  • 03:18 a gradient overlay and a stroke. Before we start adjusting the gradient colors,
  • 03:22 change the style to reflected and the angle to 180 degrees.
  • 03:26 This is going to help achieve a rounded look to the shape. As for the colors, we’re
  • 03:30 going to be using four stops,
  • 03:32 so we want to add two more. Clicking right below the gradient bar will add a
  • 03:35 new color stop.
  • 03:37 We want to place one at around 55% and one
  • 03:40 at 65%. If you're having trouble placing them in the right
  • 03:43 location,
  • 03:44 you can manually enter them at the bottom. The two colors on the left
  • 03:48 and the color on the far right are going to be identical. The value I'm going to use is
  • 03:53 00 28 50. Once one of the colors is set, you can click on the other stops
  • 03:58 and sample the color that you just set. As for the last color, this can act as a
  • 04:03 highlight,
  • 04:03 to give a rounded look to the corners. Make sure to use a lighter value for
  • 04:06 this one
  • 04:07 00 36 69.
  • 04:11 Now if you create a larger or smaller cloud, you may need to adjust the positioning of the
  • 04:15 stops, but that should give you a rounded look to the shape in the back.
  • 04:18 The layer style we're going to add will be a stroke.
  • 04:21 This isn't going to be your typical outline.
  • 04:22 In the top section, change the size to 1, and then the position to Inside.
  • 04:27 Now down below, change the fill type to gradient
  • 04:30 and then when the new options appear, set the angle to 180 degrees.
  • 04:34 As for the colors of this gradient, we're going to use three simple colors.
  • 04:38 The color on the far left will be a nice bright red,
  • 04:42 the far right will be a baby blue and then, adding a new stop in the middle,
  • 04:46 change the color to a bright yellow. This will give you neat colorful shine at the
  • 04:50 bottom of your icon.
  • 04:52 Once the layer styles have been added, you might want to slightly scale the back
  • 04:54 shape horizontally,
  • 04:56 to add to the curved effect. Enter ‘free transform’ mode by using your Command- or
  • 05:00 Control-T shortcut,
  • 05:01 and then with your ALT or Option key held down, drag either one the side nodes inwards.
  • 05:06 Press return or Enter once you've completed the transformation.
  • 05:10 At this point, the main design is complete, but let's go through a few
  • 05:12 optional steps,
  • 05:14 the first being a subtle shadow under the cloud. Creating a new layer below
  • 05:17 both cloud shapes,
  • 05:18 grab your Elliptical Marquee tool and drag out a very thin oval below the
  • 05:22 shapes,
  • 05:23 making sure it's slightly longer than the base of the cloud.
  • 05:26 When the marquee has been created, fill it with black. 108 00:05:29,860 --> 00:05:30,400 If black is your foreground color,
  • 05:30 which you can achieve by pressing the D key on your keyboard, Option/Delete or
  • 05:33 ALT/Backspace
  • 05:34 will fill the selection with black. Now to move away from the shadows
  • 05:38 sharp edges,
  • 05:39 let's blur it a little bit. Head up to the filter menu, down to blur,
  • 05:42 and then ‘Gaussian Blur’. A value of seven should work quite well.
  • 05:46 Now, turn down the opacity to around 40% to finish the shadow.
  • 05:50 Next, let's add a reflection in the Layers panel.
  • 05:54 Select both your cloud layers.
  • 05:54 This can be done by clicking on either one of them and then with your Command or
  • 05:57 Control key held down,
  • 05:59 click on the second one. When they're both selected, we want to duplicate them
  • 06:02 and move them down.
  • 06:03 Hold down your ALT or Option key as well as your Shift key and then drag downwards.
  • 06:08 You should now have a duplicate of your cloud. Because we're not going to be modifying any
  • 06:12 of the layer styles,
  • 06:13 it's safe to merge these two layers together. I don't often recommend
  • 06:16 merging, but in this case, I'll let it slide.
  • 06:17 Hold down Command or Control and press the letter
  • 06:20 E to merge those selected layers. Now we need to flip it.
  • 06:23 Head up to the Edit menu, go down to transform and then flip vertical.
  • 06:28 Place it right below the top cloud once it's been flipped.
  • 06:31 Now, just like we do with the shadow,
  • 06:32 let's blur the reflection slightly. Again, head up to the filter menu,
  • 06:35 blur, Gaussian Blur. This time the value of two should work well.
  • 06:39 Once its been blurred, turn the opacity down to 30% and then add a layer mask.
  • 06:42 This will help us fade out the reflection. Once a layer mask has
  • 06:46 been added, grab your gradient tool
  • 06:48 and make sure white is your foreground color and black is your background color.
  • 06:52 On the Options bar, choose the linear foreground to background gradient.
  • 06:55 Now drag out a gradient from the top of the reflection to around a quarter of the
  • 06:59 way down.
  • 06:59 And that should do it.

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