Making a Simple Gell Button

Here is a simple version of the gel button.

1. Open a new document 150x100 and a white background.

2. Select the Rounded Rectangle tool and in the Property inspector set the roundness to 100.

3. Draw the shape using a size of 115x32. You can adjust the size in the Property inspector by typing in the height and width you want.

4. Use a Linear fill with the colours of #003399 on the left and #00CCFF.

Choose Linear from the Fill category in the Property inspector.

Click on the fill color box to access the gradient dialog box.

Click on the color chips to change the colours.

5. Use the Gradient tool (in the Paint Bucket tool fly-out), press the Shift key and drag from the top of the button to the bottom to make the gradient horizontal instead of vertical.

6. Select the button, choose Edit|Duplicate.

7. Working on the duplicate copy, open the gradient editor:

• Change the fill colour of the Linear gradient to white on both sides.
  
• Change the Transparency box (markers on top) on the right to 0.
  
• Use the Gradient tool and fill from top to bottom.

  

8. Change the Edge to Feather with a value of 5.

9. Double-click the name in the Layers panel and name this object highlight.

10. In the Property inspector change the Width to 100 and the Height to 12. Position the highlight at the top of the button.

11. Add a Gaussian Blur of 1.5 (Effects menu Blur|Gaussian Blur).

12. Select the main button and make another duplicate, name this one glow.

13. Use a fill of Solid and white with a Feather of 5.

14. Change the Blend Mode (top right in Property inspector) to Colour with an opacity of 65%.

15. Change the size to 75x14 and position.

16. To add the text, select the Text tool and type your text. This example used Arial, size 22 with a Smooth Anti-Alias edge.

17. From the Effects menu (+ sign) add a drop shadow (Shadow and Glow|Drop Shadow) to the text using a Distance and Softeness of 4.

18. In the Layers panel, drag the text object below both the highlight and the glow.

19. Select the main button and add a drop shadow with a Distance of 12, Softness of 4 and change the angle to 263.

20. To get the full effect of looking translucent add a textured background. Draw a rectangle to cover the canvas, use a light grey fill with a Hatch4 texture at 50%. Drag this rectangle below the button.

21. Select the button, click on the fill colour box. Change the transparency boxes both to 60-70 percent.

Note: If you want to actually see through the button like this example you’ll need to export the button over the background since this isn’t true transparency.

But if you import this button into Flash and place the PNG file over a textured background you will get true transparency.