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Apple has so many beautiful products. Their product designs consistently attain a sought-after status, which distinguishes them as an innovative company. In this tutorial, I’ll teach you how to make a shiny new apple remote.
Step 1
First of all, create a new document and fill it with black.
Step 2
Make a new shape like the next image using the Rounded Rectangle Tool with a Radius of 5px or so. You decide. Name it “Remote shape.”
Step 3
Make a selection of this Remote Shape. Create a new layer, and using the Gradient Tool, drag from left to right. Use the settings in the image below, with left color (#ffffff) and right color (#e4e4e4). The gradient is not very strong, but it is needed to stand out a bit.
Step 4
Now we will add some simple shades to the shape to make it look more real. Make a white shape similar to the image below. Make sure it is higher than the remote shape. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and use a small Radius.
Step 5
Now using the same technique, make a darker shape. Make it thinner than the white one. Apply a Gaussian Blur using the settings below.
Step 6
Now get the white and the grey shapes closer. Move them to the left side of the remote shape. Next duplicate them, rotate them, and move them to the right side.
Step 7
Now we need to make the upper part of the remote. To do this, you need to make a new shape using the Rounded Rectangle Tool. Fill it with black. Then place it behind the remote shape.
Step 8
We need to mask the white and gray shapes for the remote. Ctrl-click (MAC: Command + Click) on the remote layer to make a selection. Then Ctrl + Shift + Click (MAC: Command + Shift + Click) to add the remote head to the selection. Make sure you have selected one of the shade layers in the Layer Palette. Go to Layer -> Layer Mask -> Reveal Selection. Do this for each shade.
Step 9
Now crank down the opacity of the gray and white shapes till it looks something like this.
Step 10
You can make the background a light gray color because now we can see the product better. The shape of the remote is finished. Now we need to add some buttons to it.
First we will make the MENU button. Start by making a circle using the Ellipse Tool and the settings below.
Step 11
Now we need to make the Play, Pause, Fast-Forward, Fast Backwards, Volume Up, and Volume Down buttons. Start by making a new circle above the first one, making sure it’s bigger.
Next, we need to subtract a circle out of this one. To do this, hold Alt and Minus (MAC: Option and Minus). At this point, a Minus will appear near your cursor. This indicates that you will subtract a piece out of your shape. Click and subtract a circle starting from the middle of this big circle while holding the Alt and Minus (MAC: Option and Minus) and dragging a circle (press shift to make a perfect circle). Look at the images below to see the result.
Step 12
Fill this shape with (#f6f6f8) and add the settings below to the Blending Options.
Step 13
Now make the last button, which will be used as the Play/Pause button. You need to make it exactly where you just subtracted a circle. After you make it, fill it with (#f6f6f8) and use the settings below.
Step 14
We need to add the text that goes on the buttons now. Use Arial Black for the font and this color: (#c4c4c4). For the shapes, use the same color. Make them by using the Rectangle Tool and Custom Shape Tool. Do the same thing for the Volume and Forward/Backwards buttons.
Step 15
Now it’s time to make the buttons a shinier. We do this by simply making a selection of the Play/Pause button by Ctrl + Click on the button. Then subtract from this selection with the Elliptical Marquee Tool. Hold Alt and drag a circle over the selection. Make a new layer. Move it on top of the other layers. Fill the selection with white.
Step 16
Next repeat Step 14, but this time do this shiny effect for the volume button.
Step 17
The remote is finished. Now we need to complete a very important step. The way we present the products is very important, so we need to make a simple and attractive background.
Make a new layer and place it behind the remote. Using the Gradient Tool, set the Radial Gradient from black to white. Make sure that Reverse is selected. Now click and drag from the middle outward. Next, decrease the Opacity of this layer to 33 percent.
Step 18
Now duplicate the remote folder. Merge this copied remote into one single layer. Do this by right-clicking the copied remote folder and then selecting Merge Group. Next, rotate the copied remote upside down. Move the gradient layer you just made over it. Then select the remote layer again. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set the Blur to 2 percent. Next move the copied remote lower.
Step 19
Make a selection. Create a new layer. Make a shiny floor for the remote to reflect onto using the Gradient Tool. Click and drag from up to down. Move this layer over the remote copy.
Step 20
Now make the shadow that the remote will reflect onto this floor. Make a shape similar to mine. Move it on top of the gradients. Then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Use 8%. Next decrease its Opacity to 7 percent. Well done! You just finished the design.
Bonus
Below is a bonus for you guys. It covers how to simply change the color of the remote in a few seconds.
Go inside the remote folder and look for the Remote Shape layer. Above it is the Gradient layer that you need to make invisible. Now go back to the Remote Shape. Chose a color for the foreground color. Then press Alt + Backspace. Tadaaa! You have a red remote.
Do the same thing for the play button layer and the volume button layer. Lastly, decrease the opacity of the shiny volume button and shiny play button. And of course make the reflection for this one as you did for the first remote. Good Luck!
Conclusion
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By Constantin Potorac
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Awesome stuff!!
Me want more! lol
looks awesome, thank you very much :-)
Cool!! Try to do the Iphone!!!!
nice tut, great work on the glare :)
;). I am happy you like it guys.
well done, very nice
thanks a lot
cool!
very cool. liked the DOF in the final comp.
more please. :)
well done constantin!!
nice techniques!
Learned something cool today x)
thank you constantin!
white is great.
Very nice effect.
Good job Constantin.
Nice tutorial.
Looks great man great tutorial . . . it’s a little late now in romania but I can’t wait to try it out tomorow
Hey Everybody! Constantin did a great job on this tut. I’m helping out with posting. At first I had posted an early version of the tut with only 13 steps. There are actually 20 and a bonus. Its updated now in all its glory. Now you can enjoy the last 7 steps and the bonus rapid coloring as well. Thx.
Very good job!
Awesome tutorial! I loved this one :D
Very nice tutorial! And very descriptive!
I got to the end and I was putting the text in and it wouldn’t want to go in the middle of my circles. Lol, Not sure why it can’t simply move the text to the center of the circle.
Oh well, I had fun trying to make it. :P
Beautiful, beautiful work.
Its very clear and simple steps and it would come up a great work! Thanks for sharing. :)
nice.. thx for sharing
This is awesome, I was just looking at my apple remote the other day thinking that I should try to make it.
clear explanation and simple. thanks!
Great work!
Nice one.
Just something that bothers my eye ;-) :
the upper part of the remote present a perspective angle different from the rest of the composition. Its corners seem to go down which suggest that the remote is seen from far below…
Nono.
Thank you very much Sean for updating the tutorial. ;)
nice work,
someday i’d like to see you tech us how to do a notebook.
Hey there Constantin – great tutorial – great result. Thanks very much for posting!
Great tutorial, thanks!
nice tutorial ! thanks a lot!
very cool reflection effect too.
as we say in french ” du beau travail” ;)
Thank you all. Merci beaucoup Daniel.
Merci beaucoup Daniel.
Good tutorial!
Though im getting tired of saying that, can we just request tutorials now?
I need more tutorials on Web Designing and Layouts. You guys have only ever done one.
:)
Hey Ali. I think I will be writing some great tutorials about Layouts soon.
Just to find some free time and I will see what I can do.
Bare with me. ;)
hey Constantin, great tut…i found it very simple to follow and very detailed…great work!
I think you should do one standing and one laying down sideways behind it :P
Great Tut mate
even better with the last 7 steps..
Nice tutorial. A little bit difficult to understand, but very nice ;)
Amazing work, the classic white version is definitely the best.
Keep up the good job!
Hmm… Ok it looks good but I’m just wondering why do you often teach people to mostly use raster/rasterized layers? It’d be way faster/easier to work with vector gradients, paths, shapes etc. You could then change colors, reflections, shades with a flick of a finger. And what’s more important scale it to whichever resolution you need. And yes of course sometimes it’s faster to work with raster layers but then once you changed it, you can’t really go back/modify it as you like. I respect the author of this tutorial but I just don’t get it why rasters. Especially in this kind of object, eh? :)
Awesome…
thanks for efforts, much appreciated you.
It’s a great tutorial, but there’s just one thing that’s bothering me. The reflection with the 3 remotes isn’t correct. Shouldn’t all the reflections start directly beneath the remote. Since the middle one is more infront of the others, you probably made the reflection that way. But I think you should imagine what it looks like in reality. A reflection starts directly under it’s object (it’s should at least in this example).
Next to that, I really love this website and what it does. Great way to share techniques and help others get better in Photoshop and in Design overall.
Awesome!
Thank you!
Nice!
The reflections in the final image with the 3 remotes are wrong!
You can’t just merge those 3 remotes into one layer and flip it vertically.
Way cool! I love how you did the lighting on the sides! Very nice – thank you!
Not bad. But the white is the best of them.
Yes I know. I like the white the most.
The other colors are just for fun. ;)
DAMN!!
Very COOL…!!!!
I love this such tuts !!
(^_ ^ )
Thanks..
Hey Arthur,
You are wrong about the reflections as they are meant to be that way. If you look closer at the final image you will see that actually the remotes are floating and in this case the reflections will not start directly beneath. :p