Red Chrome Panels

By Jerry Cotter

Introduction

Learn how to create an impressive red chrome effect, using Photoshop.

Creating the panel

Open Photoshop, create a new document (size doesn’t matter but give yourself plenty of space to work in). Create a new layer. On this new layer, draw a rectangular outline using the Rectangular Marquee tool.

We now want to round the corners of this selection. We will use the smoothen option in the select menu (select > modify > smooth) with a radius of 5 pixels. Your document should now look like figure 1.

Selection that has been smoothed by 5 pixels.

Figure 1

Red chrome

With the selection still active, choose the Linear gradient tool. Set the Gradient foreground colour as #873336 and the background colour as #BE5E61 and close the dialog.

Whilst holding down the shift key, drag the gradient tool over the selection from below to above the selection.

Embellish your work

You can now deselect the selection. Go to the layer styles and apply the following layer styles to your layer.

Drop shadow, blend mode: multiply, opacity: 75%, angle: 90°, distance: 3px, spread: 0, size: 7px with a 45° contour.

Inner shadow as above except angle at 120°, use global light and distance set to 0.

Bevel and emboss, style: inner bevel, technique: smooth, depth: 1%, direction: down, size: 29px and soften: 7px.

Stroke size: 1px, position: outside, blend mode: normal, opacity: 23%, fill: solid white.

Your work should now look like figure 2.

Figure 2

Creating the borders and dividers

Make a new layer and create a 1px black horizontal line using the Line tool (hold down shift to make it straight). Zoom in close, duplicate the layer and move it up exactly 1px so that it is sitting on top of the first line. Fill it with white, using the paint bucket.

Merge the two layers (CTRL+E) and apply the following layer styles.

Drop shadow, blend mode: normal, opacity: 80%, angle: 120° and using global light, distance: 0, spread: 0, size: 4px and a 45° contour.

Bevel and Emboss, style: emboss, technique: smooth, depth: 1%, direction: up, size: 9px, soften: 1px.

Figure 3

Your line should now look like figure 3. You can copy this layer several times, cut it and rotate it to fit your panel as a border.

Figure 4

Your work should now look like figure 4. You can also use the line as a divider, as shown in figure 5.

Figure 5

End of tutorial

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You can download a Photoshop document.