This is my first tutorial ever so, good luck to me and I hope Everyone can understand it well enough. This is also my fist post As a member of the Forums so, Hello Everyone...I hope I can contribute as much as these forums will contribute to me.

Since I am a Penny Pincher I will be using the GIMP which is like a free version of Adobe Photoshop. If you Never Heard of the GIMP, you can get info on it here. If you use Photoshop, you should be able to use this tutorial as well.(with some minor changes)

Ok, on to the Tutorial:

The end product will look like so:



And can be turned into:



The Shape of the block was inspired by Destine Designs "Night Vision" theme and the colors were inspired by the image below.



Now, the first step is to fire up the GIMP and create a new image with the dimensions of 250x350.

Bucket Fill the White Background with an almost black color (I chose Red 35 Green 35 blue 35). It needs to be just bright enough so that the block's drop shadow will be visible.

Add a new, transparent layer and name it "Gray Background". With the "Gray Background" layer selected, use the rectangular select tool and select a 180x260 region. Use the Bucket too to fill that region with a light gray color (i used red 100 green 100 blue 100). Now, cut the selection (ctrl+x), paste it (ctrl+v) and anchor it(with select tool click the image outside of the selection) so that its nicely centered in the image.



Zoom into one of the corners of the gray background layer and using the elliptical tool hold down shift and drag from the corner into the image a selection of 15x15 pixels.



Do the same for the remaining 3 corners.
Now, use the rectangular select tool to "add to the current selection" (holding down shift while selecting) all of the gray rectangle, except for the corners.



Invert the selection (ctrl+i) and cut it (ctrl+x) and now you should have rounded corners.



Duplicate the Gray Background layer and name it Drop Shadow 1. Check the Keep transparency box and bucket fill the image with Black.



Dupliacte the Drop Shadow 1 layer and name it Lift Shadow 1. Move the Drop shadow 1 layer below the Gray Background layer and un-check the Keep Transparency box.

With Drop Shadow 1 layer selected, Right-Click on the image and select Layer>Transparency>Alpha to selection. Next Right-Click on the image again and select Select>Grow and grow the selection by 2. Bucket fill the selection with black and select none (ctrl+shift+A). Right-Click the image again and select Filter>Blur>Gaussion Blur and blur with a radius of 10.0



Select the select by color tool (shift+O), make sure Feather edges and select transparent areas is Checked and set the radius to 10.0



Select the Lift Shadow 1 Layer, use the select by color tool on the black rectangle and cut the selection (ctrl+x). If you did everything correctly your image should now look like this:



Duplicate the Gray Background layer, name it Green Background and move it above Lift Shadow 1. Keep the new layer Transparent and bucket fill it with a greenish color(r:77 g:81 b:54)

Turn off the Views of all the layers except for the Green Background and Orriginal Background Layer by clicking the EYE icon next to each layer.



Select the Green Background Layer and zoom into the top left corner of the rectangle and using the rectangle selection tool, make a 10x35 selection over the corner.



Select the Eraser tool and use these settings:



Erase some of the rectangle like so:



Select none (ctrl+shift+A), scroll down to the bottom left corner of the rectangle, make a 10x35 selection again and erase like so:



Select none and selct the rest of the image and cut.



Do the same thing on the right of the rectangle.



Now, you can turn on the views of all the layers.
Duplicate the Green Background layer, check keep transparency, bucket fill it with black and name it Drop Shadow 2. Duplicate Drop Shadow 2 and name it Lift Shadow 2. Move Drop Shadow 2 below Green Background. Un-check keep ransparency and give it a gaussion blur with a radius of 10.0.

Select Lift Shaodw 2 and the Select by color Tool. Select the black shape and cut.

Your image should now look like this:



Create a new layer and call it Yellow Background. Use the Rectangle selection tool to make a 150x192 selection. Bucket fill the selection with a yellowish color (r:222 g:174 b:14). cut, paste and anchor to get it center. Round off the corners by 10 pixels using the elliptical tool. (the same way we rounded off the corners of the Gray Backgroung but we're using 10x10 pixels instead of 15x15 pixels).

Duplicate the Yellow Background Layer, name it Drop Shadow 3. Check Keep Transparency and bucket fill with black. Duplicate Drop Shadow 3 and name it Lift Shadow 3. Move Drop Shadow 3 below Yellow Background, un-check Keep Transparency and give it a gaussion blur with a radius of 5.0 not 10.0. Go back to the Lift Shadow 3 Layer and use the Select By Color Tool with a Feather Radius of 5.0, select the black shape and cut.



Create a new layer and name it Blue Background. Make a rectangular selection 142x184 and bucket fill it with a dark blue color (r:35 g:46 b:71). Cut, Paste and Anchor to get it center. Round off the corners 10x10.
Duplicate the Blue Background Layer, name it Drop Shadow 4, check Keep Transparency and fill it with black. Duplicate Drop Shadow 4, name it Lift Shadow 4 and fill it with WHITE. Move Drop Shadow 4 Below Blue Background, Un-check Keep Transparency and give it a gaussion blur of 5.0. Select the Select by Color Tool and select the white shape in Lift Shadow 4. Right-Click the image and select Select>Shrink and shrink by 2 pixels. Cut the selection and in the mode box, set the Lift Shadow 4 layer to Overlay.


Well, there it is. The final Image is the first image on this post. This is a good basic Template for you to do with what you'd like. You can change the color theme, add tech lines, give some of the areas a brushed metal affect, add screws etc.

Thank you for any input on my tutorial writing abilities.