RGBQuest - Smooth Shapes

Rob Weis

Garren Wood

Smooth Shapes

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	Latest News: »8.1.03 Wallpaper section is now up! More wallpapers coming soon! »7.4.03 The tutorials section has been transferred and updated.

Introduction

Smoothing shapes is essential for buttons and interfaces. Heres an easy way to smooth edges and corners

Step #1: Setup

Begin with a new document that is about 300 X 300. Select the Channel tab and create a new channel.

In your new channel, draw a square and fill it with white. Use the marquee tool to and draw out your shapes, filling them with black as you go, (circles, shapes, etc).

Step #2: Softening

Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur>, Blur your channel until it looks similar to the result shown. I blurred my channel twice using 4.5. Experiment with the level of blur you use, but don't over blur the image so that you lose the actual content.

Experiment with these settings to adjust the amount of roundness you want. Less blur, less round!

Step #3: Smoothing

Lets smooth out the blur so that we get our nice round shapes!

Go to levels. Image>Adjust>Levels or use the shortcut key CTRL-L.

Inside the levels, change your INPUTS to read 120, 1.00, 140. You can experiment with these settings, but I've found that these work best.

Conclusion:

All done smoothing! Now, all you have to do is start a new layer, grab a selection (CTRL-Click) of your new smoothed channel, and fill it with a texture or color to start an interface, button, or other graphic!