For some of us, Longhorn’s Aero ‘Transparent Glass’ style is wonderful, and for those who wanted to use this style for any of their designs, this simple guide is for you. Read on and find out. Note that this guide is made for Photoshop 7.0 and above.
(‘Longhorn’ is a codename of Microsoft’s upcoming operating system, which is due in 2006. You can get more information about it on Paul Thrurrott’s Supersite for Windows)
Let’s get started!
First off, create a transparent document of the size you want. In this example, I will be using the 500×400 size:
Now, using the shape tool, choose the “rounded rectangle” shape. Set the radius of the corners to 20px, and set your foreground color to white.
Then, draw the shape out on the canvas, make it looks something like this :
Next, create a new Layer (press Ctrl+Shift+N if you love shortcut keys), in this layer, create a similar shape, but this time, make it black, and about 15px corner radius, and slighly smaller than the one earlier:
Right now, it looks nothing but a bunch of rounded black & white rectangle stacked together. Don’t worry, let’s make it into the look we wanted. To start here, first, right click on each of the layers, and choose ‘Rasterize Layer‘:
![Blending Options](http://fird.kucing-kelabu.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/aero9.gif" alt="Rasterize" /></p>
<p> Once you get this done, right click on the top layer (the black rectangle layer), this time choose ‘<strong>Blending Options</strong>‘, and apply the following effects :<br />
<img src=)
1 - Apply Drop Shadow
2 - Apply Gradient Overlay
Now, your image should look like this:
Okay, we’re halfway there! One more effect application and we’re done! Now, lets work on the bottom layer. Apply the following effects to the layer:
1 - Apply Stroke
2 - Apply Inner Glow
3 - Make it see-through
In order to achieve this, go to the Layer palette and adjust the ‘Fill‘ amount to about 20%
Well, right now we can’t really see anything much. Lets try something!
First Merge Visible this image, and open another image of your choice (maybe a wallpaper, scenery, etc):
On the ‘Aero’ image, Select All (Ctrl+A) and Copy (Ctrl+C), then go to the new image you just opened, and Paste (Ctrl+V)!
There! now you have your Aero look! Let your creativity run wild!
I hope this simple guide helps those who needed it. If you have any questions or suggestions, please use the comments :)
