This tutorial is to give information on having a soft button effect taking the examples of flags belonging to different countries. Also note that the flags are not custom created ones. They are original images that were taken for the purpose of samplingn the button effect. The flags can also be easily created. For some of the flags, i would provide tips on creating them but once again, the purpose of this article is not to create custom designs of flags.

Overview :

STEP 1 : Draw a circle of anu size using Ellipse shape tool. Doyuble click the shape icon in layers box and set the fill color for thsi shape as WHITE. Now right click the layer and select the option > Blending options or go to Layer menu > Layer Style > Blending options and select the sub option called > Bevel and Emboss. Make the following adjustments. The Bevel is the feature that contributes to the button effect

Bevel and Emboss settings > The bevel used is = ' EMBOSS ' and technique used is = Smooth with Depth= 180 % and direction set to = UP. The size of the Bevel is = 25 px and soften level is 15 px. The contour used is = ' Cone Inverted contour ' and Highlight color is white and mode is = Screen and shadow color is Pink ( # e2bdbd ) and mode is = multiply and both set at 75 %. The bevel is placed at an angle of 120 degree.

STEP 2 : Let us first start by importing different images of flags. I used the flags of countries namely > India, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand and China. Browse the net for suitable images and drag the images into a new document of width = 700 px and height also equals = 700 px. Once all the required flag images are dragged into the current document, each flag would be placed in seperate layer. Name each layer with the country name, the flag belongs to. Hence you will have five layers namely > India, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand and China.

STEP 3 : Now create copies of all the above five image layers and keep the originals for reference in future. You can make the duplicates by selecting all the layers ( CTRL + click the layers to select multiple layers ate a time OR SHIFT + select multiple images at a time) and then use the shortcut, CTRL + J . You will have five duplicate copies. Name the Duplicate copies as > India_1, Singapore_1, Japan_1, New Zealand_1 and China_1. Let us make changes to these duplicate copies individually.

STEP 4 : First let us select the Indian flag image layer which is present in the layer > India_1. Use the Elliptical Marquee tool and draw a cirular selction region ( SHIFT + click and drag to get a perfect circle). See that the height of the circle is in such a way, that the circle fits within the height of the flag. Refer to the image below to understand how the circular region should be positioned. Position this circle in the center. To move the selection, you can not use the Move tool but, select the Elliptical Marquee tool and move the circle.

STEP 5 : Before we delete the excess portion, we have to save the circle shape, as we are going to use the same size of buttons for all the flags also. Se, keeping the circular selection as it is, go to SELECT menu > SAVE SELECTION  and give a name to the selection, in this case = Circle. Once saved, we can use this selection to load it to be used again, even after we exit the photoshop document. We can use this feature any number of time in future.

STEP 6 : Now that the circle shape is saved, press the DELETE option and the excess portion of the flag except the circular region is removed. Now Right click the Bevel layer and select the option > Copy layer style. Now, come back to India_1 layer and right click and select > Paste layer Style. The Bevel is applied to this circular flag image.

STEP 7 : Now select the Singapore_1 layer and go to Select menu > Load selection > under name, select the name = Circle. Click the marquee tool and then you can move this circular selection imported. Position this circular selection over the Singapore flag on the top left corner of the flag, in such a way, that the design is not cut. Now use the Delete option to crop the excess portion and have only a circular region. Right click this layer and select > Paste Layer Style to apply the Bevel.

• Tip 1 : (a.) If you want to create a custom flag, you can use the Rectangle shape tools and draw two rectangles consisting of colors red and white to form the two colors of the flag. You can change the color anytime for these. (b.) Another method is using the rectangular marquee tool and drawing a rectangular region and filling it with red color using ALT + Backspace by first setting the color in the color box. You can then use ALT + click the rectangle and drag to get a duplicate copy. Position this at the bottom. Changing colors in this method is not easy. You might have to first select the color using magic wand tool and then use the same Alt + backspace to fill the color.

• Tip 2 : For the Moon and the Star shapes, you can use the Custom Shape Tool in the tools box and use the default available > CRESCENT MOON and 5 POINT STAR. Do not use any other related shapes as the fill for those would be different. After drawing the moon and the stars, you can fill it with white color by clicking twice the shape layer. You can also use the Free Transform Tool (CTRL + T) to scale or rotate. For the moon, you can use the Direct selection tool and select particular points and adjust them to get a thinner shape.

STEP 8 : Next for the New Zealand _1 layer, it is not easy to use the circular selection created and deleting the excess portion,  as the whole area is distributed from top to bottom. Hence, instead of deleting the excess portion, let us stretch the give area.  Use the Rectangular Marquee tool, draw a square or rectangle and press DELETE to remove excess portion. This area is SMALLER than other circular flags created above. Now using other circular  images as reference, we are going to stretch the small image ot a circular shape. Bring this NewZealand_1 layer image over the circle images created above in step 7 etc,  and use the Transform tool  (CTRL + T) and right click and select WARP. Click in the corners and drag them to fit into a circle. Refer to the image on hoe to resize it.

Tip : (a.) To create stars you can use the same Custom shape tool and 5 point star shape. As seen in image, the red stars are highlighted by white border. For this, right click the star shapes and select Blending options > STROKE and there you can set the stroke color to white and increase the stroke size accordingly. (b.) You can also create the designs with the help of guides and drawing using pen tool.

STEP 9 : For Japan_1 layer, follow the same STEPs 4, 5 and 6 like in creating India button. And for the China _1 layer, follow the same procedure as mentioned in STEP 7 (Not tips) for Singapore button. Check that you have placed Bevel for all the five layers by using, right click > Paste layer style. Once Bevel is applied, position them accordingly. Now that the buttons are created, let us create a background.

Procedure for creating the background :

STEP 1 : Go to the bottom of all layers and above the Background layer, Create a new layer by selecting the 'New layer' icon in layers box. Name this layer = Background 1. Now set the fore ground color in the color box under tools as = # a8df28 ( Light green shade) and set the Background color as = # cccc33 (Green shade). For this layer > Background 1, use shortcut = ALT + Backspace to fill the Background layer 1 with foreground layer.

STEP 2 : For this layer, let us apply Filter effect. Go to FILTER menu > FILTER GALLERY > TEXTURE > GRAIN and set the Intensity to 25 and Contrats to = 50. You will notice that the green color we set as background color in color box, is the color of the dots applied due to the effect. The Blend mode of this Background 1 layer is normal.

STEP 3 : Create another new layer above the Background layer using the 'New layer' icon. Name this duplicte copy as = Background 2. Set the fore ground color in the color box under tools as = # a510ab ( Purple shade) and set the Background color as = # cccc33 (Green shade). Next selecting the Background 2 layer, go to FILTER menu > FILTER GALLERY > TEXTURE > STAINED GLASS and set the cell size to = 15, Border thickness to = 5, and the Light Intensity to = 5. Set the blend mode of this layer in layer box to = ' EXCLUSION '.

STEP 4 : For applying border to the Background, use rectangular marquee tool and make a rectangular selection in such a way that you leave some margin on all four sides and select the entire area. Next use SELECT menu > REVERSE option and you will see an area is selected. Now create a new layer and name it = BORDER, and keeping the selection as it is, set the foreground color as = # e12d5b ( Pink shade).  Use ALT + Backspace to fill the Border layer. The result is that, the selection is filled with Blue color in the new layer created = BORDER.

STEP 5 : Set the foreground color in color box as =  # e12d5b ( Pink shade) and the back ground color is set to = Black. Now go to FILTER menu > FILTER GALLERY > TEXTURE > PATCHWORK and set the Square size to = 4, and the Relief to = 8. Set the Blend mode of this layer to = ' OVERLAY '. See that the layers are arranges in the following order.