Recreating electronic devices in Photoshop is a great way to learn. Today, we will demonstrate how to create a Motorola Droid style phone in Photoshop. Let’s get started!
Step 1
Start by creating a new 2000 x 2000 px canvas and save it as "phone.psd." Use the Pen Tool to the outer silhouette of the device. Make sure it is black. Name it MAIN BG.
Step 2
With the Pen Tool, draw a shape for each main section of the phone. Notice that we are leaving a small gap between the shapes to give the illusion of separate parts. Organize your shapes in groups ( Cmd/Ctrl + G ), and rename the layers as seen below.
Step 3
Now make the side of the phone and again organize and rename them as shown below. It is very important to keep your layers organized because this project requires many layers.
Step 4
Now that we have defined the main parts of the phone, let’s start adding some shading. Double click the "Front / bottom / 1" layer , and apply a Gradient Overlay with the settings shown on the image below. Drag the mouse onto the canvas, and with the Layer Styles Window open and Gradient Overlay selected, reposition your gradient.
Step 5
Duplicate the "Front / bottom / 1" layer (Cmd/Ctrl + J), rename the duplicate to "2", and apply a Gradient Overlay and Inner Shadow with the settings shown on the image below. Press OK.
Step 6
Close the "Front / bottom" group. Select and double click the "Front / center / 1" layer. Apply a Gradient Overlay with the same settings on the picture below. Press OK. On the Layers Window turn the Fill of the layer to 0%.
Step 7
Duplicate the "Front / Center / 1" layer (Cmd/Ctrl + J), rename the duplicate to "2", and double click to apply a Gradient Overlay with the settings seen on the following image. Press OK.
Step 8
Close the "Center Group" and select the "Front / Top /1" layer. Double click it to apply the Gradient Overlay with the settings of the image below. Press OK. On the Layers Window turn the Fill of the layer to 0%.
Remember you can drag on the stage to move the gradient while the Layer Style Window is open and Gradient Overlay is selected.
Step 9
Duplicate the "Front / Top /1" layer ( Cmd/Ctrl + J) , rename the duplicate to "2", and double click to apply a Gradient Overlay with the settings seen on the image below. Press OK.
Step 10
Close the "Front " group, double click the "Side / Side_Bottom / 1" layer to apply a Gradient Overlay as seen in the following image. Press OK. On the Layers Window turn the Fill of the layer to 0%.
Step 11
Now, double click the "Side / Side_Back / 1" layer to apply a Gradient Overlay as seen in the following image. Press OK. On the Layers Window turn the Fill of the layer to 0%.
Step 12
Duplicate the "Side / Side_Back / 1" layer (Cmd/Ctrl + J). Rename the new layer to "2", double click it to apply a Gradient Overlay with the settings seen on the image below. Notice that now the blending mode of the gradient is set to Multiply because we are making a shadow (not a light) on the right left corner. Drag the gradient to reposition it to the corner. Press OK.
Step 13
Duplicate the "Side / Side_Back / 2" (Cmd/Ctrl + J) layer. Rename the new layer to "3", double click it to apply a Gradient Overlay with the settings seen in the following image. Again, notice that now the blending mode of the gradient is set to Multiply because we are making a shadow (not a light) on the bottom left corner. Drag the gradient to reposition it to the corner. Press OK.
Step 14
Close the "Side / Side_Back" group and double click the "Side / Side_Center/1" layer to apply a Gradient Overlay with the settings seen on the image below. Press OK. On the Layers Window turn the Fill of the layer to 0%.
Step 15
Close the "Side / Side_Center" group and double click the "Side / Side_Top/1" layer to apply a Gradient Overlay with the settings seen on the image below. Press OK. On the Layers Window turn the Fill of the layer to 0%.
Step 16
Now, close the "Side" group, and with the Pen Tool, make the shapes for the buttons and the speaker. Make a small circle with the Ellipse Tool (u) for the microphone. For the center part of the speaker make a shape and paint it grey (bfbfbf). Organize all shapes following the image below.
Step 17
Double click the "Buttons / 1" layer, and apply the Inner Shadow and Gradient Overlay following the settings of the image below. Press OK. On the Layers Window turn the Fill of the layer to 0%.
Step 18
Do the same with the "Buttons / 2" layer, apply the Inner Shadow and Gradient Overlay following the settings of the image bellow. Press OK. On the Layers Window turn the Fill of the layer to 0%.
Step 19
Do the same with the "Buttons / 3" layer, apply the Inner Shadow and Gradient Overlay following the settings of the image bellow. Press OK. On the Layers Window turn the Fill of the layer to 0%.
Step 20
Do the same with the "Buttons / 4" layer, apply the Inner Shadow and Gradient Overlay following the settings of the image bellow. Press OK. On the Layers Window turn the Fill of the layer to 0%.
Step 21
With the "Buttons / 4" layer selected, create a rectangle anywhere on the space using the Rectangle Tool (U). Rename the layer of the rectangle you just created to "All". Now select the Path Selection Tool (A), select the path of the "Buttons / 4" layer, copy it (Cmd/Ctrl + C), and paste(Cmd/Ctrl+V) it onto the path of your "All" layer. Do the same for "Buttons / 3" layer, the "Buttons / 2" layer, and the "Buttons / 1" layer. This may be a little tricky to understand, but following the image below illustrates how it is done.
Step 22
Now double click the "All" layer and apply a Gradient Overlay and Inner Shadow following the settings of the image below.
Step 23
Close the "Buttons" group and select the "mic / Mic" layer. Make sure it is Black and its Fill is at 100%. Apply a Bevel and Emboss with the settings of the image below. Press OK.
Step 24
Close the "mic" group and select the "speaker / Speaker" layer. Apply an Inner Shadow and Gradient Overlay with the settings shown on the image below. Press OK. On the Layers Window, turn the Fill of the layer to 0%.
Step 25
Now lets make the center part of the speaker. Create a new document with size 4 x 4 px. Zoom in as much as you can. With the Mask Tool (m) make a selection like in the picture below. With the Paint Bucket Tool fill the selection with black. Deselect all (Cmd/Ctrl + D) and go to the menu Edit/ Define Pattern , a window will prompt for you to write a name for the Pattern, write any name and press Ok.
Step 26
Go back to the file phone.psd and double click "speaker / Speaker center" layer. Add a Gradient Overlay, Inner Shadow and Pattern Overlay with the pattern we just created. Check the picture below for the settings.
Step 27
Let’s create the HDMI plug. Start by selecting the Pen Tool (P) and drawing the outer shape of the plug. Rename it to "1" and press (Cmd/Ctrl + G) with the layer selected to make a group. Rename the group to "HDMI plug". Then apply a Bevel and Emboss style to the "HDMI Plug / 1" layer following the settings on the picture below.
Step 28
With the Pen Tool, create another Shape over the last one, make sure its color is CCCCCC and apply an Inner Shadow Style with the same settings as those on the following image.
Step 29
With the Pen Tool, create another Shape over the last one. Make sure its color is 797979 and apply an Inner Shadow Style with the same settings as those on the following image.
Step 30
With the Pen Tool, create another Shape over the last one, Make sure its color is 343434.
And your HDMI plug is done.
Step 31
Let’s make the USB plug. With the Pen Tool, draw the outer shape of the plug. Make its color 0e0e0e. Rename it to "1" and press (Cmd/Ctrl + G) with the layer selected to make a group. Rename the group to "USB plug".
Step 32
With the Pen Tool, draw the inner shape of the USB plug. Make it black 000000. Rename it to "2". Apply the Inner Shadow, Inner Glow and Gradient Overlay styles following the image below.
Step 33
Let’s make the display screen. Start by drawing the outer part of the screen. Make it black 000000.
Step 34
Draw the inner part of the screen name it "2" and hide it. Paste the image you would like to be in the screen over the "Display / 2" layer and rename it to "wallpaper" (I am including a beautiful image with the source files in case you wish to use it). With the Cmd/Ctrl key pressed, select the Vector Mask Thumbnail of the "Display/2" layer. That will make a selection. With your "wallpaper" layer selected, press the Add Layer Mask button to hide the part of the wallpaper that is outside the screen. Now click the small chain links that appear on your "wallpaper" layer to disable the link between the layer and its mask With the thumbnail of your "wallpaper" layer selected, press Cmd/Ctrl + T to transform it, and press the Cmd/Ctrl key to distort the image you are using as wallpaper to match the phone’s perspective. Press Return key when you are done. Apply a Gradient Overlay and an Inner Shadow style to your "wallpaper " following the settings shown at the bottom of the image below. Press OK. Finally, again enable the link between your "wallpaper" layer and its mask.
Step 35
Let’s do the glare of the screen. With the Pen Tool, make the shape of the glare over your "wallpaper" layer. Rename the layer to "glare" and apply a Gradient Overlay Style following the settings of the image below. Turn the Fill of the layer to 0%. Press OK.
Step 36
Now go and download the USB, HDMI, and MOTOROLA logos. Paste them into your "phone.psd". Using Cmd/Ctrl + T to transform, and the Cmd/Ctrl key while transforming to distort your logos to match the perspective of the phone. Place all the logos in a group named "Logos". All the shapes of the logos should be color grey 959595.
Step 37
Now do exactly the same with the icons. The only difference is that you will have to draw them with your Pen Tool using a reference image. Make sure the four icons are color grey d7d7d7. Make a group with all the icons and name it "Big Icons". Do the same with the three big icons, but make them color white FFFFFF, and set their Fill to 50%.
Step 38
If you are still here with me, it means you are an extremely patient and detail-oriented person, so let’s take it a little bit further and add more detail to make our phone look even more life like. Make a new 100 x 100 px document with a black background. In the menu, go to Filter/ Noise Add Noise following the settings on the image below. Press OK. In the menu go to Edit / Define pattern, and name it "Noise".
Step 39
Go back to your "phone.psd" file. Double click the first layer you created, "MAIN BG", and apply a Pattern Overlay style with the pattern "Noise" that you just created following the settings on the image below. Press OK. This will add some texture to the plastic.
Step 40
While pressing the Cmd/Ctrl key, select the Vector Mask Thumbnail of that same "MAIN BG" layer. This will select the entire phone. Now press the "Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer" button at the bottom of the layers window and select "Foto Filter.” This creates an adjustment layer named "Photo Filter 1" over the "MAIN BG" layer. Drag "Photo Filter 1" to place it between the "USB plug" group and the "display" group.
Double click the thumbnail of the "Photo Filter 1" layer and the "adjustments" window will pop up. Apply the same settings as those on the image below.
Step 41
Using the Shift Key, select all layers and groups, from "MAIN BG" to "Big Icons", and press Cmd/Ctrl + G to make a group with everything inside. Name that group "Final Phone". Drag the "Final Phone" group to the "Create a New Layer" button at the bottom of the layers window. This will duplicate the "Final Phone" group. Select the new "Final Phone Copy" group and press Cmd/Ctrl + E to merge all layers inside that group into one layer. Rename it to "Reflected". Select the "Reflected" layer and go to the "Edit / Transform / Flip Vertical" menu.
Step 42
Now drag the "Reflected" layer to its final position. Press the "Add Vector Mask" button at the bottom of the Layers Window. Ensure you have white as your foreground color and black as your background color. Within the Mask Thumbnail of the "reflection" layer selected, drag from top to bottom. Finally, paint the Background layer with gray "c2c2c2".
Final Image
