Glass web icons can be considered an independent icon style though it is logical to assume that glass style is just one of the types of the shiny, glossy design.
Other types of the glossy web icons design that can be marked out:
- glass icons;
- metal icons;
- glass-metal icons;
- transparent icons.
Glossy icons can be aqua, crystal, plastic etc. and at the same time transparent and half-transparent.
Furthermore, there are partly glass and partly stained icons meaning the objects contain some glassy or stained elements.
Glass icons as well as other types of icons are often depicted with reflecting. It is one of the standard features of the "Web 2.0" icons. You may find various tutorials on the web instructing to create vertical reflection effect for web icons.
The clean look of glass icons makes navigating through the website pages playful and attracts lots of people. In the Internet sources you can definitely find many tutorials concerning the ways of creating such neat web icons.
Tricks for fast and simple creation of glass web icons.
Adobe Photoshop is the most popular software for creating web icons. Photoshop is becoming steadily more and more flexible software for design. Nowadays it allows to create almost all visual effects used for the graphic design. A great amount of the prominent web designers and illustrators create their great web icons designs with this software. The main feature of the latest Photoshop versions is the ability to combine pixel painting with vector tool for creating glass icons, buttons, characters etc.<\p>
The easiest way to design Glass icons is to make the "glass" layer overlap the image. With a help of the "eraser" tool you will be able to build an empty diagonal line through the image. You are supposed to proceed using eraser for making adjustments to the glass layer until the moment when the glass effect repeats the contour of the icon. As a result it should create a kind of the glass haze in the opposite sides. As soon as this procedure complete the further adjustments should be applied.
Professional web site designers should use this effect carefully and be aware that glass-fever may look ridiculous . Glass icons really should be combined with taste so that the webpage style could remain professional and reserved.