How to achieve a bevel effect like this?

Question

I have a design question. I'm trying to achieve a bevel effects like on the image below. I have a rasterized layer so I can't see what settings were used to create this. I have tried various combinations with Highlight, Shadow modes and Glass contours. This effect is strange cause it puts the light like from the center or something. If someone has any idea how to achieve an effect similiar to this, I would be thankful for a tip! :)

For curious designers, I need this to create an outline like this:

Answer 1

Since that first example image has a transparent background, we can safely say that it was brushed using the Brush tool.

To make things easier, I would perhaps use Dodge tool and Burn tool.

Some key points ( specifically for creating this type of shape ):

1. First I made the 2 base shapes on separate layers.

2. Then I laid down some basic lighting to make the corners pop out a bit.

   • First few things about the Dodge tool.
   • You can switch to the Burn tool on the fly by holding down the alt key.
   • If you right click while holding down Shift, you can change the Range easily.
   • Speaking of shift, Pretty much for everything, except for the diagonal lines, I'd hold down Shift to make sure the lines are straight.
   • You'll probably want to stick to Ranges: Midtones and Highlights.
   • If you use Highlights, it will add a little bit of a tint based on the color below. If you use Midtones, the color will be more dull.
   • To get similar tint as in your example image, you'd have to mostly do it with Midtones and then switch to Highlights at the end for a few strokes.
   • Also, using a mouse, I'd probably never raise the Exposure of Dodge tool and Burn tool past 25%. When I made this example ( with a mouse ) I kept my Exposure between 5-20%.
   • Use "Soft Round Brush" = Round brush with 0 Hardness.
   • In this step the brush size should be around the frame width or 2 to 3 times that.
   • I used Polygonal Lasso tool to restrict my brush strokes in the corners, in this first step.
   • In this step I used Burn tool only. Doesn't really matter though.

3. In this step I went through all the corners with about 1-3px brush size. You could also use like frame width size to add slightly larger highlights and or darker areas.

Here's a video I uploaded on youtube showing how I brushed in the corners.

Answer 2

I only have the german version of photoshop, maybe you can see something on the screenshot. For further studies, you can download this psd to look at the layer styles. Download PSD

For more details on the bevel effect, raster the layer and "destroy" it by drawing some lines with shadow or multiply effect layers over it.