09/29/2009
Since today is my birthday, I thought I would get a tutorial up to show how to make balloons. I made a logo for my birthday that I displayed on the top of the website, sort of what Google does. Anyway, you may use this tutorial to create your own balloons in different colors, shapes, or sizes. Make sure to use them on your next birthday card!
Create a new document in Photoshop with 300 pixels wide by 300 pixels high.
Create a new folder, name is B1, and inside that new folder create 2 layers. The bottom layer is going to be the bottom of the balloon, and the top layer will be the balloon.
On the balloon Layer, with your Marquee Tool, 
, create an oval. Fill it with a blue color (or any color you decide).
Now with the oval done, you want to create the bottom piece of the balloon. For that, you can use your Pen Tool, or the Lasso Tool. Make sure to do this on the bottom layer. Here is what mine looks like.
Once you get the bottom done, hit control-E. This will merge the two layers into one.
On that layer, hit Control-E, and click the layer. This will highlight the balloon shape. Create a new layer and with your gradient tool, Select White as your first color, and the second color should be white also but it should have an Opacity of 0%. Your balloon will look like this:
(Ignore my color change – I made an edit to the color.)
Now you want to create a duplicate layer of the Balloon. Inside of that duplicate layer, you want to add the same gradient tool and with your brush, you want to paint some effects to the balloon. Your brush should be 4px, 100% hardness, Linear Dodge mode, 24% Opacity, and 22% flow. Now pain on the bottom, middle, and top of the balloon.
You also want to add an Inner Glow to that layer. Use these settings:
Once you do that, make that layer lighten and layer’s opacity 46%.
Draw a simple string and you are finished.
You may want more than one balloon and color. To do this, create a duplicate of the folder, this will create a new folder with the same effects (rename the folders if you want to). All you need to do is adjust the color. EASY!
When you create your duplicate folder, open it up, and there are two layers you want to change. Below is an image of the two layers.
(click image to enlarge)
To change the colors of these two layers, click on each layer, then go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation.
Once you are in there, click on colorize and adjust the sliders to your likings. Make sure to adjust BOTH layer in EACH folder.
Here is the finished product.
Filed under Photoshop Tutorials, Tutorials / How To's
