Creating a Meter

In this tutorial I am going to explain how you can make a very simple yet realistic looking meter using Photoshop CS.
This tutorial should also work in Photoshop 7 and CS2.

Step 1:

Create a new document 50 x 50 px with a transparent background. use the default settings for the other fields.

Step 2:

Grab the "Elliptical Marquee Tool" set it to fixed size and make it 40 x 40 px; Now make the selection and fill it with #ADADAD(image 1).

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Step 3:

Now grab the brush tool and set the settings as is displayed on image2.

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Step 4:

In case you deselect your grey circle reselect it bij ctrl + clicking the layer again. Now on the same layour apply 1 brush with the settings of step 3. you should now have something like image3.

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Step 5:

Make sure that you still did not deselect. now go to: Select -> Modify -> Contract and apply a 2px contract. Now take the Gradient tool and set the settings as displayed in image4.

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Step 6:

Now make the gradient in the direction and length as displayed in image5.

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Step 7:

Create a new layer. Select the brush tool again and use similar settings as step 3 but now set it to a 65px brush. Ctrl + click the original grey circle layer to get that selection again. Then go to: Select -> Modify -> Contract and contract with 1 px. Now set the foreground color to #FF0000 and then put the brush at the positoin displayed in image6 and bruse 1 red circle. You should then have the result seen in image 7

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Step 8:

Now select the Polygonal Lasso Tool. Create a selection similar to the one displayed in image8.

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Step 9:

Now get the Elliptical Marquee Tool again and use the 40 x 40 px fixed widt again. now still with the red image layer selected delete the selection as shown in image9

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Step 10:

Now grab the Line Tool(image10). Use the settings displayed in image11 and drag a selecetion as displayed in image12

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Step 11:

Now select the Elliptical Marquee tool again and set the fixed size settings to 5 x 5 px. now create a selection as displayed in image13 and fill it with black.

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Final Result

Here is my final Result:

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