I¡¯ve searched and scoured the Internet for a tutorial like this, to find none. All tutorials, if any at all were available, referred to the powerhouse graphic editing mogul we know as Adobe Photoshop. This is what came about after asking around on various forums and discussion groups, ¡°How do I create this popular so-called ¡®glass¡¯ or ¡®crystal¡¯ effect in Macromedia Fireworks?¡±. It sure looked like an area of thought that needed to be filled.

1. Select a canvas (background) color. I chose a rich, lushy green.
2. Draw (click and drag) a circle or oval using the ellipse tool. If you see a different shape in place of the ellipse, click and hold the button. The submenus should appear and you should be able to select the ellipse tool. You can draw a perfectly round circle by holding the SHIFT key while you drag, if you like.
3. Choose the colour for your circle using the paint bucket tool. Also define a stroke (outline) for the shape if desired.
4. Click the Pen tool. This is where it gets a little tricky. Click once to place a point outside the circle.
5. Then click a point near the center of the shape, don¡¯t release the mouse button, keep dragging toward the bottom right corner. When you are satisfied with the arc achieved, make a point (you can release the mouse button now).
6. Drag downwards, probably a little slanted to the left. Again, when you¡¯re satisfied with the angle, release the mouse button to create another point.
7. Avoiding the areas of the circular shape, close the shape by clicking once more on the original starting point. You can make extra points if needed to reach the original starting point without interfering with the ellipse.
8. Duplicate (Copy and paste) both the new irregular shape and the old circle once. You can select more than one item at a time by holding down the ¡°Ctrl¡± (Control) button while selecting the second item.
9. Leave the two new (duplicated from the original two) items selected and go to Modify>Combine Paths>Punch.
10. Select the very first elliptical shape created (now at the bottom of the layer) and duplicate it (copy and paste).
11. Now select both the newly duplicated circle and the half-circle path (at the very top of the layer). Go to Modify>Combine Paths>Punch.
12. Delete the wayward shape that doesn¡¯t fit within the confines of the original circle. Then you should be left with just a neatly curved half circle and the original ellipse. You are done all the hard parts!
13. Change the half circle to a white fill, and adjust the opacity to 50% (or so).
14. With the half circle still selected, go to the Commands>Creative>Fade Image menus. Select the effect on the first line to the far right.
15. Adjust the gradient/fading bars if desired for the optimal effect.
16. You are done.

A slick Youtube video demonstration to follow shortly can be found here.

If you enjoyed or found this tutorial useful, please take a minute to help your fellow Internet users to find this. Simply use the Share This! links at the end of this post, select the social bookmarking tool of your choice, and let the world know! And, I as the author of this blog with thank you!

P.S. Let me know in the comments if this tutorial worked (or didn¡¯t work) for you, and show off your end result if you like.

discuss this topic to forum