This Photoshop + Flash tutorial will show you how to design a cool photo gallery as seen on AppleTV website and in many Mac application (ie. iTune, iPhone). In fact, this tutorial is very easy to follow, all you need is some basic Photoshop and Flash skills. To complete this tutorial, you need Photoshop CS2+, Flash 8+, and a photoFlow component from Flashloaded.

View Demo PhotoFlip Gallery

Download Zip package

1. Gradient background

In Photoshop, create a new document, 950 x 620px. Select black foreground color and dark grey (#384b55) background. Use Gradient tool and drag from lower-middle to the bottom of the document.

step image 1

2. Thumbnail grid

Collect some sample photos and create a thumbnail grid as shown below:

step image 2

Then duplicate the thumbnail grid and apply flip vertical transform (Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical). We will need this duplicated grid to create the reflection effect.

step image 3

3. Warp transform

Select the top layer grid and go to Edit > Transform > Warp. Now you should see the Warp transform grid:

step image 4

Drag the four corner anchor points and the two middle vertical lines slight upward to create the bent effect.

step image 5

Repeat previous step for the reflected grid. While you are dragging the anchor points, try to keep the reflected grid align to the top layer.

step image 6

Set the top layer opacity to 30% and bottom layer to 50%. Then apply a gradient layer mask to the bottom layer.

step image 7

4. Glow

Make a oval selection and fill it with a sky blue color. Apply 50px Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur). Condense it a little so it looks like a spot light.

step image 8

5. Flash

In Flash, create a new document exact same size as the Photoshop image. Copy & paste entire image in the first layer.

step image 9

6. Flash component

If you have the photoFlow component installed, simply drag the component onto the stage. If you don't have the component, get one from Flashloaded or enter our Free photoFlow Component Giveaways contest.

step image 10

Now open the Component Inspector palette and you will see all available parameters. Here you can customize the component setting such as: XML path, autoflip, image dimensions, reflection, zoom effects... For more information on how to use photoFlow, please read the user guide.

step image 11

6. Updating the gallery

Since the gallery is loaded from an external XML file, you can simply update the XML file to add or remove photos.

step image 12

PhotoFlow component used in this tutorial is provided by Flashloaded. To get a free copy for yourself, don't forget to enter our Free photoFlow Component Giveaways contest.