In this tutorial i will show you how to create some nice metal bars, great for navigation menus and interfaces. Start off by creating a base for your bar with the rounded rectangle tool. After you make a shape you can use the various resize points to adjust the size and roundness of your rectangle.

Apply a gradient to your shape. Choose linear gradient, we are going to add 3 colors. Dark gray to the left end of your spectrum, dark gray to the right, and light gray in the middle. To add the third color point simple click your mouse below the gradient preview.

Position your gradient bar so that the lines of the gradient are parallel to the horizontal edge of your bar. Position the white portion of your gradient slightly above the middle of the bar.

Now we are going to make the corners of our bar look more rounded. To do this we are going to create 2 new gradients, and feather them with a selection similar to that of the side of your bars. Create a new circular shape with the same height of your bar, and place it to the left of your image.

Change the gradient mode to radial, with colors of white and black. Position your black color as shown below.

Change the layer mode to Multiply, and opacity to 50%.

Duplicate the layer and place it on the left end of your bar, change the direction of your gradient accordingly.

Now we are going to delete a portion of these two gradients, but to do so we need to change these vector shapes to bitmap. To do this press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Z while clicking on the two circular gradients. Next make two selections similar to the ones below. The idea here is that we are going to delete the portions of these two shadows that done fit with the shape of our metal bar.

To make the deletion more gradual we are going to feather the selection. Choose Select > Feaster. Choose a value that suits the size of your image, for example, I used 10 pixels.

Next lets give our gradient a dropshadow. While on your original gradient layer, click on the shadow and then click on the + sign in your properties window to bring up the filters menu. Choose Shadow and Glow > Drop Shadow.

Next we are going to turn this bar into a navigation menu. To do this we are going to use simple lines to create barriers between would-be buttons. Take your line too and create two lines, one light and one dark, with the height of your bar. Position the light line to the left of your dark line to create an indented effect.

Place some text on your bar and your done! Here is how mine turned out.