professional buttons

[ctr1 alt l337]

I wanted to know how I could make more professional looking buttons, such as the ones on www.mtv.com or www.macromedia.com. My buttons are only primary colors and I want them to look more professional. If anyone can help by giving me links to sites that have these tutorials or just tell me how to do it, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Bugmage]

creat a simple button with color, then right click and hit windows and hit the one toolwindow(i forgot whats its called offhand) and do linear gradients, then select the fill buton and drag down to angle the linear fill

[ctr1 alt l337]

ok, i got that but now how do I switch it from a horizontal gradient to a vertical gradient?
do i just rotate it counter clock wise?

[digitalknoll]

all you have to do to change the direction of the gradient is use the "fill transfrom" tool. it looks like a gradient bar with directional arrows over it. just click inside the gradient and drag in a direction you want. go from there.

DK