don't know where to start except for those dock objects Jairo Boudewyn creates

ps 7 will do,

I do all my 2d work in photoshop, and 3d work in 3ds max

btw: the keyword for design is experience

There is also a program called IconWorkshop which is the Photoshop of Icon creation programs, it comes with a plugin for Photoshop so you can work back and forth between the two programs.

Styl's correct about the word also

Lot's of time spent just trying different things out to see what you come up with and then applying the things you like to a design/layout.

For me it is a heck of a learning curve because I did the silly thing and jumped right into the muck of it so I spend most of my time spinning my wheels. I'm working on changing that now though. So I guess from my limited learning in Skinning so far would be to start with something small, make a plan of attack and stick with it until you complete it even if it doesn't hold your interest some where down the road. If you hit a block then put it aside for a bit (don't delete it!) and come back to it later with a refreshed interest in the future.

here is a link to The Skinning Primer which Scribe Frogboy put together, it is a great help and I am trying to stick to much of the suggestions presented in it...

https://www.joeuser.com/index.asp?AID=67

If you have purchased Stardock products then your account information will transfer over and you should be able to login using your User name and password to access the site as a registered user. If not there are benifits to registering explained at the site, though you do not have to.

The most recent thingies with what You can create those icons are Adobe Freehand 10 and Photoshop 8 or Paintshop 8 (version 7 will do the trick too).


And a little intro into those icons - First You should draw prefferably the icons design (outlines)(vectors in Freehand), then You can export it to PS7, colour it, add some effects, like gradients, bevel, gloss, glass effects etc. If You want to make ObjectDock icons, You can easily save Your icon design as .PNG and - voilla, the icon is finished. If You want to make some Win or Mac icons, use Microangelo or Axialis Icon Workshop. (software, but there are some free utilities, like icon sushi). Ok, I know that sounds weird, hard or just silly. But that's how I would do my icons and I'm doing so. Or You could use the reverse job - see icons in work, first try to recolour them, then to paint some simple figures. Try to search in Google.com some "icon making tutorials". And, remember, GOOGLE is our friend.

Google used to track user interaction, still doing it?

Lycos was another one also...

m0rphium - maybe you meant Adobe Illustrator, isn't Freehand a Macromedia program? Anyway, If you're just getting into it I'd recommend Corel Draw. It's cheaper and it's a lot more intuitive to work in, a much less severe learning curve and it will do the same vector art that Freehand or Illustrator will do.  Photoshop should be enough though as all your work for screen stuff will be rasterized anyway.

Like someone said up there, it takes time to learn. Check out all the tutorials available on the web and practice doing stuff before you try to create something to upload. And have fun

I wouldn't go as far as to say "everything" but the basics yeah corel draw can be a happy little program, illustrator is perhaps the best, yet has a good few annoyances so I usually stick to freehand. But no matter what, vector is always awesome and almost neccesary tool for getting things drawn out right, photoshop already has some vector capabilities in it so give them a look "paths"

IPlural, where do u go 2 buy iconworkshop, b4n.

denny

No Rules ... you go here  http://axialis.com/  keep in mind, you don't need an icon editor to make Dock icons............  PNG works just fine. 

Koasati is correct on that. PNG works very well for regular icons as well if you convert em to icon format.

do you need an icon program such as iconworkshop or pixelangelo to make icons, or can you do it with such things as photoshop, is there a pluggin for photoshop to export in .ico? (ps i'm not talking about object dock)

horizOn, yes a plugin is available for photoshop, some free and some commercial ones.

Also with photoshop 5.5? and above creating vector graphics and also having a strong paint engine you can pretty much do anything you can think of with it as far as icons go.

Thanks for the great feedback guys.

Am I correct in saying that all u need to do is create an image in ps7 and save as PNG? what sort of resolution should the image be 28, 300dpi?. For example if I want to create an icon or object for My Documents,(a picture of me for instance),i dont know, the images that you all seem to create are extreamly sharp. I would love to be able to do that, its the sharpness and clarity that amazes me.