How do Mac software developers make realistic icons?
jemmons: Sadly, there's no real trick to it other than being a good graphic designer. Please note this is a career unto itself with all the traps and pitfalls "career" implies. Before you decide to spend a weekend learning Photoshop to cook yourself up an icon, consider the scorn with which you would look upon someone who turned out an application after only a week of study of the frameworks, languages, philosophies, and methodologies involved.If you care about your application's icon[1], your users will thank you to hire a professional.[1]: And you should. As the HIG says, "Application icons are the most visible to users. Since they are seen in the Finder and the Dock even when your application is not running, they form a significant part of a user’s first impressions" (http://tinyurl.com/d82lkq)