hey everyone I've been trying to figure out how this was made and I have attempted to contact the creator of this specific icon to no avail.  So I am hoping someone else has a clue on how this was created.

I am very familiar with photoshop cs2 and axialis iconworkshop 6.0.  I am also willing to work with any other program that can help me create this style icon..behold..

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/9897/2bt4.jpg

then this is what it looks like on the desktop..

http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/9623/4gl0.jpg

yes I am referring to the Firefox icon =)

hope someone can give me some feedback or even a tutorial =)

thanks everyone

nobody knows?

Here's a little tut for ya:

1. Open a 256px by 256px transparent backgrounded document.

2. Make a perfect circle of any color by either using Elliptical marquee Tool (M) or Ellipse Tool (U).Name this layer as Cirlce.

3. Go to the Blending Options of Circle layer and set these values:

4. Now Ctrl+Click on the Circle layer to load its selection and go to Select>Modify>Contract.Type 2 and hit enter.

5. Without deselecting, create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N) and name it Gloss.Select Gradient Tool (G) and make White as your foreground color.Set these settings in the Option Bar:

6. Now make two radial gradients.One from top and other from the bottom.

Reduce the opacity of Gloss layer to 75%.

7. You will get an image like this one:

8. Place any picture or icon (Tux G2 for instance) below the Gloss layer and transform its position/size according to the size of the document.Here is my final result:

My result,on the tiles of two color, looks like this:

and Im sure that it will look better on multiple color wallpapers.

Im waiting for your reply and cool results as well

Nice nice, my result will soon come ASHAR!

Wow awesome thank you so much for replying, i had almost given up on looking! i will post my preview in a moment

I have just made this and its like a big bubble    can anyone help me out I would like to be able to make it look like a snow globe    please pretty please with cherries on top  

wee_dizzy_dee: If you want to make something like this

then tell me ,I will try to make a tut for that.

That is exactly what I am looking for    .. I would be very happy if you could make up a tutorial for me .... many thanks in advance .....

Here's a little tutorial which may lead you to a result similar to this:

1. Create a 256px by 256px document with white as background color ,fill the background with a dark color or a gradient for making it clear for the white snow orb to appear.

2. Create a circle by using Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) or Ellipse Shape Tool (U) on a new layer and name this layer as Orb ,fill this circle with any color and place it on the center of the document (X:128 Y:128) .

3. Reduce the Fill Opacity of Orb layer to 0%.Go to the Blending Options of this layer and set these values in Inner Glow option:

4. Now make a new layer and name it Gloss1.Select Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and make an Oval of the size as shown in this image and fill it with any color.

5. Reduce the Fill Opacity of Gloss 1 layer to 0% .Go to the Blending Options of  Gloss1 layer and set these values in Gradient Overlay option:

6. Ctrl+Click on Orb layer to load its selection and create a new layer with the name Gloss2.Select gradient Tool (G) and make these settings.

Make two radial gradients on Gloss2 layer in the direction as show in the image and reduce the opacity of this layer to 40%:

Now your document may look somewhat like this:

7. It's time to make some snow ,you can do this by using brushes.There are many snow brushes on deviantart.For this tutorial ,I am using Photoshop's defaul circular brush.
Activate Brush Tool (B) and set white as your foreground color.Make a new layer and name it as Snow ,place this layer below Gloss1 layer.Sart brushing the orb on this layer with different sizes of circular brush.Reduce the opacity of Snow layer to 80%.

8. Create a new layer and name it Snowy land ,place this layer below the Snow layer.With Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) ,make a selection like this:

Press Ctrl+Alt+Shift and click on Orb layer ,this will select only that part of the selection which overlaps Orb layer.Fill this selection with white color on Snowy land layer.Go to the Blending Options of Snowy land layer and set these values in their respetive options:

9. The orb is almost complete.Place some christmas objects (trees,gifts) on the snowyland ,you can find many of those objects here .

Here's y final result :

You can download the PSD file from here if anything is obstructing you in completing this tutorial.

I am eagerly waiting for your results   .

Your a master.

Fantastic! I'll have to use some of this in my new avatar!  

thank you for the tutorial I will post my result as soon as I finish it ......  

My first snow globe

Wow, very nice! I would've chosen an other color for the sky. And at the right, there is a hand of a snowman popping out!

wee_dizzy_dee: Very good result

Gruzz: I am waiting for your innovative result   .

will fix those thanks  

snowglobe number 2  

my first animated snowglobe  

avitar_snowglobe.gif

opinion please and any advice to improve it  

Great outcome   ,a dark blue color of sky may look better.

One by me:

ASHAR IS A GOD

I am nothing more than an abject servant of GOD   .

I Dunno how to make Gif's.. xD

.GIF files aren't really that hard to make.  You only use this file type when saving an animation.  To save your animation you will need a program like Adobe ImageReady.

I dunno how to make an animation.