I have posted this a while back on my old blog, and I thought that it could be updated and re-posted here. So here is how to create the 3D dock in Mac OS X Leopard using Photoshop.

1. Lets begin this tutorial creating a 400×400 canvas.

2. Next we set a background, I’m going to use black (#000000), just to draw the attention to creating the dock. Once the dock is made how you would like it, you can put any background here.

3. At this time we must create a new layer to be the dock.

4. Make a white (#ffffff) block 100px high, at the bottom of the canvas.

5. We now have to distort this block, to make it look 3 dimensional.

6. Follow the numbers in the screenshot to create the desired angle of distortion.

7. After the block is distorted and looking 3 dimensional, we should make it about 20% transparent.

8. Almost done, Lets add an icon. I’m going to use an icon from IconsPedia. I chose just a random icon on the home page. Place the icon of your choice about half way from the bottom on the dock.

9. All that’s left is to make it reflect. Duplicate the icon layer, and then flip it vertically. Set the transparency to about 15%.

Final Product

PSD file here