I was checking out this page on Car Talk’s website regarding gas myths (interesting in and of itself) and was captivated by the 3Dish icons they use for each question (the circles with the gas pumps on them).
Is there a way to create a similar 3Dish circle, with the cool reflective surface in Photoshop?
Yes. It’s actually surprisingly simple to do. I don’t know Photoshop, but I’ve created them in Inkscape (open source vector illustration program).
Here is a tutorial for something fairly similar - once you get the hang of it, it should be fairly easy to adapt the method for slightly different reflection effects, such as those in your link.
I ought to add that I have very little in the way of artistic skill when it comes to vector illustration. My hat is completely off to people who can look at what is, to me, a visually quite complex object, then reproduce it in half a dozen simple vector shapes or less.
Xara 3D can do it easily. It even comes with a bunch of button type templates.
Check out Adobe’s Action Exchange . They have a variety of user-submitted styles and actions that might fit your need.
I remember using some HTML editing program a few years ago that had a “button” maker that made 3-D buttons, round or square, in many colors.