Lighting and sharping/saturation effects help?
I asked for help at coloring_help and tried asking the icon maker herself but have had no responce at all, so I turn here in desperation. I'm in love with the way these icons are lit and I was wondering how to get the effect? Is it just textures, or something else? Also, how does the icon maker manage to sharpen and saturate the icons the way she does while keeping them so pretty? I'm at a loss to that, too. I'm sure it's one of those things that will be painfully obvious when pointed out but I've tried playing around to get a similar effect myself and haven't come close, so any help would be really appreciated. I'm using Photoshop CS3. Example icons behind the cut.
(all by nextlives)
(all by nextlives)