Step 1: 
Gather our 3 icons together in one file. Once we have them together we can delete the elements we will not be using, like the reflections and the shadows.





 

Step 2:  
To make things a bit simpler, before we can start putting our assets together we need to group some things. I need to group the fronts and the backs of both folders together, and this will help us control our Z order. Once I have the groups made, I nudge our elements out of the way.

Step 3:
Now we simply put our Closed folder inside our Open folder. In its current state it looks pretty silly, but with a some sizing, and skewing, we can wrestle it into an acceptable position.  

Step 4: 
Now, in order to make the inner folder stand out, I will go in with the Mesh tool and tweak the colors and mesh. In this case I want to make the folder front darker, and the folder back lighter.

 

 Step 5:
Once I am happy with the folders, I need to place the file inside the center folder. We could spend some time on this, but I think that we can get away with simply sizing the file, and skewing it. Just to polish it up a bit I use the Shape tool to modify the bottom of the file to better match the perspective.

Step 6:
Now that all of our elements are in place, we need to go through and touch up our gloss since the existing gloss no longer  looks correct.

Step 7:  
Last we need to go through and create new shadows  and reflections. Once again check Corel For Skinners for more of the techniques used.

Finished Icon:
Using the Data folder, in conjunction with the Open folder and the Live folder icons, we should be able to completely replace all the standard folders in Windows Vista.

Step 1: 
The first thing we will do is make two copies of our Open Folder icon from yesterday. I will also be copying my guides, just so we can keep track of where the thumbnails will be generated. 

Step 2: 
Now we simply remove the front of the folder from one, and the back from the other.

 

Step 3:
Now we will have to tweak the shadows a bit to make sure that everything feels correct with the thumbnails.

Step 4:
Today I am going to go a bit further with our tutorial and go all the way to applying these in IconPackager. In order to do this we must get our icons created. I do this by exporting them to PNG format; I like to export them as a large 768x768.

 Step 5:
Now we use any number of icon creation programs to turn our PNG's to ICO files. I tend to use Stardock's IconDeveloper, or Axialis Icon Workshop, depending on what I need to do. Make sure you include the Vista 256x256 icon size.

Step 6:
Once we have our icons, we simply open IconPackager, click on the Icons & Cursors tab, and chose Folders. Then simply drag and drop your new icons on the Live Folder Front and Back.

Chose Apply My Changes and you are good to go.

Step 1:
Here you can see my Live Folder guide. In step one I will simply copy our Closed Folder and place it behind my guide. 

 

Step 2:
Now I will simply grab the front of the folder and size it and skew it, using the Pick Tool. I just want to make it look more or less like it is opened up. We will touch it up a bit in Step 3.
 

Step 3:

If we were in a hurry the simple skewing and sizing of the folder front would probably be good enough, however, since we are trying to do things right, I want to tweak the mesh nodes to make sure our folder front does not look squished.

In order to do this, I nudge the brush fill out of the way so I can get to my folder front.

Step 4:

Once I am done touching up my mesh tool, I nudge my texture fill back over. Since I have not changed the folder shape much, I don't need to edit it.

Now that we have changed our folder front, our inner shadow is messed up. In order to fix this we will use the same shadow technique as yesterday.

 Step 5:
Now that we have the correct shadows, we can see that our gloss no longer looks quite right. Once again I just draw in some new white shapes, or edit the existing ones, and then I fade them out with the Interactive Transparency tool.

  

Step 6a:

Our last step, will be more or less the same as our last step yesterday; we have to re-do our reflection.

In short I copy both our folder front and back, create bitmaps with them, then size them and flip them, placing them in a mirrored position under our icon. Then I squish them down until they look right.

Step 6b:

Once I am done with that, I convert them to one bitmap and fade them out with the Interactive Transparency tool.

Once again I will point out that both the techniques in Step 4 and Step 6 are in the Save video over at Corel For Skinners.

Finished Icon:
Once we export our file, to a PNG, we have our finished image, our Open Folder icon is ready to go.

Step 1:
The first thing we will have to do is establish our new default size. This time In Corel we create a new Document and create a box, 2.56"x2.56". When we export our final icon, it will be 256x256 at 100dpi.

 

Step 2:
Now, in almost the exact way we did last time, I start with two (2) rectangular Mesh Fill Objects, each with only 1 grid length. I will then start to push them around with the shape tool to get our basic shapes established.


 

Step 3:
As I mentioned above, I want to keep the same basic look and feel as the original folders, so using the shape tool, I will begin by sculpting our mesh's into more or less the same folder we had before, just standing on its side.

Once we have the basic shape, I also give it the base colors, we will need. I do this by selecting each shape and assigning the same colors to all the nodes in the mesh.

   

Step 4:
Now we begin to use the Mesh Tool in earnest. This is basically the same as in Icon #1 of the original series. You can learn a lot more about the Mesh Tool In the CorelDRAW For Skinners Tutorials.

First I go through and add several new mesh nodes. These will be used to give our folders depth, and realism. As I do this I start tinting the colors by selecting one or more nodes and holding down control, while clicking on a color in in the Palette. In this case I will more or less be using black and white. I just keep this up until I am happy with the end result.

    

 Step 5:
Once we have our shapes and fills set, we need to add some flare. We will do this with the same tricks that we used in our original series, starting with adding a the signature brushed metal texture.

We will do this the same way as before. We copy both the folder front, and the folder back. We give them both a 50% black fill, and then use the interactive transparency tool on both new objects, giving them a multiplied and stretched texture. See Corel For Skinners for transparency tips.

  

Step 6:
After we have our texture established, we have to get in the ever present gloss. This we do by drawing in a few shapes and filling them white. Then, once again we use the Interactive Transparency tool, to create a gradient blend, fading out our white shapes, leaving the classic gloss.

Since our folders our now facing up, and the front of the folder is not facing directly into the light source we will have to fake the gloss a bit more, but we want to keep it in order to maintain a uniform look.

Step 7:
One of the staples of the Icon-A-Day icons was the shadow. At this point we run into our first Vista Style conflict. The original icons all had a shadow dropping to the left, and back. Windows Live Folder thumbnails, actually generate their own shadows that drop to the right and back.   

In order to deal with this, we will have to change our shadow to the Vista Style. However the lighting on our icons is still in the 1.0 direction. Hopefully this will not tell on us too badly.

Step 8:
The shadow brings us to one of the big changes in the new version of Corel. In the original icons, when we made a fancy shadow, I would just use the drop shadow of a shadow mask shape, then I would break it apart and fade out the resulting bitmap with the interactive transparency tool.

In Corel X3 or above when you break apart a shadow, it does not leave a bitmap, it leaves a mask. Rather than going into why, just understand that now you have to convert that mask into a bitmap to use the original technique. So that's what we will do here.
   

Step 9:
The final signature feature we need to make this truly an Icon-A-Day icon is the reflection. This is going to be a bit difficult, because of the much taller aspect of the new folder. But we will do it the same old way. By copying the front and back of the folder, converting them each to bitmaps, then flipping them.
Once we have our flipped bitmaps, we can squish them down, and skew them into place. Once they are in place we use the Interactive Transparency tool to fade them  out.

Finished Icon:
There we have it, the first new Icon-A-Day icon in almost 3 years. We will be using this folder as the base for our next few icons, so they should go pretty quickly.