I was wondering how I could make a totally custom tab bar. Not just with a image in it but a tab bar that would be considerably larger and different colors on each tab.
Something like that image is most likely just buttons. You should also have a navigation controller with hidden navbar. Then when one of the buttons is tapped you set the viewControllers property to switch the current view. At least that's one way to do it.
Not sure if you can just use a normal tab bar controller and a custom subclass of UITabBar, which would be better if that works.
I think this view in perticular is completely custom. But some like Instagram etc. Are actually Tabbars, with just a raised Middle button.
That code is for free online, so you could take a look at that.