Creating a glass ball tutorial
David Peters
Step 1 - With the circular marquee tool, create a simple circle in any color. We will use red in this example.
Step 2) Change the glow color to black and change the blend mode to multiply to give the circle an inner-glow layer effect. The inner glow eliminates an angular deflection creating uniformity and should therefore be used instead of the inner shadow.
Step 3 - Load the selection from the circular area. Drag the linear gradient (white to transparent) downward from the top making sure it is close but not completely at the bottom in a new layer.
Step 4. Now press Ctrl/Cmd+T to transform the white gradient. Drag the handles to bring it upwards halfway through, and drag it in a bit in from the top and sides. Create a merge composite layer: Hide the background - Create a new blank layer on top and then Press Alt+Ctrl+Shift+E (Option+Cmd+Shift+E on Mac) to create a merged layer on top.
Step 5) Taking the merged layer, generate a circular selection above, being bigger than the original circle. Eye it to judge what looks right and copy the section and paste it in to a new layer. The top segment of the orb is created. Place it again in the exact position.
Step 6) On now to the base of the orb and create an elliptical shape fitting in to the bottom half of the circle in a new layer. Duplicate this layer while reducing the size just a bit.
Step 7. Select the larger ellipse layer and load its selection by pressing Ctrl/Cmd and clicking on the layer thumbnail. Now select the cylindrical gradient tool and going with the grey-white-grey-white-grey color combo, drag across.
Step 8 - Again, duplicate this layer bringing the duplicate upward. Arrange the small white portion to above the actual gradiated layer. Link both of these layers while reducing their size some, to ensure that the outer gradiated ellipse is just within the red circle.
Step 9 - Choose the duplicated gradient layer, giving it a slightly different gradient of greys and whites. Bring the duplicated gradient layer down, positioning it under both of the other layers. Move it to where it is seen from both sides as it is the rim of the orb.
Step 10 -Erase the parts of the orb that are not needed. Keep Ctrl/Cmd pressed and click on the layer thumbnails; first choose the big outer rim ellipse, having the gray gradient, and then Shift+Ctrl/Cmd+Click on the thumbnail of the upper top portion layer. The 2 ellipses will be selected, but we need to also select the bottom portion of the orb. Choosing the Rectangular marquee tool, hold down shift and drag over the bottom portion. Inverse the selection (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+I) and delete the middle part of the orb.
Step 11. Now to create the glass portion. Create a circle of the same size of the orb, any color you want. Place it behind the other layers.
Step 12) Just like the first outer orb, give it the same type of inner-glow effect, and bring it forward as to cover all but the red outer portions of the orb.
Step 13. Now goto the layer palette and make the fill amount =0. This makes the layer invisible, but keeps the layer effects visible, as shown in Fig.13.
Step 14 -Create a white gradient reflection like in the red circle, in a new layer above the glass layer, to have a more realistic lighting effect. You will have to adjust the settings as needed to make it as realistic looking as possible.
Step 15) Select the base layers, which are the grey metal gradient layers and the white ellipse, merging them together. Press Cntrl+U to fine-tune the hue of the layer. Since it is at this point grey, click on colorize, and convert to a reddish color to keep with the color of the orb itself.
Step 16. Finally give a very slight drop shadow to the upper portion of the red orb, just to attain more realism. Secondly the lower portion seems off. SO create a new layer above the red lower orb portion. Then select the radial gradient tool, and select the white to nothing option. Now drag from somewhere above the red to a little bit in. Erase portions that arent contained within the red portion. Check Fig.16. to see the effect.
You orb is ready. You can display any items in there now, just make sure any Items kept in have a good reflection added on. This will give the base a shiny appearance.
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