Glowing 3D Ball/Orbit
1. First off, create a black circle. It has to be a separate
object/layer so that you can select it and move it around. A good
size would be 50x50 pixels, but if you're wanting one for an icon
(such as an on/off icon for ProBoards), 24x24 pixels will suffice.
2. Next, select a color for the circle. Something not too bright
and not too dark,
such as a mid-teal. Then, duplicate the
object/layer, and color it in complete white.
Turn the opacity down to 75%, and move it down a pixel or two. Now,
edit the object/layer but "smushing" them in a few pixels
width-wise, so that there is some space on the left and right of the
circles. You should have the result as shown above. If not, get it
to look like that.
3.
Grab the eraser tool, and set it so it's really soft. Go over the
bottom half of the white circle so that it fades out and looks like
the above.
4.
Duplicate the circle, and flip it vertically. Move it to the bottom
of the circles. Grab the eraser tool again, and slightly erase the
top left and top right sides of the circle. If needed, extrude the
object so it's a bit higher and fades in more with the top circle.
5.
Merge all the objects/layers together to form one, and then
duplicate it. Add a gaussian blur (around 4 in radius), move it to
the back and change the opacity to 50%. That gives the orb a glow.
Don't merge them again, instead, duplicate the top orb again, but
this time fill it in completely black, and extrude it to make a
really narrow oval.
6.
Move the black oval to the bottom right, and change the opacity of
it to 20%. For an added shadow effect, slightly erase the left side
of it. Once that's done, you have yourself a pretty snazzy glowing
orb.
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