I probably should have spent more time getting a better newsprint image to work with but I was anxious to give something a try. After using this method for making a magnifying glass, I thought I might try something different.

1. Using several layers of gradients to create the shading, I created a ball and then reduced the opacity to about 25 or 30 %, added a colored mask, made a gloss layer, a glow layer and a shadow layer.
2. I duped the shadow layer, reduced the layer scale, and used Iwarp to deform the inner portion. I then deleted the extraneous overlapping areas and the areas outside the ball to make it look like a distorted reflection.
3. I duped the newsprint layer and rectangle selected an area about 200% of the size of the orb and copied it to a new image and applied Map to Sphere with no light and transparent background.
4. I copied this sphere layer to the original image and pasted as a new layer. It appears that the Map to Sphere operation has to be done separately from the original image layers.
5. Since I haven't discovered the exact formula for sizing the original selection, I had to play with the "sphere" layer to get it just the right size, then placed the layer below the orb layers.

There was a lot of trial and error so please forgive me if this doesn't resemble a real tutorial, but I thought it was worth sharing.

Really nice, will have to try this.

Pretty cool simulation of a glass 3-D ball.

The shadow inside the ball doesn't look right to me though.Seems too distorted.Maybe even too big?
Or perhaps dimming it a bit will make it seem more realistic?

Now that you mention it, I have to agree. I warped the inner shadow a little more to smooth it a bit and make it more subtle, and also matched the 25% opacity of the ball. Better?

I attached the xcf file. You're more than welcome to fool around with it if you like. Any other comments are most welcome.

Much!
Great job on it Draconian.

Wow! Draco that's cool!

Thank you for the kind words. I find it really amazing that tutorials and effects I struggled with and gave up on just one year ago, seem to be much less of a struggle now. Still have a long way to go to get to that level of realism that elicit's the "wow" factor in all who see it. Someday I'll get a wild hair and learn inkscape, blender and other programs that can create images like these.....

I got ninja'd several by several people while taking the pictures below.

A solid glass ball is a very, very short focal length lens. The objects on the other side are either extremely magnified (very close) or inverted and miniature (distant). I would not expect to see the shadow through the ball.

Here is a picture of a solid quartz sphere on an oak floor. Quartz has a higher refractive index than glass, so the effect is more extreme. The dark layer on the bottom is actually from the far wall of the room.


This is a "glass" (probably Pyrex) bead I found in a kitchen drawer.


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Rod - the speed of dark is the same as the speed of light. Otherwise fiber-optic transmission cables wouldn't work.

Wow, thanks for taking the time to do that, bkh!

Definitely a very cool thread Drac. Thanks to the real-world example to bkh.