Metal Ball

Metal Ball Programs Used: Photoshop 6 Skill Level: Basic
Start by creating a canvas of 400x400 pixels with a dpi of 72.
Now select the Circular Marquee tool and create a perfect circle that fills most of the canvas by holding shift and dragging the mouse diagonally downwards from the top corner.
Next use the gradient tool and create a simple gradient that goes through two colours like the example below.
Use radial gradient and fill the circle as shown below.
Create a new layer and select the ellipse tool . Create an ellipse around the highlight of the circle on the gradient. Now select the lasso tool and add a selection around the darker shadows of the circle. Do this by holding down SHIFT as you make the selection.
Select the paint bucket tool and fill the selection with white. Deselect the selection and choose the Gaussian blur tool from the Filters Menu, FILTERS>BLUR>GAUSSIAN BLUR.
Set the blur to 20 pixels and click ok. Repeat this set two or three times until the metallic effect is achieved.
This can be used in a basic interface or on a button.