Have a 3D Ball

Start with a new image, Size 200x200, Background Color: White, 16 Million Colors.

Comment: When making smaller images, I find it easier to work with larger dimensions and finally resample / resize it to the wanted size. I also recommend you to save your image often in case something unexpected happens. I prefer the TIF or BMP format because if you save directly in GIF, you wont be able to apply all effects on the image.

Step 1:
Click on the Selection tool and choose Selection type = Circle, Feather = 0.
Draw a circle by holding down the left mouse button, to a size of 150x150.

Step 2:
The next steps is to prevent the ballīs edges from being ragged.
Select Black as foreground color. Click on the Flood fill tool and choose Solid color.
Fill the circle by clicking with the left mouse button inside the selection.
Then choose Selections - Save. Name the file BALL.SEL (or whatever you prefer) and click OK.
Now deselect the circle.

Step 3:
Click on the Magic Wand button and choose Match Mode = RGB Value, Tolerance = 100, Feather = 10.
Click on the filled circle. This is what you should see now:

Step 4:
Select White as foreground and Blue R = 0, G = 0, B = 255, as background color.
Click on the Flood fill tool again and choose Fill style = Sunburst Gradient. Then Options = Vertical = 20 and Horizontal = 20.

Step 5: Fill the selected circle. I did this twenty times to get the selection fully filled.

Step 6:
Deselect and then load the saved selection, Selections - Load - BALL.SEL.
Choose: Image - Special Effects - Cutout.
Select Background color as Shadow color, Opacity = 150, Blur = 36, Vertical and Horizontal Offset = -20.
Make sure that "Fill Interior With Color" is not ticked.
Got to Cutout again and change Shadow color to Black, Opacity = 170, Offset = -10 Vertical and Horizontal.

Deselect and choose: Image - Normal Filters - Blur More.
Repeat this twelve times.

Step 7:
Open a new image, Width = 300, Height = 250, with White as background color.
Click on the Selection tool and choose Ellipse - Feather = 0. Draw an ellipse to a size of 150 X 90.
Select Black as foreground color and Grey R = 128, G = 128, B = 128, as background. Click on the Flood fill button and select Sunburst Gradient with Options set to Vertical = 50, Horizontal = 0. Fill the ellipse.
Choose Image - Rotate. Select Left - Free - 15. When you are done, move the selected ellipse down to the right.

Deselect and choose Image - Normal Filters - Blur More.
Repeat this five times. Hereīs the result:

Step 8:
We are now going to copy the ball and place it over the shadow on the second image. If we load the selection (BALL.SEL) at this stage, the dark side of the ball will have light edges caused by the blurring. To preven this, resample the image to a 5 pixel larger size.
Make the first image with the ball active and choose:
Image - Resample - Custom Size = 205 x 205.

Open your saved file, BALL.SEL.
With the ball now selected, choose Edit - Copy.
Make the second image active and choose Edit - Paste - As New Selection.
Now you just have to place the ball where it should be.
Resample and save it to the size you want. This is the final result:

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