Creating an orb is easy. Creating a good one is too.. ! find out how.

RESULT:

1. Create a new 300×300px page (File > New…) and fill it with a dark Grey color. I used #101010.

2. Create a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N). Using the Elliptical Marquee Tool, make a circle in the middle of the page. To make a perfect circle, hold Shift, and drag the mouse whilst keeping the left button pressed. Fill it with a blue color. I used #00a8ff. After that press CTRL+D to deselect.

This is what you should have so far:

3. Go to Blending Options (Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options…) and follow these settings:

( Click Image To Enlarge )

- Drop Shadow
- Inner Shadow
- Outer Glow
- Inner Glow
- Bevel and Emboss
- Gradient Overlay

This what you should have so far:

4. We are now going to add some shiny lights. Select the background layer and make a square using the Rectangular Marquee Tool.

5. After making the square, press CTRL+C and after that, press CTRL+V. S elect the Lens Flare options (Filter > Render > Lens Flare..) and make sure the settings are set like shown below:

This is what you should have so far.

6. Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool and by setting the feather to 20px which is found at the top of the software, make a circle around the lens flare. After you will make the circle, right click on it and click on Select Inverse, and press the Delete button.

7. The lens flare layer still selected, click on the drop down menu that says Normal on it, and select Color Dodge. After doing that, click on it and drag it above the other layers. You should have something like this:

8. Select the Move Tool it over the orb. You should have something like this:

9. On this same layer (Layer 4) press CTRL+T and make it similar to this:

10. Right click on Layer 4 and click on Duplicate Layer. Move it at the bottom of the layer and change its opacity to 35% from the top right on the layer palette.

11. Make a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N) and make an oval over the orb (make sure the feather is set to 0px) and fill it with a light blue colour (#00a2ff) and change its opacity to 45%. From the drop down menu where it says “Normal”, select Soft Light. Here is what you should have by now.

12. Make another layer (Shift+Ctrl+N) which is going to be the last, and make another oval circle positioned this way:

13. Select the Gradient Tool and make sure that at the top, the gradient is set like this:

14. With the Gradient Tool selected, click above the circle that you made, and drag downwards.

15. Press Ctrl+D to deselect it and change its opacity to 45%. Here is the final result.

You can make all types of colors, just be creative.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial !