Drawing Orb Glass in CorelDraw

Level :Intermediate
compatibility : X3
tools : Ellipse tool, transparency tool, interactive fill tool, powerclip or weld

picture : Frog inside Orb Glass: http://my-facebook-covers.blogspot.com/ logo

Create an object like the one above is not as difficult as it seems. All it takes is a few tools, precision and patience. And I'm sure, coreldraw provide comfort in the manufacturing process.

First of all, you need to import frog image, better if you have vector silhouette.
or you can download all material in this tutorial here. Be sure you have good pixels size if you use bitmap or jpeg file.

importing the frog image

The second steps, create a circle objects, white fill and black line. Duplicate this circle, so you have two circles your stage, place two circle separate.
*Why you should draw two same circle? the answer is : you still have the duplicate just in case if you get wrong when editing the circle and need the same size or properties the circle.


make the circle and duplicate it

Third, create an ellipse object, smaller than the first circle so they can get in the circle. Don't forget to duplicate this ellipse just in case you get wrong when editting.

creating ellipse and duplicate it

Step fourth, let's mixing beetwen circle and frog image..!!
Position the circle and the frog image center each other. Order the circle to top of the frog image, then locate the frog image center of the circle.
*you can select both, circle and frog image, then press the "C" then "E" on keyboard to make both center each other.

Then select with pick tool frog image, select effect from menu bar, highlight to PowerClip > place inside container. when the pointer change to big black horizontal right arrow, click the circle object. done..! you likely cropping the frog image to circle object.

Powerclip the image to the object

Fifth step create the shadow
Duplicate the circle again, fill it with white color and and use no line color.
Select Interactive drop shadow tool from Interactive tool : set the preset = small glow, drop shadow opacity = 88, drop shadow feathering = 13.

shadowing the circle

Then place the shadowed circle and the circle frog image center each other. Don't forget to order the shadowed circle under the circle frog image.

center each other and layer explanation

** don't forget to group before go to the next step

Now, next step is create the glossy glass effect.
Center the ellipse that we have made before with the frog image that we have made shadowed and fill the ellipse with white color, without outline (see picture below)

vertically center ellipse and frog image

With the ellipse object selected, press the interactive transparency tool (figure arrow 1) from interactive tool, set the transparency properties to linear (arrow 2) and transparency midpoint to 100 (arrow 3).
Set freely the transparency arrow point for the ellipse by dragging the transparency arrow point from top to bottom (arrow 4). See the picture below :

set the glossy glass effect

done !

Last step, group the orb glass, select it then export it to *.png, or *.jpg from file > export (with selected only checked if you want to export orb glass only )

That's it, Done..! you've have made orb glass effect with CorelDraw. Congrat..!
Of course you can modify with your own creativity idea.
Have Fun ..!!

You can download this tutorial here for odt format, or here for pdf format