Creating a 3D sphere from scratch

To further demonstrate the creative potential offered by Elements, the next few screengrabs take you through the relatively simple process of changing a perfect two-dimensional shape into a three dimensional object.

Let's get started.

Use the Custom Shape tool to draw a perfect vector circle (hold Shift when you do this to keep its proportions). I then used the Magic Wand to select the shape.

With the selection still active around the green circle, I used a large, soft brush, I painted a darker shade of green into the lower part of the circle with increasingly deeper-colored brush strokes. The brush must be large, soft-edged, and set to an opacity of 25% or so. It takes a while to slowly build up the color.

Once the color had darkened nicely around the base of the sphere, I chose black paint to finish the base area to give it more shadow, and therefore a greater three-dimensional appearance, then painted in a white highlight at the top of the sphere.

Once...