Postby brynn » Fri Sep 25, 2009 3:14 am
First I should say that I don't know Illustrator, but I've been able to generally follow the tutorial you reference.In Step 2, as far as I can determine, you're probably getting stuck on the 3D Revolve and Map Art. Inkscape doesn't have comparable features. Although I can see how the Inkscpape Shape 3D Box could be developed into something similar.
You may be able to fiddle around with the 3D Box, combined with the Rotate Transformation, and get something pretty close. But applying the grid/texture to a sphere, I don't think Inkscape can do that at all. I could be wrong.....actually, now that I think about it further, it might be possible with the 3D Box and something from the Effects menu. Unfortunately, those are 2 areas in Inkscape with which I don't have much experience.
I do know that it's absolutely possible to draw the disco ball from scratch, and "manually" add highlights, shading and sparkling. Absolutely! But I think one would have to have a good knowledge of radial perspective and a good "eye" to get the shading, etc. just right. But it could definitely be done with Inkscape!
Have you looked at the Tricks and Tutorials forum here? There are 2 pinned topics with links to 2 great caches of tutorials (sorry I don't have the links handy) -- one of video tuts and one of text tuts. Plus, there are many nice tutorials to be found here and there on the internet, and you may find clues among all the other topics in that forum. I doubt that you will find a disco ball tut specifically, but you might find something similar enough to get you there.