Soccer Ball

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world and it’s a sport I’ve been playing since I was kicking in my mom’s tummy. It’s about time I write a tutorial on how to create a soccer ball!


STEP ONE

Select the Polygon Tool and on the toolbar at the top there’s an option to define a number of points. Set it to 6. Now hold down the Control key, and draw out the shape. Holding down control will keep the shape proportional.

You can fill the shape with white and use black for the outline.


STEP TWO

Now select the Pick Tool and click on your shape twice. You should see handles to rotate the shape. Grab one of the corners and rotate the shape until you get the following:

STEP THREE

What we need now is numerous copies of the shape positioned like the following:

STEP FOUR

We could keep the shapes the way they are, but I don’t like the pointy look. I want to make the corners curvy. So select all the shapes and then go to Arrange > Convert To Curves. Now making sure all the shapes are still selected, click on the Shape Tool. Using the Shape Tool, click and drag around all the shapes. This will select every node for each shape. You should see the following:

On the toolbar at the top, there’s an option “Convert Line To Curve”. Click on it.

STEP FIVE

Now we can click on each corner and delete those nodes. To do this, use the Shape Tool and select a shape. You’ll see the following:

There are 12 nodes to choose from. What we want to do is delete the 6 corner nodes. Click on the node and hit delete on your keyboard. You should see the following:

Delete the 6 corner nodes for each shape.


STEP SIX

After deleting the 6 nodes for each shape, fill in the following shapes with black and you’ll see that the soccer ball is beginning to come to life:

Select all the shapes and group them together using Control + G.


STEP SEVEN

Using the Ellipse Tool, hold down the Control key and draw out a circle and center it over your shapes. Fill it with black. You should have the following:

STEP EIGHT

With the circle selected, go to your Shaping Docker. If you don’t see it, go to Window > Dockers > Shaping. Make sure “Intersect” is set and “Source Objects” is the only option selected. Click “Intersect With”. Now move your mouse over the shapes and click. You should be left with the following:

If you've any question, problem, suggestion and feedback than please comment below.

Have a nice day!