I’ve tried few Illustrator tutorials on the web related to how create a disco ball, but i’ve never really liked the final image, so I’ve tried to find the right way for drawing a more realistic disco ball… If you are interested, please see below the instructions 
Create a New Document and then create a rectangular shape (I choosed ~ 175*175px). Fill it with bright radial gradient. Rasterize your image (In the top menu go to Object-Rasterize and just clik “ok” not changing anything there). Then enlarge your square a bit (~150%)
Now go to the Filter-Create-Object Mosaic and play with numbers there. I choosed:
Tile spacing = 1px for both width and height
Number of Tiles =30 (again for both)
Check ‘Delete Raster’ box.
Now we’ve got a nicemosaic. Reduce the size of the image back to the 175*175px.
Select the rectangular and drag and drop it into the Symbols panel.
Now create a circle (mine is ~175*175px as well), make a copy of it and put aside. Now go back to the original circle and delete its left anchor point with Direct Selection Tool (white arrow). We will need the full circle later so do not accidentaly delete it.
After that go to Effect-3D – Revolve. Change numbers there following the picture below, change Surface to “No Shading” and go to the Map Art.
In the Map Art window in the drop down menu choose the mosaic symbol we created before. Increase or decrease its size if necessary.
Now go to the Object – Expand Appearance.
So now we have to delete all rubbish from the picture. Select the sphere and press Ctrl-Shift-G three times (ungroup everything). Then click on the sphere again and move it. Select all the rubbish (shapes you won’t need) and delete it.
Select a circle we’ve made in the begging (the one we left aside before creating the 3d effect), fill it with the same radial gradient, put it underneath the mosaic (Ctrl+shift+[ ) and align them horizontally and vertically using the align panel (Shift+F7).
Release Cliping Mask and Ungroup tiles (Ctrl+Shift+G).
So now it’s time to use your imagination to make our disco ball looks more shiny and real.
At first, lets highlight some tiles: randomly select some tiles in the lightest area of the ball; go to Live Color (Edit-Edit Colors-Recolor Artwork). Click on Edit (1), then Link Harmony Colors (2), then increase Brightness to maximum (100%) and decrease Saturation to about 30-40% or more/less (depends on your colors).
Now select other tiles, go to Edit colors again and play with the colors there (make them darker or lighter… It’s better to change Brightness and Saturation only. Unless you want your disco ball looks more colorfull). Keep doing “select-edit colors” until you are satisfied with result.
Now lets add some sparkles to the highlighted areas. Draw a 4 points star with the Star Tool (see numbers for use below). Scale it (~50%), copy and paste in front (Ctrl+F), rotate 90’ and scale (50%) again. Now we have a nice sparkle. Place sparkles to the highlighted area of your disco ball.
Add a holder (just a simple rectangular with a gradient fill). That’s it – we’ve got a disco ball!
Fantastic! I love it…instructions are also easy to follow!
Soooooo AWESOME! Just what I needed. Thank you.
super cooolll!!!
i just saw in then practise it right away. I never know before that Illustrator coul do such a thing
Thanks!!!
http://www.plurk.com/p/3wey7w
Great tutorial ….
it will help me a lot
hi..
i was working on this tutorial and was stuck up.It would be really kind if you guide me.I have adobe illustrator10 installed in my pc.And i couldnt find where was the 3d revolve option.So please if anybody could help me.
Thanks for the this, it’s extremely extensive and useful!,do check out the link below
http://www.tutorials99.com
where all tutorials have a Higher page rank and professional.Very helpful for beginners…
The disco ball design is awesome. The glittering effect like how real disco balls catch and reflect light is superb! I’ve been trying to design a logo incorporating elements somewhat like this (in essence, more or less) for myself and I can’t manage to get it looking right. It was a little bit… off somehow. Finally, I decided to use the professional services of an online logo design site instead (http://www.logodesignplanet.com) and got the logo I wanted at an affordable price and fast too, within 24 hours. I did provide this link for reference and inspiration to my designer as I liked how yours look. I’m not going to design a logo without any professional help anytime soon although it’s fun designing it or trying to. Hah! Time wasting? Probably…
Awesome!!!!!!!!!!
I am very impressed.
Thanks
its very really really really amazing.
thanks.
This is awesome poste for a long time i ‘ve ever read. Can i have your contact please? I have somthing to ask. Merci.
this was the most amazing tutorial ever !!!!
great tutorial! Really helped me, because I had to do a disco poster
Hey, sorry for being offtopic but what theme do you use?I’ve always loved the theme here.
Now I know what is the basic way to do it.
Wow! is this can be done with Acad?
Thanks!
by tribal dragon
I prefered Photoshop cos i didnt know that you can also do greats tuff in Illustrator, nice post anyways.
Useful article. It came to me exactly when I needed it.
Hello there,
This is a question for the webmasterhere.Would you mind if I use part of the information from your post above if I give a backlink to your site?
Thanks,
Can I quote you on this? Damian Zupfer
awasome. thx
Another copy n paste blog post? Yours, Natashia Buonocore