How to create vectors?

How can I create a convincing golf ball texture using scalable vectors and non-destructive effects in Photoshop and/or Illustrator?

• My best attempt looks like a pitted surface, but it's not quite right: I want something more like a real golf ball: …but the lighting is different in every little indentation. How can I achieve this effect without painting each one? I have created a golf ball in a 3D program, which is scalable since I can render it again at any size, but I'm curious how I might have done it with scalable vectors and non-destructive effects in Photoshop/Illustrator.

• Answer:

  Creating a realistic vectorized golf ball in 2D is going to be a much more time consuming task compared to developing it in 3D. The question you have to ask yourself is why would you want to do it in the first place? If you know how to do it in 3D then the process will be much more efficient unless you have a lot of time on your hands. The accuracy in lighting, shadows and geometry can not be compared to a 2D program if you know what you're doing. Also it can be animated :) You can easily create a golf ball in PS but making it appear realistic is another issue. There are a lots of things to consider such as the geometry of the indents, perspective view, transformation, lighting, gradients, reflections and the shadows. The closest I've seen can be found here: http://www.webdesign.org/photoshop/3d-effects/creating-a-realistic-3d-look-golf-ball.13594.html. Most of the realism will come from the lighting using multiple gradient overlays, blend modes and masks. Right now I see about 5 layers of gradients in the real golf ball example going from dark (outside) to light (inside).