Draw 3D Balls

[divil]

I just had to knock up a subroutine which draws simple 3d balls using PathGradientBrush so I thought I'd post it here for anyone to use.

 

To use this code, just paste these two functions in to your existing form and the drawing will take effect.

 

   Private Sub Form1_Paint(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs) Handles MyBase.Paint
       e.Graphics.Clear(Color.White)

       Draw3DBall(e.Graphics, New Rectangle(10, 10, 250, 250), Color.FromArgb(227, 239, 254), Color.FromArgb(129, 169, 226))
       Draw3DBall(e.Graphics, New Rectangle(300, 50, 20, 20), Color.FromArgb(227, 239, 254), Color.FromArgb(129, 169, 226))
       Draw3DBall(e.Graphics, New Rectangle(320, 150, 100, 100), Color.FromArgb(236, 240, 213), Color.FromArgb(184, 198, 147))
   End Sub

   Private Sub Draw3DBall(ByVal graphics As Graphics, ByVal bounds As Rectangle, ByVal color1 As Color, ByVal color2 As Color)
       'Enforce anti-aliasing
       Dim oldSmoothingMode As SmoothingMode = graphics.SmoothingMode
       graphics.SmoothingMode = SmoothingMode.AntiAlias

       'Create the path used for drawing our ellipse
       Dim path As GraphicsPath = New GraphicsPath
       Dim ellipseBounds As Rectangle = bounds
       ellipseBounds.Offset(-Convert.ToInt32(bounds.Width * 0.2), -Convert.ToInt32(bounds.Height * 0.2))
       ellipseBounds.Inflate(Convert.ToInt32(bounds.Width * 0.3), Convert.ToInt32(bounds.Width * 0.3))
       path.AddEllipse(ellipseBounds)

       'Create our brush and fill ellipse
       Dim brush As PathGradientBrush = New PathGradientBrush(path)
       brush.CenterColor = color1
       brush.SurroundColors = New Color() {color2}
       graphics.FillEllipse(brush, bounds)
       brush.Dispose()

       'Restore old smoothing
       graphics.SmoothingMode = oldSmoothingMode
   End Sub