Glass Ball (really good)

I was just doing some tutorials, but went completely off track, so i decided to put the information i learnt to the test, i made this glass ball. (click to enlarge) ( in the big picture, not the small one, the edges were blurred with gaussian blur, in adobe photo shop 2.0)

http://img27.photobucket.com/albums/v82/grisha/glass_ball_small.jpg

At first i wanted one of those crystal balls whith smoke inside them, but my colorband completely didn’t do as i wanted. If anyone knows how to put smoke in the ball, still having the ball see through sort of like mist, but you can see through in parts. BTW i did the shok wave tutorial, and i am hopeless at it. Also does any one know how to add the same effect, of the light rays coming through the back of the glass ball? And i did try to put the same light settings as in the picture, and i put the same cage infront of it, and all that behing the ball. it still came out as a normal light sourse, no rays!!
http://img27.photobucket.com/albums/v82/grisha/light_rays.jpg

Then i wanted a metal ball , but i just could be bothered trying to get the texture right. So i made this, it’s mix. I had a look at the metaballs of altaru, can any one tell me how to do that? All good and bad crits welcome.

nice! it looks more like a buble than a glass ball! :wink:

looks nice. But you wouldnt have to add the blur to the big image

Add shadows to give it some depth.