masking help!!

[Regul8R]

loking to create the earth
or more accuratly , a globe that spins so it looks like aplanet, eg land mass and seas. i thought using some kind of mask, where the circle would prevent the map from showing outside of it.
if you know what i mean. anyone help?
not to good with masking, any basic examples would help.
tutorials dont really work in this situation, far as i can see.
but then again im not to sure how to do it

thanks in advance
jay b

[Lost Marble]

Set up an arrangement of layers like this:

Group Layer
Map texture
Circle

Set the group layer's Group Mask mode to "Hide all", and the Cirlce layer's mode to "+Add to mask". Then you should get the effect you describe.

[Regul8R]

thanks a lot LM
i'll try it out later when i have time

cheers
jay b