Drawing a sphere

1

Hello all. A kind Kirupa user gave me this code for an animation experiment that I am wanting to make.

I have quite limited with AS3 and things get a bit complicated when I want to apply this effect into a sphere.

I would appreciate any guidance. I am not asking for a direct answer but any direction from you experts would be great. Thank you all.

import flash.display.BlendMode;

            var vertex:Point=new Point(1000/2,1000/2);

            var bigCircle:Sprite = new Sprite();
            bigCircle.cacheAsBitmap=true;
            bigCircle.graphics.beginFill(0x000000);
            bigCircle.graphics.drawCircle(0, 0, 1000/2);
            bigCircle.graphics.endFill();
            bigCircle.x=vertex.x;
            bigCircle.y=vertex.y;
            addChild(bigCircle);

            var circleMask:Sprite = new Sprite();
            circleMask.blendMode='layer';
            addChild(circleMask);

            var maskBox:Sprite = new Sprite();
            maskBox.blendMode='layer';
            maskBox.graphics.beginFill(0xffffff);
            maskBox.graphics.drawRect(0,0,1000, 1000);
            maskBox.graphics.endFill();

            var maskCircles:Sprite = new Sprite();
            maskCircles.blendMode='erase';

            for (var h=0; h<1000; h+=5) {
                for (var w=0; w<1000; w+=5) {
                    maskCircles.graphics.beginFill(0x000000);
                    maskCircles.graphics.drawCircle((2+w), (2+h), 2);
                    maskCircles.graphics.endFill();
                }
            }

            circleMask.addChild(maskBox);
            circleMask.addChild(maskCircles);

            var bmp = new Bitmap();
            var bdata=new BitmapData(1000,1000,true,0);
            bdata.draw(circleMask);
            bmp.bitmapData=bdata;
            bmp.cacheAsBitmap=true;

            removeChild(circleMask);
            addChild(bmp);

            bigCircle.mask=bmp;