You want to be shooting for a more homogenous looking end product than what's pictured there though to be honest. You don't want cracks or blemishes on the final ball. It depends how long you plan on storing it but the outer shell of the ball is essentially it's jar, everything within is curing and you want to keep air out of it as much as possible. A ball is a preferable shape as it has less surface area. It depends whether you'll be storing and curing or just smoking it as it is though. It will still be great smoke uncured - depending on the state of the material you're using.
There are no real shortcuts to doing it well. I spent about an hour kneading a 30+ gram ball last night using a mason jar filled with boiled water, a towel, some parchment and a cutting board. I just stick a movie on and get on with it. It's not bad when you know what you'll have to smoke half way through the movie
It's a pretty satisfying process but you may end up with a blister or two.
The said ball is now rock hard in the morning after cooling down and it's an excellent smoke so don't stress too much about that.