[Tutorial > Modeling] Sphere Mapping - Help please

[ELYSIUM]

Hi all,

I was trying to make a simple map of earth, but i don´t know how to place the texture on a shpere. Can i use SU to do this?
Can anyone help me and explain how to place a texture on a sphere?

Tks!

[Gaieus]

Now, Pedro, that is quite a difficult job.

If you just paind a sphere (or any other curved face) with a texture, SU will simply "tile" the texture on the (hidden) planes of the face. This is obviously not good for an Earth image.

You can turn on hidden geometry, paint just one plane with the image, right click on it and from the Texture menuitem (at the bottom) choose "Projected", turn hidden geometry off again, copy the texture from your painted face and paint the whole sphere - the image will be projected on it.
BUT with an earth image, this will lead to a very distorted projection especially on the "other side" of the sphere for we need to "project" the spherical surface of the earth into a flat surface to be able to represent it in 2D and when you paint it back, it won't be precise.

The best would be if you had an earth image "sliced up" into thinner sections (with less distortion) and add those slices to the slices of a sphere.

Here are some examples I saw in the 3D Warehouse (some are really impressive, really):
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?q=earth&btnG=Search&styp=m

[solo]

Texture mappin within SU is tricky, as it can only be done on either the X, Y,or Z plane. Below is a method that 'kinda' works, it works great for balls and other repetitive textures.

divide your sphere into 1/4's (make sure they are even)

• Use SU axis for guidlines.

Apply your texture to two planes, make sure they are 90 degrees to each other and that the textures line up at intersection.
Intersect your sphere at the 1/8th possition, so that texture is flat at mid 1/4 face.
Now map each quarter using the 'projected' method.

[Rodentpete]

Thanks for that - I've just started playing around with texturing so that's very helpful.

[sepo]

Hehe , Fantastic little tut Solo. Could you repost this at home asw ell.

[kwistenbiebel]

Hey....doesn't this thread just prove that Sketchup should be getting some new texturing tools in next version?

I mean ...looking at the gallery section, people are really starting to pick up on sketchup for advanced modeling of characters , complex shapes, sloping landscapes etc....

Having some easy and neat tools for 'all purpose' texturing definitely should be on the 'wishlist' or preferrably on the 'to do 'list for SU.

(kwistenbiebel)

[ELYSIUM]

Tks for the tuturial solo, i have tried to do mars with that technique, but with no sucess. i dont know if im doing something wrong! or if the texture that i'm using has a problem.
i posted the file on the warehouse can someone check it please.

tks.

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=2509a6d9ab2ff5862d0b5ff1cf29329a&prevstart=24

[Burkhard]

Here's another solution.

http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/supodiumforum/vpost?id=2165042

(Burkhard)

[jo-ke]

unfortunately the pictures are missing.

spheremapping is really a tricky thing.

[Gaieus]

Sigh... You are right, Pete got rid of many of his originally embedded images (this is why it would be preferred to attach them straight here especially in case of tutorial or CMS content).

Anyway, Now as we have UV Tools (with spherical mapping), this tutorial, however interesting solution and useful it was, can be considered sort of obsolte.

I also have two models (or rather high poly spheres) in the Warehouse:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=bc92eca8611ed04d2470944666440e50
and
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=6ed69ca0de0718c2bb014d52f42fdd7f
where (if you do not mind the high poly stuff) you can simply reload the images and they will still preserve the spherical UV mapping.