The trick you are missing is UV texture mapping. It’s fine for lots of things to just apply a material with a photo, but if you want to really paint an object thats the key.
There are lots of tutorials floating around, and the process is easy once you get used to it.
Maybe the gas layer that they are showing in that PS tut could be done with a second (outside) sphere alpha’d way down .
You won’t be putting the gradation in on your texture map, let Blender do that part.
Okay…
Any links to good UV Mapping tutorials, especially ones that deal with spheres? I’m looking through the tutorials list, but haven’t found any really good ones yet.
I’ve gone through every single UV tutorial that was in english, all the way through, and it STILL hasn’t answered my question.
This is getting very frustrating.
So! Now my problem is:
Either the UV map STILL causes the image to stretch, and therefore doesn’t work
OR
The UV map has the whole image, black-crappy edges and all (since it’s a circle texture, but a square picture) and doesn’t wrap it at all.
Could someone PLEASE, make a .blend using the final image from the linked tutorial I mentioned above that has the sphere with a working texture, so I can see how it’s done?
Thanks.
-Eric (Has yet to encounter a tutorial that answers his problem)
It helps to have textures that are divisable by 64… and twice as wide as high… eg: 64X128, 128X256 etc. The larger your image and the higher the DPI the less likely to stretch.
And they should be seamless. Search google for tuts to generate them in 2D apps.
I should add that this is a common problem in 3D as the top and bottom of the image (which are the same length, in pixels, as the middle have to be wrapped around the poles. Not impossible with UV.
There is no need for UV-mapping to texture a planet.
As Fligh % said, you need a 2:1 sized texture.
Spherical mapping of this image texture should do it.
(I mean, what is spherical mapping usefull for if not mapping to a sphere ? )
A google search with: texture, planet, earth; should give you a bunch of textures.
Could someone PLEASE, make a .blend using the final image from the linked tutorial I mentioned above that has the sphere with a working texture, so I can see how it’s done?
Here is a working example of a bitmap UV mapped to a sphere.
Not the image from the tutorial, but hey an image is an image and the concept is the important thing…right?
I am slammed for time right now so this is all I could do for you this time thru. but the important thing to notice is that you can put those pixels anywhere you want them and stretch (or unstretch) them to your hearts content.
I included the image that I was demonstrating with, select a face that I did not highlight and hit LOAD in that Shift F10 screen and then browse to it.
You will get it if you play around with it for ten minutes .
)