I have created a sphere, added a circle and shapped it on the surface of the sphere. I created a bezier curve. created an array and added a curve modifier and applied it to the array. I had some problems with the Array and curve. When I set the array modifier to length and selected the circle. It only added a small number of new curves. I added the curve modifier and linked it to the circle. I selected the circle and set the cursor to selected and then selected the array and set it to the cursor. When I did this my array went all over the place. I had to rotate around the x,y and z axis until it mapped to the circle I initially created.
I then applied a UV map to the surface of the sphere and rendered it. It looked good enough since this was just an initial test so I decided to create an animation and rotate it.
When I rotate it around the x axis the array and sphere seem to rotate around a different access. I selected the center of the sphere before I did the rotation but the sphere rotates one direction and the array rotates in a different one.
If I rotate around the Y axis everything seems to rotate together.
Any suggestions on how to rotate everything as a single object so they stay together. I tried selecting the array and setting the sphere as the parent but when i did that it looked like the array exploded all the pieces went all over the screen. I also tried grouping the items but it did not make any difference. Or is there something I need to do differently in creating the array?