I am using Xara 3D and I am trying to recreate a three dimensional rotation effect from a picture by laying it on a sphere. Is that possible? I was wondering if there is a flat image than when put on a globe (sphere) it will match perfectly. For example if the image of the world map is taken from the globe and put on a flat surface it will look a certain way. When put back to the globe it will look again like the 3D map of the world. I need the flat representation of that image in order to import it and put it on the globe so that it looks like a globe. How does that image look like? Is that possible at all? Most simply put I am trying to do the images below from scratch:
Hi there, I'm really a Maya and 3D Studio Max guy, but the theory of this is the same everywhere so I'll try to explain it simply: I'd go look for a high resolution map of the earths texture (like this: (www).evl.uic.edu/pape/data/Earth/2048/PathfinderMap.jpg) and then just map it to the surface of your 3D-sphere and set the mapping type to "spherical" or perhaps "cylindrical". That should make it cover the globe and look like the earth. To make it transparent like your red globe above you should use a solid color (or as in the example above a red to darker red gradient map) and then use a simply drawn black/white image of the earth and set it as transparency map, make sure that it's not set as "two sided", then you'll hopefully get this effect! p.s. make sure you also set the mapping type of the transparency map as you did with the earth texture to make it fit the globe right! Good luck mate!